Don Grace joined the Touchstone Community School as our fifth head of school on July 1, 2008. 
 
Don was attracted by the school’s progressive mission, including project-based learning, thematic/integrated teaching, and environmental education; a dedicated and imaginative faculty/staff; a visionary board of trustees; a student culture that supports healthy risk-taking; and the extensive partnership between TCS parents and faculty/staff.
 
Don brings 36 years of experience in independent schools to TCS, having led five innovative/progressive schools for 26 years, many of them with educational core principles similar to Touchstone’s. Most recently, he was head of The Park School of Buffalo, a preK-12 progressive independent school.  Don is excited about bringing his years of successful educational leadership experience to TCS, as he returns to Central Massachusetts, where he grew up.
 
Don holds a B.A. from Harvard College, an M.A.T. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a C.A.S. from Fairfield University and has undertaken graduate work in early childhood education at Wheelock College.
 
Don’s wife, Catherine O’Neill Grace, is the editor Tufts Veterinary Medicine, the magazine of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in Grafton.  She is the author of some 25 nonfiction books for and about children, including Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social Lives of Children, co-authored with Drs. Michael Thompson and Larry Cohen. Don and Catherine have moved to Whitinsville with their cat, Tashi, which is Tibetan for “lucky.”
 
Don has enjoyed participating in the spirited opening of school: our parent convocation; creating cloth banners expressing hopes for the year with students, faculty, and staff; the first community meetings; our all-school barbeque; and hiking with the OSP (7th and 8th grade) students in the White Mountains.

 “I have found the dynamic energy of TCS constituencies to be inspired and inspiring.  As a clarinetist, I am impressed with the integrated educational jazz that is already going on at Touchstone.  Catherine and I are thrilled to be part of this distinctive learning community.”