Last week, the Grace community gathered for this year’s Senior Research Colloquium, an annual event which celebrates the great scholarship of the graduating class in literature, history, neuroscience, and data science.

Rev. Sarah Wood, who served as Grace's chaplain from 2011–2014, will return to Grace to resume the role in July 2024. Since 2019, Sarah has been the Head Chaplain at Trinity School. Throughout the search process, it was clear what her former (and now future) Grace colleagues had so appreciated about Sarah: her unflappable commitment to the values that anchor Grace’s mission.

In 1992, Grace Church School had its first cultural exchange with a cohort of middle schools in Yukuhashi, Japan. Over two decades later, Grace continues the tradition, exercising its mission through collaborations with schools across the globe.

Lele LeVay will join Grace in October as the next Director of Advancement. She comes to Grace with three decades of advancement experience in secondary and higher education and looks forward to stewarding the school's advancement efforts. 

Susan, who is the JK-12 drama curriculum coordinator, has taught at Grace for 24 years, teaching drama and health and wellness in the Middle School. She has been deeply involved in the life of the school, putting on two incredible shows per year (a play in the fall and a musical in the spring), she has been an advisor, led a CGC group, co-founded the middle school student GSA, and co-directs the JK-8 Christmas Pageant. She has served on the faculty committee for three terms and led domestic and international trips, including ones to Japan and France.

Tim Quinn, who is serving as the Interim Athletics Director this school year, was previously the Associate Athletics Director. He is in his tenth year at Grace having taught Physical Education here in every division, as well as coached middle school girls basketball and baseball, and varsity boys basketball winning Coach of the Year in 2016. Tim was also the founding coach of the varsity golf team and coached for five years.

Did you know that Grace is the highest ranked school in New York City in the EPA's recently released list of the largest green power users among all K-12 school partners? Further, Grace currently ranks #5 nationally!

Renata G. Henry has been appointed Grace’s Director of Alumni Relations. Renata comes to Grace with over 10 years of experience in the advancement and alumni spaces, having most recently served as the Director of Alumni Affairs at Prep for Prep, a program of which she is also an alum.

Saara Mahjouri has been appointed the next Assistant Head of School taking on the role as Robbie Pennoyer becomes Grace’s next Head of School. Saara is currently the Upper School Head (grades 5-8) at Bank Street School for Children. She has worked at Bank Street since 2015 and the Brooklyn Urban Garden School prior to that.

What causes us to get goosebumps when listening to beautiful music? This was the question that guided seniors Sahil S. and Jackson G. through their research project titled, "Exploring musical chills in adolescents using the Computer-Human Interface for the Live Labeling of Emotional Responses (CHILLER).” After extensive experimentation, both students will be presenting their findings to leading scientists at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) Annual Conference in San Francisco in April.