Dear EMS Community,

Orientation for new faculty and staff is underway, and as our newest members are learning more about EMS, we are delighted to learn more about these fantastic additions to our community. They are bright, dedicated, caring, and inspiring — just as one would expect at EMS. These amazing individuals are but one of many bright spots that await us in the new academic year.

I’ll share a few more highlights of the excitement in store for us before our new school year officially begins, but I’d first like to emphasize one effort in particular — we are beyond thrilled to be developing our new strategic plan this year!

Schools rely on strategic plans to help them achieve their goals, meet the needs of their community, and set long-term goals for the future. Our community shaped our last strategic plan in 2017–2018, and while we made some wonderful progress toward our plan goals, the pandemic required us to shift our efforts and refocus mid-course. Having the framework of our strategic plan allowed us to adapt to our unexpected challenges quite successfully, and EMS was one of the few schools to remain open full-time. Yet the world significantly changed during the pandemic, and a new strategic plan will help us address the needs of the present — and craft a unified vision for our upcoming centennial!

The cornerstone of a successful strategic plan is a thoughtful and inclusive planning process led by a strong and experienced team. I'm excited to announce that Hanita Walia is taking on the role of our chief strategy and advancement officer — a position in which she will further elevate initiatives and strategies that carry us toward our school’s strategic vision — and will be supporting me as our point person for this important process. This will be the third strategic plan Hanita has been involved with at EMS, and I am grateful to have her as a strategic partner. Her history with the school is extensive, and her many ties to EMS give her a unique perspective. First and foremost, she is the proud mother of two alumni, Ishan ’16 and Avi '22. She is also a trustee emerita, an honor given to her by the EMS Board of Trustees for her significant contributions to the school over many years. During her 12-year board tenure, with six years as president, she was closely involved with the development of the school’s two previous strategic plans. Throughout her time at EMS, Hanita has helped others understand how vitally important it is to preserve the essence of EMS for future generations, and, importantly, she keeps our engaged and diverse community at the heart of everything she does for the school. We are fortunate to benefit from Hanita’s prior experiences and perspectives in this new capacity.

To map out the development of our next strategic plan, we have been working with Crane + Peters, a strategic planning and communications firm with nearly thirty years of national experience in identity and strategy work for schools and colleges. Of the firms we considered, Crane + Peters stood out for their alignment with our vision for launching and executing our strategic plan and their willingness and ability to adapt the development process to the needs of our unique community.

This will be an inclusive process, with the entire community deeply engaged, from EMS Board President Elizabeth Gabbay and the EMS Board of Trustees to our leadership team, faculty and staff, families, alumni, and our eighth graders. We are in the process of forming a steering committee, with representation from the EMS Board of Trustees and the leadership team, and we will also form a strategic planning committee, which will include faculty and parent representation, as well. In early October, Crane + Peters will conduct focus groups, which will inform the survey we plan to conduct in November. All of this will build up to our Visioning Day, currently planned for late January, where our entire community will be invited to campus for a workshop designed to help us envision the future of EMS and the goals necessary to get there.

Our aim is to be transparent and inclusive in our strategic planning outreach, and we’ll continue to send community updates as our planning progresses. In the meantime, please feel free to contact Hanita or me if you have any questions about the strategic planning process.

We look forward to your involvement as we set our goals to ensure that generations of EMS students will continue to benefit from the best possible education!

In partnership,

Marek Beck, Ph.D.

Head of School