Hotchkiss welcomes Dr. Anne Bruder as the new head of school. She joined Hotchkiss today, on July 1, 2026, as the first woman to lead the School.

She succeeds Craig W. Bradley, who retired after 10 years of devoted service to Hotchkiss.

Bruder was announced as Hotchkiss’s next head of school during a meeting in Katherine M. Elfers Hall in fall 2025. "The energy and warmth I felt from students, faculty, and staff was unlike anything I have ever experienced. This community is extraordinary," she said.

A dedicated teacher and academic leader, Bruder grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan. She earned her B.A. in religion at Middlebury College and then spent a year teaching at Phillips Academy Andover before arriving at Hotchkiss in 2000 as a young teacher starting her second job out of college. She came to Lakeville to teach English, coach soccer and lacrosse, and live on the second floor of Bissell. 

"I spent two formative years in Lakeville as a young teacher. I arrived on a dusty summer day with a couple of duffle bags, a big box of books, and my trusty hound, Arlo. I had come to Hotchkiss to teach English, but in so many ways, Hotchkiss schooled me: when to listen and when to lead, how to build an educational culture elevated by curiosity while grounded in diligence, and why living in a community that collectively teaches the whole student is so deeply rewarding. Those lessons have stayed with me," she said.

In 2002, she moved to the South to study 19th-century American literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she completed a master’s and Ph.D. in English. After a post-doctoral fellowship at Bryn Mawr College, Bruder spent 11 years as a professor and program director at Berea College, a tuition-free liberal arts college for low-income students in Kentucky. At Berea, she taught literature and writing, chaired the English Department, and built a highly successful bridge program for incoming first-year students.

In 2022, she returned to independent schools, joining the senior leadership team at Deerfield Academy as the dean of academic affairs. Through steady leadership, she built structures for pedagogical partnership and joyful experimentation, advanced curricular alignment, and guided Deerfield through reaccreditation. 

"At the heart of my work is a vision of a school as a place of growth and transformation where young people prepare not merely for college or career but also for lives of deep meaning," she said. "That kind of school revolves around a rigorous academic and co-curricular program that cultivates lifelong habits of curiosity, judgment, resilience, and joy. It thrives when the community commits to this shared purpose while also celebrating the range of ideas and practices that make schools vibrant learning laboratories. Hotchkiss is just such a place."

Accompanying her at Hotchkiss are her husband, Josh, their son, and the family’s beloved Border Collie.