Leadership

Shipley is pleased to welcome Steve Lisk as Interim Head of School for the 2024-2025 school year. 

 

Steve Lisk served as the 10th Head of School at Lancaster Country Day School from 2008 to 2022. His 14 years at LCDS made him the second-longest tenured head in the school’s 100-year history. Across 34 years in independent schools, he has served as an executive coach, division head, department chair, dorm head, classroom teacher, advisor, and athletic coach.

Steve led LCDS through two major capital campaigns, strategic enrollment growth, programmatic development, enhanced professional development, and significant expansion of the physical plant. With the benefit of external reviews, he guided the restructuring of the development, admissions, and communications departments. During his tenure, the school enjoyed a marked increase in enrollment, sustained increases in annual giving, and recorded its two largest fundraising campaigns. Programmatically, the school expanded its global program through the addition of travel courses, the recruitment of a limited number of international students, and the establishment of collaborative relationships with schools abroad. Further, the school strengthened its learning support program, built a structured DEI program, expanded its psychological and social support program, embraced technological change, and added depth to its athletic programs.

 

From 2003 to 2008, Steve led the Upper School (grades 9-12) at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School in Bradenton, FL. During his tenure, the Upper School enrollment increased by 13 percent, the number of students sitting for Advanced Placement exams nearly doubled and their scores increased significantly. He also created an active department chair committee that became a guiding curricular force within the school and a student-faculty Honor Council that established a clear presence within the school’s culture.

 

Earlier, Steve served as the History Department Chair at the Kent School in Kent, CT, a boarding and day school with 550 students across Grades 9 – Post-Graduate. While at Kent, his department reviewed the curricular sequence and introduced a new ninth-grade introductory course. He served on the school’s central administrative committee, taught United States History and World Geography, coached baseball and basketball, and served as a dorm parent.

 

Steve began his school career at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA. Starting as a history teacher, coach of football and basketball, and dorm parent, he spent a total of 12 years at this all-boarding school of over 400 students in grades 9-12. Early in his tenure, the 150-year old school made the strategic move from an all-boys school to co-education. Consequently, it also increased its size from 280 to 425 over several years.

 

Steve is a native of central North Carolina and attended the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, where, as a Morehead Scholar, he majored in Political Science. Later, he also studied at North Carolina State University, where he earned an M.A. in History. His thesis, In Search of Autonomy and Respectability, explored the experience of a central North Carolina yeoman farmer in the years before and during the Civil War. His graduate studies informed two courses he later designed and taught.