Advisory council

Advisory council

LEAF Academy has assembled an advisory council that is comprised of global leaders in education. They bring knowledge and experience from some of the very best educational institutions around the world. Additionally, each of them is a leading educational thinker and they have committed significant time and effort to advising the LEAF Academy team over the past three years. In addition to their work advising here in Slovakia, they have also hosted LEAF Academy faculty and administrators on their campuses to help prepare them.

Brad Gioia

Brad Gioia is Headmaster of Montgomery Bell Academy that enjoys a 145-year history as one of the top college preparatory school for young men in grades 7-12, offering a progressive approach to traditional education. Through rigorous academics, engagement with teachers and significant afternoon activities MBA develops the character in young men that serve as their foundation throughout their lives. He has led the MBA since 1994. Brad holds an M.A. in English from Middlebury College.

Chris Bradford

Chris Bradford is a Co-Founder and CEO of African Leadership Academy (ALA) – the unique Pan-African institution whose mission is to develop the next generation of African leaders, 6000 over the next 50 years, who will transform the continent. Chris led the design of ALA’s innovative curriculum, which merges rigorous academics with powerful courses in Entrepreneurial Leadership and African Studies. He also shaped the Academy’s admissions process, which has selected over 600 young leaders from over 13,000 applicants from more than 50 nations since 2008. Chris holds a BA in Economics from Yale University and an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University.

Chris Cheney

With twenty-five years of experience in education as a teacher, coach, advisor, department head and college counselor, Chris has spent his entire professional life preparing young leaders for maximum impact in their careers and communities. Chris holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard university in administration, planning and social policy, in addition earned his undergraduate degree in biology and environmental science. He is equally passionate about soccer as he is about teaching, serving as head coach at four different schools, as well as an assistant coach at Harvard university and Dartmouth college. He has developed highly successful, championship-level teams, using the game to build individual character and team values.

Chris was the assistant dean of African leadership academy (ALA) in Johannesburg, South Africa. ALA is the most selective (<5% acceptance rate) and transformative school (6 million stakeholders impacted in eight years) on the continent and additionally ALA alumni have been awarded US $65 million in scholarships and aid to universities all over the world. Chris played an integral role in each of these, leading the admissions team and the university guidance team. Chris has also worked at top boarding schools in the United States.
Chris worked as the Head of school at LEAF Academy in 2016/2017 school year.

Dominic Randolph

Dominic A. A. Randolph became Riverdale Country School‘s sixth Head of School in 2007. Dominic is a leader in the international character education movement. He is a co-founder of the non-profit educational research organisation, Character Lab; a steering committee member of the International Positive Education Network; and an ongoing collaborator with IDEO on design-thinking in education. In 2014, the Brookings Institute featured an article by Randolph on character education as part of an investigation on character and opportunity. He also served as the Assistant Headmaster at The Lawrenceville School, an independent boarding school of 800 students and he earned both his BA and MA from Harvard University.

Keith Pusey

Keith Pusey combined a career as a performer – violinist and conductor – with worldwide interests in education. He has taught at a university, a conservatoire, and, for thirty years, at Winchester College in the UK – as Head of Department, Director of Studies (academic deputy head) and Registrar (director of admissions). Educated at the Royal College of Music and the University of Manchester, he completed two diplomas and a degree. An experienced examiner, adjudicator and inspector, he is a member of the advisory boards of three schools, the principal examiner for the Advanced Certificate for University Entrance (offered in the Far East on behalf of the World Leading Schools’ Association), and a senior inspector and consultant for ISI – the independent schools’ inspectorate.

Lai Cheng Lim

Dr Lim has extensive experience in the Singapore Education System: as teacher, head of department, deputy principal and principal of three other schools including the prestigious Raffles Institution. She had key roles in corporate communications and curriculum planning and development at the Education Ministry’s headquarters. She holds a BA (Hons) and MA from Cambridge University, a Master’s in Education from the Nanyang Technological University in Language Education and a Doctorate in Education from the University of London. Her topic of study was technological integration in education.

Ralph Townsend

Ralph Townsend is Headmaster of Winchester College, a prestigious school for boys in the UK. He was previously Headmaster of Oundle School and before that Headmaster of Sydney Grammar School. In 2010 he became Dean of a group of ten schools known as the Winchester International Symposium. He is also English Editor of the World Leading Schools Association Record, a bilingual journal of educational dialogue between China and the West.

 

In memoriam

Madeleine K. Albright

Madeleine K. Albright served as the 64th Secretary of State of the United States. In 1997, she was named the first female Secretary of State and became, at that time, the highest ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government. From 1993 to 1997, Dr. Albright served as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and was a member of the President’s Cabinet. She is a Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. Dr. Albright chairs the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. In 2012, she was chosen by President Obama to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in recognition of her contributions to international peace and democracy. Dr. Albright was originally born in Prague, Czechoslovakia on the eve of WWII and still maintains close ties to her native Central Europe. Madeleine K. Albright is an honorary member of our Advisory council.