Phillips Exeter Academy appoints New Dean of Students

If the stacked boxes and unhung framed photos lining the perimeter of Ashley Taylor’s Jeremiah Smith Hall office this fall are any indication, Exeter’s new dean of students has been just a little busy since arriving in July. The Washington, D.C., area native spent the summer, she says, settling in to her New Hampshire home with her husband and two young children and learning as much as she could about the Academy before the school year began.

A few months into her first term, Taylor is focusing on getting to know the “engaging and interesting” student body, including her eight advisees in Webster Hall. “Our students seem to seek really big challenges in one way or another,” she says. “They’re here with a sense of purpose and a sense of ‘What can I make of this opportunity?’”