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In
September, Associate Head of School Rebecca Miller Sykes took over
the helm of Phillips Academy as acting head of school when Head of
School Barbara Landis Chase began a six-month sabbatical. Chase will
return to campus to resume her duties at the beginning of spring term
2003.
Sykes, a native of Louisiana, holds an A.B. degree from Radcliffe
College and an M.S.W. degree from Simmons College. Since joining the
Phillips Academy faculty in 1976, she has earned the wide respect
of her peers. Prior to her appointment as assistant head of school
in 1996, she served the academy as dean of community affairs and multicultural
development and before that was a college counselor and residential
dean. Sykes was named associate head of school in 2000.
Besides the important role of back-up for the head of school, Sykes’
position as associate head also included overseeing the Addison Gallery
and the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology as well as the numerous
outreach programs the academy supports. She has also chaired PA committees
formed to study the pace of life on campus and to determine future
plans for the Peabody Museum.
Citing the academy as a “phenomenal community of tremendously
energetic, bright people,” Sykes says that during the next six
months her job will be to “support and encourage students, faculty
and staff … and to keep in view the whole institution and the
interdependence of its parts.”
Sykes’ husband, Elwin, teaches English at Andover. They have
three sons, Emmett ’92, Eliot ’97 and Emerson ’01.
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