Kathleen “Kathy” Giles

Kathleen “Kathy” Carroll Giles became the Fourteenth Rector of St. Paul’s School on July 1, 2019. Most recently, she has served as head of school at Middlesex School since 2003. Before that, Kathy held a variety of roles at the Groton School, including dean of academic affairs, college advisor, English teacher, and coach.

Kathy holds a Master’s in Education degree, a Juris Doctor degree, and an undergraduate degree from Harvard University. She earned her A.B. with highest honors in English and American literature and languages at Harvard/Radcliffe Colleges, graduating magna cum laude as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Kathy subsequently received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Her legal experience includes that of clerk for the late Honorable Vincent McKusick of the Supreme Judicial Court for the State of Maine. She is an inactive member of the Maine State Bar Association and an active member of the Headmasters’ Association and The Heads’ Network. Kathy has served as a corporator at Emerson Hospital, a member of the Commission on Independent Schools for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, and a trustee of Applewild School in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

Kathy is married to Ralph Giles, also a long-term former faculty member at Groton School, who most recently was head of the Mathematics Department at the Fenn School in Concord, Massachusetts. They have three children, Kaitlyn, Daniel, and Eileen. Throughout her life, Kathy has enjoyed athletics as a competitor and as an avid fan. Her interests and hobbies include psychology and child development; spirituality; intellectual history; all kinds of music and art; gardening; and reading (everything and anything). Kathy is also known for her devotion to her dogs and expects to make the rounds of campus early each morning with them, regardless of the weather.