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Students at Henrico's Collegiate School will return to class tomorrow, and they'll be greeted by new Head of School Penny B. Evins.
Evins began her new role officially July 1, but tomorrow she'll greet students for the first time. Evins will be welcoming students all morning at the Lower School and Upper School campuses as their parents drop them off in the carpool loop. Then she'll address assemblies of Upper School students at 8:30 a.m. and Middle School students at 9:40 a.m.
"I cannot wait to meet each and everyone of you as we begin a fantastic year at Collegiate," Evins told the school's junior kindergarten through 12th grade students in a video message issued on Monday.
Evins assumed the helm of the 105-year-old school upon the retirement of Head of School Stephen D. Hickman, who completed a five-year tenure on June 30.
“I am excited to meet new people, learn about a new culture and serve the community, past, present and future,” Evins said at that time.
She comes to Collegiate from St. Paul’s School for Girls in Baltimore, where she led the school’s growth in enrollment and expanded the curriculum to include real-world experiences for students during her six-year tenure.
Evins began her career at the Webb School of Knoxville in Tennessee as an Upper School guidance counselor, ethics teacher and soccer coach, and a year later was named to lead the Middle School and teach English. She went on to serve as Middle School counselor, teach life skills, coach soccer and eventually serve as a strategic planning consultant and admission associate at The Lovett School in Atlanta. After a five-year tenure as Head of Lower School at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans, she was named Head of St. Paul’s School for Girls, where beginning in 2013 she led a co-ed early childhood through Pre-Kindergarten program, and the 5th-12th grade girls’ school, on a shared Baltimore campus with St. Paul’s School.
A native of New Orleans, she attended Isidore Newman School. She is a graduate of Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut and received a B.A. in English and M.Ed. in counselor education from the University of Virginia.
Joining Evins at Collegiate is her husband, Sam Evins V, also a longtime independent school educator and coach, and their two teenage children.
“I’m looking forward to discovering opportunities and harnessing the strengths of Collegiate,” Evins said.
