Blog and Forum Messages

Princeton NJ Back to School Announcements

Princeton Day School Announces Lisa Surace Appointed Head of Lower School

Head of School Paul Stellato has announced the appointment of Lisa Surace as Head of Lower School. Dr. Surace has served as Interim Head of Lower School since July 1, 2011. Her appointment is effective immediately.

A 1992 graduate of Princeton University, Dr. Surace continued her education at New York University, from which she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees. From 1996-2002, she was an adjunct professor at Baruch College, Western Connecticut State University, and Fairfield University, teaching undergraduates in the areas of social psychology and clinical child neuropsychology. After completing a six-month rotation in pediatric services at the Rusk Center for Rehabilitation Medicine in New York, Ms. Surace spent four years as a k-5 school psychologist in the Westport, Connecticut, school system. In 2002, she and her family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where she joined the psychology staff of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. In 2003, she played a similar role for the Madeira school system; and, from 2005 until her arrival in Princeton five years later, she served as Director of Student Services for the Madeira schools, coordinating and directing, among other things, student evaluation and placement; faculty hiring, evaluation, and assessment; and school system’s integration and compliance with state and federal education programs.

Mr. Stellato remarked that, “through her work as Interim Head of the Lower School, along with her efforts last year as a pre-k to 12 learning specialist, Dr. Surace has distinguished herself as a school leader, cultivating strong ties with lower school parents and faculty; adding her voice to the school-wide conversation on curriculum and student experience, and providing wise, sensible counsel to her administrative colleagues. She comes to this role with the acclamation of the faculty, lower school students and parents, the school’s senior leadership, and its head of school, all of whom are eager and proud to serve with her.”

Dr. Surace and her husband, Robert Surace, the Charles W. Caldwell ’25 Head Coach of Football at Princeton University, are the parents of two Panthers, AJ ‘24 and Ali ‘22.