Homecoming 2022 brought what felt like an explosion of joy. The best thing about it? Though it was a special day, it wasn’t unique. As the cover of this magazine says, this has been a year of joy on campus. We have had more spirit events, cultural celebrations, parent involvement and alumni engagement than at any time in recent memory. Our applications for admission and annual fund donations are near or at record highs. We opened La Brisa last fall, have a new upper school humanities building on the horizon, and plan to improve both campuses in exciting ways – more about that in a moment. Yet even as we advance building initiatives, enhance technology on our campuses, and work to ensure the highest levels of innovation, we remain connected to our history. We are marching to a happy beat; we are all going in the same direction; and we are relying on 120 extraordinary years and the people who shaped them as we move decisively into the future. My fellow trustees and I have been encouraged by the spirit of collaboration, community and good will among our administration, alumni, faculty and parents, and we expect that spirit to drive many positive developments and our board’s priorities for years to come.

The progress we are making led to the unanimous decision by the board’s Head of School Search Committee to extend that search into 2023-24 to ensure that we find a truly exceptional candidate to be RE’s next head of school. We have complete confidence in the ability of Interim Head of School Rachel Rodriguez, Chief Operating Officer and Interim Head of the Upper School David Clark ’86, Associate Head of School John A. King Jr. and the rest of RE’s senior leadership team. We are delighted at their productivity and accomplishments this year. It may go without saying, but we are also exceedingly grateful for RE’s outstanding faculty, who remain the heart and soul of our school.


Ransom Everglades executed a “REimagining” of its college counseling office in January that brought in more than a half dozen new counselors (read more about that on page 36). RE has also focused on safety and security: after adding Rob DePriest ’86 last summer in the new position of Director of Security, in March we hired an Assistant Director of Security who is based on the middle school campus. The upshot? Both campuses now have former FBI agents working alongside City of Miami police to ensure a high level of expertise, preparation and readiness for security scenarios that we hope will never come to fruition. Both of these developments resulted from our listening to the RE community, and responding.

Another exciting initiative is to help alleviate the housing challenges to support our faculty. We will share more about this important project in the near future. RE has bought a number of properties adjacent to our Everglades Campus in recent years, and we plan to utilize those tracts for needed playing fields, parking and other needs.

It’s been an immensely rewarding year as chair of the board, and I could not be more thankful for my dedicated colleagues. I am especially grateful to trustees Miguel Dueñas ’95 and Elana Oberstein-Harris ’93, whose guidance, support and passion for RE have been invaluable.

Make no mistake, we have lots of work ahead of us and we cannot rest on any of the progress. We are tremendously excited about what lies ahead for this school, and extremely proud of what’s occurring at RE every day. Reading this magazine will shed light on many of those activities and help you understand, as we do, the absolute Joy of Ransom Everglades.


Jonathan Fitzpatrick P’20 ’23
Chair of the Board of Trustees