A highly talented educational leader, Burns has wide-ranging experience heading independent schools, including serving as the headmaster of the Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans from 2003 through 2014. He has served as head of three schools and served as interim head of eleven other schools. 

The search committee of the Board of Trustees selected Burns unanimously out of a pool of highly qualified educators and school leaders. Burns’s experience serving as an interim head of several independent schools across the nation will undoubtedly benefit our boys, faculty and staff, and school community. This experience will allow a seamless transition in leadership, while keeping our school’s mission and commitment to our boys clear and focused as we move forward in our search for a permanent head of school. In addition, Burns’s connections to New Orleans and his time leading the Academy of the Sacred Heart were compelling characteristics in his selection.

Burns holds a bachelor’s of arts in English from John Carroll University and a master’s of arts in English literature from Georgetown University. He earned his doctorate at The Ohio State University in educational administration and Early and Middle Childhood education.

Dr. Burns began lending his expertise to a number of schools in transition more than thirty years ago, serving as interim or transition head of independent schools in New York, Illinois, Ohio, California, Missouri, Delaware, and Washington. Throughout his career, Dr. Burns has developed wide ranging expertise through his service to several different types of schools across the country. Dr. Burns and his wife, Kathy, have two daughters and four grandchildren.