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Lead the heart of your school community.
Residential life is where student development meets real life. This institute gives professionals the training, support, and insight they need to foster safe, connected, and high-functioning residential programs.
Through expert sessions, peer collaboration, and practical tools, you’ll explore how to respond to student needs, build inclusive dorm cultures, and navigate complex issues like substance use, legal obligations, and mental health. Whether you’re leading dorms, overseeing student life, or supporting residential programs behind the scenes, you’ll leave with a stronger foundation and a new network of peers.
This track is ideal for staff and leaders who are shaping the residential experience every day and want to do it with more clarity, confidence, and purpose.
Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, CT
Residential and student life leaders, aspiring leaders, and staff
Understand current research and best practices for building strong residential communities and addressing emerging challenges
Build effective, student-centered programs including advisory, leadership, and wellness initiatives
Gain strategies to support student safety, mental health, and well-being within a boarding environment
Learn how to manage legal and disciplinary issues with clarity and compassion
Audit and strengthen your team’s staffing structures, communication norms, and culture
Connect with fellow professionals to share ideas, troubleshoot challenges, and grow your support network
Blake has been working in boarding schools since 2001 and in his time has served as Head of House, teacher, varsity coach, Department Chair, and Dean of Students. His experiences include residential work in schools both small and large, and he understands the different opportunities and dynamics of residential spaces.
In his current role, Blake supports the residential faculty of the Lawrenceville School, heads the Wellness Team, leads the school’s work to integrate best practices in character- and community-building, and collaborates with students to develop programming, policies, and activities that emphasize belonging, personal expression, curiosity, and fun.
Blake is also a boarding school parent, and understands from all sides the importance of connection and communication between students, faculty, and families.
Blake has his B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Chicago and his M.A. in English from Middlebury College. A 2001 new-teacher participant in this same TABS summer session, Blake is excited and proud to be back as part of the TABS faculty. Blake and his family live on campus at the Lawrenceville School, where among his many responsibilities, he houses the School’s mascot, Larrie.
Will Gilyard is in his 19th year of working in independent schools. In 2020, he returned to his alma mater Choate Rosemary Hall to take on the roles of Form Dean, and Alumni Engagement Associate. Will joined Choate after nine years at the Kingswood Oxford School (KO), a 6-12 independent day school located in West Hartford, CT, where he served as Dean of Students, an upper school math teacher, assistant football coach, and faculty advisor for the United Students club and Boys of Color group. At Choate, Will is the faculty adviser to Choate Afro Latino Men (CALM), and Girls Who Code (GWC).
Will also serves as a core faculty member and helped create the curriculum for the Institute for New Teachers of Color in Independent Schools, created in 2020, the Interschool Leadership Institute, created in 2013. Will also served as a core faculty member of the Kingswood Oxford Leadership Institute for Educators of Color (KOLIEC) from 2011-2018 and helped create the curriculum for the mentoring/advising circles for institute participants.
Before joining KO, Will was the Head of the Upper School at the Cathedral School of St. John the Divine in New York City. He serves on the board of advisors for the IDEAL School, also located in New York City. He is passionate about the role of educators in independent schools, specifically in the lives of students of color. Will has attended numerous workshops, conferences, and institutes related to leadership in independent schools and anti-racist education. Will had the honor of being a member of a think tank for the CARLE institute.
Will has his B.A. in Psychology from Williams College and his M.A. Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of St. Joseph. Will is thrilled to be a part of the TABS (The Association of Boarding Schools) team and looks forward to working with energized and focused individuals who are interested in being change agents in the residential life sphere.
Will and his wife, Afton, ALP/Enrichment Teacher in Stratford Public Schools reside in Wallingford, CT with their two sons, William and Maxwell.
Over the span of her 25-year career, Jessica has worked as a teacher, coach, counselor, and administrator. After graduating from Colby College, Jessica spent time teaching overseas before returning to the states to get her Masters in American Cultural Studies at the University of Wyoming. She then worked as a public school Spanish teacher, focusing on student support as she discovered her passion for helping students navigate the complexity of adolescence.
Jessica eventually pursued her Masters in Social Work from Boston College and then returned to the boarding school world, having attended the Taft School during high school. First at Miss Porter’s School and then at Blair Academy, she helped center the community on health and wellness.
At Blair, she created a counseling department from scratch, and after a few years as Director Counseling, she shifted to administration and spent four more years as a Dean of Students. After moving back to New England and working as Director of Counseling at Thayer Academy, her family then moved to Loomis Chaffee in 2019 where she is currently Dean of Student Life and Wellness. Her dean role expanded to include wellness, which she believes is intimately linked to the quality of student life.
When not working she is usually somewhere outside, playing sports, watching her beloved Red Sox, or spending time with her family. She currently lives in Windsor, CT with her husband, Brian Shactman, three teenage children, and an amazing yellow lab.
Learning Courage is a nonprofit membership organization that works with K12 independent schools to reduce incidents, improve responses and support healing from sexual misconduct and abuse by guiding and advising on best practices, tools and resources.
Founded by survivors, Learning Courage understands both the institutional challenges and the importance of keeping survivors at the center of the process, whether the misconduct occurred recently or in the past.
