Director of Enrollment Management
Flintridge Preparatory School
Flintridge Preparatory School (Flintridge Prep or Prep) seeks a Director of Enrollment Management (DEM) who can build on its outstanding reputation and expand the community’s understanding of an enrollment management practice, while strengthening admissions and enrollment processes. Reporting to the Head of School, the Director of Enrollment Management will be essential to creating an enrollment management infrastructure while building on the existing strengths of the Admission Office. The DEM is a member of the Senior Leadership Team, manages the Admission Office staff of two, is responsible for the strategic leadership and direction of student recruitment and enrollment efforts, and for the integration of the financial aid function into the admission office operation. In addition, the DEM is responsible for the oversight of all phases of the admissions and financial aid process, institutional research, re-enrollment efforts, managing new student/family orientation and constituent volunteers, including faculty, student, and parent ambassador programs.
About Flintridge Preparatory School
Founded in 1933, Flintridge Prep is an independent day school for 530 students in grades seven through twelve. Best known for its outstanding reputation in academics, arts and athletics, Prep’s Director of Enrollment Management is responsible for sustaining and enhancing the school’s strong position in the San Gabriel Valley market. Prep students currently come from 34 cities and 105 different schools. The school enjoys the best of two worlds: a tree-covered suburban campus with easy access to Pasadena and all the greater Los Angeles area has to offer. The campus is very close to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Rose Bowl and is an easy drive to and from downtown Los Angeles, which is 14 miles south. The DEM supports and promotes the school’s core mission of nurturing and balancing students' intellectual, ethical, and emotional development through recruitment, admission, and matriculation guided by the school’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion of all its students.
About the Campus
Flintridge Preparatory School is situated at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in the community of La Cañada Flintridge. The tree-filled 7-acre campus has environmentally sensitive landscaping and is home to seven dedicated academic buildings, each providing light-filled classrooms and flexible learning spaces with state-of-the art technology.
The two-story Helen and Will Webster Family Science Center is home to the 400 seat Norris Auditorium, the Keck Biology Lab, the Murfey Chemistry Lab, and two other science labs. It is also home to the newly created Center for Student Life and a college counseling suite. Just off the bustling Ahmanson Plaza, where our students purchase gourmet meals from the school’s dining service, the two-story Chandramohan Library is an important academic and social hub of the school. It contains meeting rooms and spaces for individual and group study.
The two-story Randall Performing Arts Center includes seminar classrooms, a dance studio, and music room, as well as the Miller Theater, a black box teaching and performance space. The school has several art studios that provide all the tools our artists need—pottery wheels, kilns, a dark room, and Macs for video and photo editing projects.
The athletic facilities include the Lowery Swimming Pool, Memorial Athletic Field, and Crawford Family Gymnasium, which houses newly remodeled locker rooms and a professional-grade training center for athletes, as well as the Tom Fry Weight Room.
The three-story Bachmann Collaboration Building, which opened in 2020, houses programs in STEAM, Global Studies, and Leadership. The first floor includes a Makerspace, art studio, and science lab; the second floor has versatile classroom spaces that can be reconfigured for lectures and events, as well as meeting rooms equipped with video conferencing technology; the third floor houses seminar rooms and meeting spaces to host the school’s student government and other student leadership organizations. The space was designed to promote informal and formal conversation and collaboration across every discipline.
About the Head of School
Vanessa Walker-Oakes was appointed Head of School in July 2021 and joined the Prep community in 2004 as a teacher of World and A.P. Art History. A teacher at heart, she has taught every year since while also serving in various leadership roles including Dean of Faculty, Dean of the 12th Grade, Director of College Counseling, and most recently, the Assistant Head for Student Life.
Vanessa earned a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and History from Harvard College, and master’s degree in Art History from UCLA. She has completed all coursework and began writing her dissertation in the Ph.D. program in Critical Theory and Renaissance Art History, also at UCLA. Vanessa serves on the Board of Directors of Inner-City Arts, an organization providing arts education to underserved youth in Los Angeles County. She and her husband, Dan, have four sons, including two Prep alumni, and a current Prep student.
Applying for the Position
Successful candidates will possess a minimum of five years of enrollment management, admission, and financial aid experience; excellent and engaging communication skills; outstanding administrative, managerial, and organizational skills; demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and experience in managing net tuition revenue targets while meeting institutional mission and priorities. A bachelor’s degree is required; a master’s degree is strongly preferred.
Flintridge Prep has retained The Baker Group, the premier independent school enrollment management consulting firm, to assist in the recruitment of Prep’s first Director of Enrollment Management.
Interested candidates are asked to digitally submit their resume, a cover letter, and references by Friday, December 31 to Christine H. Baker at: cbaker@thebakergrp.com.
Job Responsibilities
- Provides strategic leadership in enrollment management, which includes admissions, marketing, research, and recruitment and directs the process for attracting, assessing, enrolling, and retaining students at Flintridge Prep.
- Sets annual admission goals, in accordance with the school’s mission to promote all forms of diversity in the student body, based on enrollment goals set by the Head of School and Board of Trustees.
- Oversees the financial aid program in conjunction with the Chief Financial Officer.
- Manages new student enrollment and assists with the re-enrollment of current students in close connection with the Division Heads, Finance Office, and the Head of School.
- Understands and informs the admission staff and community about research and demographics, admission, and enrollment trends, ensuring that changes and challenges are anticipated, understood, and addressed.
- Develops and implements strategic marketing ideas. Formulates annual Admission and Enrollment Action Plans with goals and objectives.
- Attends Board of Trustee meetings when appropriate, is involved in strategic planning and keeping the Board fully apprised of the school’s admission, financial aid, and marketing endeavors.
- Maintains a thorough database of statistical and trend data from inquiry to enrollment. Presents statistical and trend information to the Leadership Team, Board of Trustees, and faculty.
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