Meet the New Dean of Students
Ashley Taylor hired in leadership role.
If the stacked boxes and unhung framed photos lining the perimeter of Ashley Taylor’s Jeremiah Smith Hall office this fall are any indication, Exeter’s new dean of students has been just a little busy since arriving in July. The Washington, D.C., area native spent the summer, she says, settling in to her New Hampshire home with her husband and two young children and learning as much as she could about the Academy before the school year began.
A few months into her first term, Taylor is focusing on getting to know the “engaging and interesting” student body, including her eight advisees in Webster Hall. “Our students seem to seek really big challenges in one way or another,” she says. “They’re here with a sense of purpose and a sense of ‘What can I make of this opportunity?’”
Taylor arrives at Exeter after 14 years at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, where she spent the past nine years as the coed boarding school’s dean of students. Prior to that role, she had been a teacher, coach, dorm head, student adviser, senior leadership team member, member of the student life and student health review committees, and chair of strategic planning and scheduling committees and a diversity task force, among other responsibilities. She received numerous awards and recognition during her time there.
Taylor earned her undergraduate degree from Brown University, where she was a member of the varsity women’s lacrosse team. She earned a Master of Liberal Arts with extension studies in Biology from Harvard University.
In an email to students and staff announcing Taylor’s appointment Principal Bill Rawson ’71 wrote: “In a large pool of highly qualified candidates, Ashley stood out for her ability to inspire students and build meaningful collaborative relationships across the community, and for her commitment to challenging and supporting all students in an environment where they are deeply known and encouraged to develop character, self-awareness, resilience, and a sense of purpose.”
Taylor says she was drawn to Exeter for its values, as well as its commitment to diversity, need-blind admissions and Harkness pedagogy. “Exeter is so committed to making this opportunity accessible to students regardless of financial means,” Taylor says. “The fabric of this place is about conversation and diversity of perspectives and being comfortable being challenged and asking respectful, challenging questions.”
For perspective on her new role, Taylor relies on her professional experience, as well as the memories she has from her days as a high schooler at an all-girls independent school in D.C. “Similar to my experience,” Taylor says, “there is an emphasis here on academic excellence, but there’s also an importance of high school being a time of fun, where kids are forming lifelong friendships, trying new things, finding real success in something that they feel good about. I’m impressed by how students seek challenge, and I’m interested in continuing to see how they balance that with fun and joy.”
Taylor says she didn’t come in with a rigid action plan to implement and is instead using the conversations she’s having with students, faculty and staff in her first term on campus to help shape her vision for the future.
“What I have found success in is being able to ask questions, identify where we could be even better in serving the student experience and then help create a process that helps us find the right answer.”
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the Fall 2024 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.