NDB welcomes new Head of School

Meredith Myall Essalat ’98, M.Ed. to assume office in July

Peyton Daley, Editor-in-Chief| February 11, 2022

New Head of School Essalat visited campus on Tuesday to meet with “staffulty” and student leaders.

On Friday, February 4, Meredith Myall Essalat was announced as the new Head of School. Essalat was a member of the Class of 1998, and is eager to return to NDB starting with the 2022-2023 school year.

Students got a chance to meet Essalat virtually for the first time during Collaboration on February 4, when she introduced herself to the school and answered questions from ASB officers Ali Lewis, Marissa Bergquist and Sophia Dinelli.

“What I’m excited about coming to an all girls school for is the empowerment and sisterhood, and really getting to continue that dynamic. When I came as a freshman myself, I was just struck by the level of comfortability that comes from a single-gender environment where we were just at ease with one another,” Essalat shared with the student body during the Zoom assembly. “We were real and authentic, and that’s really what I’m excited about.”

Essalat graduated from NDB as salutatorian of her class, which were the blue Sharks. As an alumni, she well understands what it means to be a Tiger, and is ready to lead the school into a new chapter while honoring old NDB traditions.

“The traditions that have been so long standing at Notre Dame that I know are still in effect today, the Junior Ring Ceremony, Aquacades, those community building opportunities are where friends are formed and classes really came together to excite one another and build out the spirit of Notre Dame,” Essalat explained. “Those memories stand really, really strong, and those are the memories that my friends and I from my graduating class still talk about to this day.”

Essalat has worked as both a language arts teacher in middle school and Dean of Academic Curriculum at Nativity School in Menlo Park. She is currently the Head of School at Mission Dolores Academy in San Francisco. Additionally, she authored “The Overly Honest Teacher: Parenting Advice from the Classroom” in 2020. Because of the diverse roles she has taken on through her professional career, Essalat has the many skills needed to lead NDB as Head of School.