Kim Chaloner Appointed Dean of Faculty
Kim Chaloner has been appointed Dean of Faculty serving across all grades of the school, JK-Grade 12, beginning July 1, 2022. Kim is currently the Dean of Community Life and has been a science teacher at Grace for 23 years, and over that time has taught science in eight of our fourteen grades.
Kim was a founding member of the high school team, helping to build our lab day and science programs. This year she teaches classes in science, diversity, service, and sustainability in the middle and high school divisions, including coordinating a partnership with Columbia’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory studying the Hudson this spring.
Incoming Head of School, Robbie Pennoyer, said, “Great schools like Grace care about the growth of their adults–their faculty, staff, and administrators–and not just that of their students. For over 20 years, Kim has distinguished herself as a resource for Grace teachers who want to improve their professional practice, and her judgment, skill, and support have strengthened the school’s culture of teaching and learning. I’m thrilled that she has accepted the invitation to serve as Grace’s Dean of Faculty, and I’m excited about the work we’ll do together to support our extraordinary teachers.”
Incoming Head of School, Robbie Pennoyer, said, “Great schools like Grace care about the growth of their adults–their faculty, staff, and administrators–and not just that of their students. For over 20 years, Kim has distinguished herself as a resource for Grace teachers who want to improve their professional practice, and her judgment, skill, and support have strengthened the school’s culture of teaching and learning. I’m thrilled that she has accepted the invitation to serve as Grace’s Dean of Faculty, and I’m excited about the work we’ll do together to support our extraordinary teachers.”
Kim has been a presenter and trainer in the areas of sustainability, equity, inclusion and science education for faculty, parents and administrators at over 20 schools and organizations in the area including Horace Mann, Spence, Hewitt, Brooklyn Montessori, Friends Seminary, STEMTeachersNYC, the National Association of Episcopal Schools and the NYSAIS Service Learning Committee. She has been a facilitator of the CARLE Institute, a founding organizer of the 2020 New York Independent School Anti-Bias Parent Conference, a founder of the Sustainability Through Student Voices Conference, and she has been a standing member of the NYSAIS Diversity Committee since 2016. Kim is part of an ongoing team led by NYU Cognitive Neuroscientists that has published research using techniques in brain and behavior studies to explore practices in teaching and learning, described in this NY Times article by Grace Alum David Brooks ‘75. Kim helped establish Grace’s leading sustainability program that was launched in 2007 with the input of teachers, parents, and students.
Kim said of the appointment, “I can think of no better way to honor all that I’ve learned as a member of the Grace community than by helping to support our incredible faculty with my heartfelt devotion.”
While Kim began her life at Grace as a fourth grade associate and second grade science teacher in 1998, her family has been a part of the Grace community for generations. Gwendolen Chaloner, her paternal grandmother, was a fourth grade teacher and head of the Lower School in the 1950s and 1960s, and is the namesake for the annual prize in poetry given at 8th Grade Graduation. Her father, Ted Chaloner, is an alum from the class of ‘59. Her older daughter graduated from Grace’s high school in 2019, and her younger daughter is a member of the class of 2026.
Kim received her Bachelor of Science degree from Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario in 1992 in biology, and received her M.Ed in philosophy of the environment from New York University in 2000.