Meet Our Head of School

Jen Craig

Welcome to Hebron Academy.

Since 1804, young people have come to this remarkable place carrying hopes, questions, talents, and dreams. Families arrive from across Maine, across the country, and around the world, becoming part of a community with the belief that education has the power to transform.

A great school is much more than where you go to class; it is where you discover who you are and find a place to belong. It is where teachers become mentors, teammates become lifelong friends, and a campus becomes home. Here, you will be challenged to think deeply and work hard in order to uncover strengths you never knew you had.

Neuroscientist David Dobbs reminds us in his essay Beautiful Brains that adolescents are primed to learn through "excitement, novelty, risk, [and] the company of peers." At Hebron, we have intentionally designed a school around those conditions. You will be invited to venture beyond what is comfortable, embrace uncertainty, and trust that meaningful growth often comes from challenge. Your journey will not follow a straight path, and that's exactly the point. Dobbs describes practicing science as the process of "becoming less wrong over time." The same could be said of education. Every question you ask, every risk you take, every setback you overcome, and every success you celebrate becomes part of that lifelong process of learning and growth. And the journey is richer because it is shared.

Whether you are conducting research in the Kaneb Center for Science and Engineering, sharing beliefs in Community Meeting, performing on stage, discussing a novel with an English teacher over lunch, learning to paddleboard, competing on the athletic fields, or simply engaging in conversation with classmates in the dorm, every experience is learning, woven into every aspect of community life.

As Head of School, my hope is that every student feels both challenged and known, supported and inspired. I hope you find adults who believe in you, friends who encourage you, and experiences that shape the course of your life.

Welcome to the forests, mountains, lakes and coastline of Maine.

Welcome to the classrooms, dorms, facilities and 1,500-acre campus of Hebron.

Welcome home.

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Biography

Jen Craig brings a rare combination of scientific rigor and deep human understanding to the role of Head of School. Her academic foundation in neuroscience, earned at Amherst College and developed further at Yale University, informs how she thinks about learning, adolescent development, and the conditions that allow young people to flourish.

Jen's relationship with Hebron Academy runs deeper than most. She began her career here as a science teacher, coach, dorm parent, and leader in outdoor education from 1992 to 2000, forming lasting bonds with the school's mission and community. Her return as Head of School is, in every sense, a homecoming.

Her career since Hebron has taken her and her husband, Ken, on a remarkable journey across the northeast and around the world. Together they have served at The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, St. Cyprian's School in Cape Town, South Africa, and The American School in London. Jen was part of the founding team of a school in Shenzhen, China, and most recently served as Associate Head of School at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania before returning to lead Hebron.

This breadth of experience, spanning continents, cultures, and school models, gives Jen an uncommon perspective on what makes a school truly excellent and what makes Hebron uniquely irreplaceable.