Deirdre A. Ling

Having served as Middlesex’s Head of School for 13 years, Deirdre retired in June 2003 to her home in Martha’s Vineyard, where she and her husband Ed spend six months of the year; the other six are spent in Bonita Springs, Florida. She continues to lend her administrative expertise to schools and other institutions as the senior partner in Educators’ Collaborative, the longest established indepen- dent school consulting firm. In the past 18 years, Deirdre has assisted more than 100 schools with identifying their heads of school and has been retained by them for strategic planning and board governance training.

Deirdre holds a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Rochester, an M.A. in English from the University of Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. in English from Tufts University. Beginning her career in education as a college admissions officer, Deirdre joined the University of Massachusetts in 1978 as director of freshman admissions. The following year, she became dean of admissions, responsible for total undergraduate recruitment and admissions. Promoted just two years later as the dean of academic support systems, she was soon appointed assistant chancellor and then vice chancellor for university relations and development, a position she held for seven years. For ten years, Deirdre also enjoyed serving as an adjunct lecturer in the Women’s Studies Program, teaching courses on women in manage- ment and higher education and on Asian American women. Seeing a wonderful opportunity at Middlesex, she became the fourth head of school in 1990. In 1992, she resumed teaching, taking on a section of English, and began serving as a faculty advisor for several students each year.

Previously, Deirdre served as a trustee of the Council for the Advancement of and Support of Education (CASE), the Educational Records Bureau (ERB), Independent Educational Services (IES), the College Board, Emerson Hospital, Falmouth Academy, Fay School, and the Louis August Jonas Foundation.