Daniel Hickey, Ed.D., ’89 Appointed Head of School-Elect—Comes Home to Archmere Academy

Over the last 15 years, Archmere has been fortunate to have had the leadership of Dr. Michael Marinelli. He has guided Archmere through significant transition as its first lay head of school, while also advancing its mission, strengthening enrollment and financial stability, enhancing the campus, and leading a strong response to COVID. About two years ago, Michael informed the board of his desire to retire. Thankfully, he agreed to stay for another year to complete the Let’s Renovate the House campaign. Beginning in March of this year, we began a search for his successor.

 

A search committee the board engaged in an exhaustive process to identify the best person to build on Michael’s work and lead the school into the future. We began with approximately 20 applicants from across the nation and internationally. After an initial round of interviews, the search committee invited three extremely qualified candidates to campus for full-day in-person sessions, meeting with panels of faculty/staff, parents, alumni and students. Each also met with the search committee and specific administrators and attended an informal social event. Throughout the process the search committee collected feedback from all the engaged constituents and provided a recommendation to the full board, and the board expressed its full support of Dr. Hickey’s nomination. See prior updates to the community here.

 

Dr. Hickey’s return is a homecoming. He transferred to Archmere halfway through his freshman year and immediately felt the welcoming spirit of the school and “found his place here.” As a student, he took advantage of all that Archmere offered academically, artistically, and athletically. He excelled academically graduating magna cum laude and as a member of the National Honor Society. He received a certificate of honor in Art at graduation, and he played varsity football and track.

 

Following graduation, Dr. Hickey attended Dickinson College, where he received a B.A. cum laude majoring in English and minoring in Fine Arts, and where he was a captain of the football team and All-Conference three years. Upon graduating, Dr. Hickey worked in the admissions offices of Dickinson and American University, where he also earned an M.A. in Literature. At the invitation of Fr. Timothy F. Mullen, O. Praem. ’65 (then Headmaster), Dr. Hickey returned to Archmere in 1998 to lead admissions, teach English, and coach football.

 

In 2006, Dr. Hickey earned a doctorate in Educational Leadership at The University of Pennsylvania. His doctoral dissertation, which earned distinction, explored the continuation of the mission and heritage of Catholic schools in an era of declining presence of ordained religious on campus, with Archmere as a case study. He offered several suggestions on how to foster and grow that mission in changing times.  Many of those suggestions are already in place at Archmere, and Dr. Hickey looks forward to implementing additional ways to grow Archmere’s mission as a Catholic school in the Norbertine tradition.  

 

Over the last 19 years, Dr. Hickey has obtained valuable experience at other institutions and lessons learned that he brings home to Archmere.  He joined Tower Hill School in 2006, holding a variety of positions including coach, teacher, Director of Admissions, Head of Upper School and Assistant Head of School. Since 2017, Dr. Hickey has been Head of School at Upland Country Day School (PK-9) where he has greatly expanded enrollment, upgraded facilities, and increased development.  During his tenure, Upland has also focused on student safety and wellness and became the first Pennsylvania school awarded the Beau Biden Foundation Shield of Protection. Through it all Dr. Hickey continues to teach English, because his passion is teaching students.

 

During his interview process, Dr. Hickey spent time with the constituent groups mentioned above. The feedback from these groups was extremely strong. Almost uniformly, each group called out Dr. Hickey’s approachability, thoughtfulness, vision and a focus on “the how” of ways to continue to build on the school’s mission, values, and legacy.  The feedback from each group contained common themes of what they saw in Dr. Hickey: A passion to build on our rich history and mission as a Catholic Norbertine institution; a focus on building for the future; a love of Archmere, education and students; and a dedication to academic excellence.

 

Dr. Hickey has expressed his dedication to fostering an inclusive, compassionate, faith-based learning environment and nurturing the intellectual, moral, and spiritual growth of students. This aligns perfectly with our mission. Dr. Hickey has praised the unique attributes of the Archmere student body, and he consistently expressed his appreciation for the high caliber of the faculty and staff of Archmere, many of whom he taught with while he was here.

 

Upon learning of his appointment, Dr. Hickey offered the following comments to the Archmere Community:

The board would like to express its gratitude to everyone who participated in the process through participation in one of the interview groups or by providing feedback in other forums. The involvement of the community was deep and made the process much stronger.

 

Dr. Marinelli will continue to lead Archmere through the completion of the 2025–2026 school year. Dr. Hickey will engage with Michael in transition planning throughout the coming months and assume his new role on July 1^st.

 

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Hickey back to Archmere and thanking all of the well-qualified candidates who participated in the process.

 

David Hogan '87 – Board of Trustees Chair, Search Committee Co-Chair
Bill Larson '04 – Governance Committee Chair, Search Committee Co-Chair