Trish Dougherty

Assistant Head of School Trish Dougherty names one of the Green Hedges Core Values, Become Yourself, as part of what drew her to this school, saying, “I value schools that cherish the individual child, where kids can be themselves and flourish, not in a cookie cutter way. I like to help all children shine and find their smart, and it doesn’t have to look the same for everybody.” Diversity, she says, includes race, religion, culture, economic situation, gender, family configuration, and neurodivergence, among other dimensions. “The more we deepen our diversity work, the more diverse our definition of diversity becomes,” she observes, adding that, done well, inclusiveness is not diluted by the many directions, but strengthened by respect, genuine appreciation, support, and commitment to recruitment and hiring.

A native of New Jersey, Ms. Dougherty spent her early years entranced by education, counting days until school would begin again and teaching other children on her parents’ back porch. After earning a B.S. in Business Administration at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA, and working in the advancement office of an independent school, Ms. Dougherty returned to her first love, the classroom, earning an M. Ed. In Elementary Education from Marymount University in Arlington, VA. She taught at St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School in Alexandria, VA for over a dozen years and she spent seven years as Assistant Head, and then Head, of Lower School at the Walker School in Marietta, GA, where she helped found the New Avenues Dyslexia Program.

Ms. Dougherty is the mother of a Green Hedges Middle School student and of a college student in South Carolina. She enjoys crafts, and, as befits someone who does not believe in a cookie cutter philosophy, loves decorating cookies in unique and beautiful ways.