SEARCH consultant
Karen Drawz is a professional in the field of education with extensive experience in school administration and educational leadership. She retired from The Hockaday School, a large private all-girls school (PK-12) in Dallas, Texas, in July 2010 after serving in various administrative positions throughout her 34-year tenure. These positions included: Assistant Head of School for Academic Affairs and Professional Development, Assistant Head of School for Academic Affairs and Strategic Planning, Head of Middle School, and Assistant to the Head for Special Projects. Her responsibilities involved leading and overseeing the following: self- study and accreditation process; curriculum development and reviews; professional development and mentoring programs; recruitment and retention of faculty; administrative search processes; and formal review process. She also served as staff liaison to the full Board of Trustees, Executive Committee, Board Governance Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, and Long Range Planning Committee, a committee that recently completed its 2010-2015 Long Range Plan.
For the last three years, Ms. Drawz has been serving as Co-Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, A Mission of Excellence for Catholic Schools, for the Catholic Diocese of Dallas. Her responsibility has been to assist the Chairperson with the overall process, articulation, and publication of the Plan. Ms. Drawz’s specific focus is on leading the Committee’s examination of academic excellence in the Diocese’s 28 elementary schools and three high schools. Concurrently, Ms. Drawz also chaired the recent Principal Search Committee for Ursuline Academy of Dallas in 2013 and is now chairing the School’s Principal Transition Team.
Ms. Drawz has presented at the National Association of Independent Schools on the curriculum review process. She has also been a panel member on single sex education and education for the future at two of SMU’s Women’s Symposiums. Ms. Drawz is the recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Service Award from the Diocese of Dallas as well as Hockaday’s 2008 Honorary Alumna Award.
Ms. Drawz is a product of Catholic education, having graduated from a Catholic elementary school and an all-girls Catholic academy in Ohio. Her previous professional experience was in Catholic schools in the Midwest where she was an elementary teacher for six years prior to becoming principal of a Catholic elementary school in West Hartford, Connecticut. She received her B.A. in English from the College of Saint Mary of the Springs (currently Ohio Dominican) and her M.S. in Education from Fairfield University. She holds a certificate on Leading and Managing the Independent School of the Future from the Principal’s Center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
