OUR PEOPLE

Robert (“Skip”) Mattoon is a nationally and internationally distinguished leader of college preparatory schools, having recently served for 11 years as head of the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut. He was previously dean of faculty and associate headmaster at Deerfield Academy. Hotchkiss and Deerfield are consistently ranked among America’s finest college preparatory schools.

Skip currently serves as executive director of the Eight Schools Association, a group of New England boarding schools that includes Andover, Choate Rosemary Hall, Deerfield, Exeter, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, Northfield Mount Hermon, and St. Paul’s.

During his leadership of Hotchkiss, Skip oversaw curriculum review, endowment growth, expansion of financial aid, application increases and expansive building projects. Particularly relevant to his position as co-head of school at Avenues, Skip was instrumental in making global citizenship and environmental stewardship top priorities at Hotchkiss.

After graduating from Deerfield and Dartmouth, Skip received an M.A. from Tulane and a Ph.D. from Yale. He began his post-graduate career as a professor of Latin American history. Skip held a Fulbright Fellowship and a teaching internship at the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and later taught at the Universities of Michigan and Arizona.

Skip currently serves on the international advisory board of the Y. K. Pao School in Shanghai and as a trustee of the American Secondary Schools for International Students and Teachers (ASSIST) and Deerfield Academy. He is a member of the Headmasters Association.

Pursuant to his interest in the practice of education in cultures around the world, over the past decade Skip has visited schools and students in Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, England, France, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Kenya, Moldova, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea and Thailand.

Before the opening of the Avenues New York campus, Skip will concentrate on building and developing the faculty.