MPH Narrows Head Search to Two Finalists

October 21, 2011

Manlius Pebble Hill School’s Search Committee today announced the two finalists being considered for head of school. Independent school educators Donald S. Berger, of Cary, N.C., and D. Scott Wiggins, of Concord, Mass., are the top candidates to fill the leadership position previously held by Baxter F. Ball. Ball died unexpectedly last February after more than two decades as head of school.

Berger has been head of school at North Carolina’s Cary Academy since 1996. Prior to that, he was employed for 11 years by Manlius Pebble Hill, most recently as head of Upper School. Earlier, he taught English at Moses Brown School in Providence, R.I.

Berger holds a B.A. in psychology from Haverford College in Pennsylvania and an Ed.M. in administration, planning and public policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Mass.

Wiggins recently left the Lawrence Academy in Groton, Mass. after eight years as head of school. His previous credentials in independent education include six years as principal of upper school at Metairie Park Country Day School in Metairie, La., and positions with independent schools in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Colorado.

Wiggins holds a B.A. in chemistry from Boston University and a J.D. from the College of Law at Arizona State University.  He practiced law for several years while living in Pennsylvania.

Berger and Wiggins were selected as finalists from a pool of more than three dozen accomplished and highly recommended educators, according to Peter Manolakos, MPH trustee and chair of the Search Committee.

Both Berger and Wiggins will return to MPH next week for a final round of meetings and interviews with the school’s key constituents. Both emerged as top candidates from the search process directed by Education Access Strategies, a Maryland-based consulting firm that has led leadership searches for independent schools nationwide. The MPH Board of Trustees will meet early next month to select its new head. An announcement of the next head of school is expected by mid-November.