Head of School Search

August 10, 2022

Dear MVS Community,

After four years, our Head of School, Elizabeth Cleary, has shared this will be her last year at MVS. She wishes to enjoy life closer to her family and friends while continuing to explore new professional opportunities. Elizabeth plans to complete this year as Head of School and assist with the transition to a new Head of School in July 2023.

The MVS Board of Trustees has deeply appreciated her energy and passion. The accomplishments of Elizabeth and her Leadership Team are many, the most profound of which was protecting our community during the pandemic, which required Elizabeth and all members of her team to go above and beyond the traditional call of duty. At a time when many were fearful of sickness, she kept our faculty and students safe for in-person learning more than any other school in the Dayton area and maintained the same level of academic excellence we have come to expect at MVS. As Elizabeth prepares to take the next steps in her journey next summer, the Board and I will continue to support her as Head of School and wish her the best in her new endeavors.

In the days to come, we will begin the search for a new Head of School. Change is hard, but it also brings the opportunity for evolution, expansion, and growth. The injection of a new perspective will propel the work forward that has already begun with our new strategic plan, ensuring MVS continues to be the best independent educational institution in the area. I hope to engage many of you in this process.

Please click to read Elizabeth’s letter to the community here.

I welcome your questions and conversation. Please feel free to reach out to me. The Miami Valley School is strong, with a deep rooted legacy of excellence in serving our students. That will continue.

With Love for MVS,

Radha Reddy ‘90, P ’22, ’24, ’27

Chair, MVS Board of Trustees

September 13, 2022

Dear MVS Community,

While a month has passed since the initial announcement of Elizabeth’s departure at the end of this academic year, I would like to reassure you much work has been ongoing behind the scenes to lay the foundation for a successful search.

I am proud to introduce you to the firm we have selected to guide us along the exciting process of finding our next great leader. Our search firm partner,  Educators Collaborative, has already begun the critical process of learning the culture, strengths, and needs of our unique MVS community. André Withers and Doug Jennings will be our dedicated search consultants.  Please click here to read their letter of introduction. Their first visit to our school will be on Monday 9/19 when they will observe and meet with a wide swath of the MVS community – including Parent Association leadership, Staff, Administration, Students, the Board of Trustees and Faculty.  Later this week, a message from your Search Co-Chairs, Kim Jarvis P ‘23 and Keri Brown Kirschman P ‘25, 30, will provide information about the members of the search committee and more updates regarding the process.

In the two weeks following the physical visit with André and Doug, many more opportunities will be made available to engage with them and provide your feedback virtually. We would like to offer various formats in which to participate – open forum style and smaller focus groups that can hear the specialized feedback from specific interest groups such as alumni/alumni parents, parents/caregivers of students from varying divisions, retired faculty/staff, prior Trustees, student interest groups, and long standing stewards of our beloved school. We will also notify the community about the date(s) of future physical visits from André and Doug.

To begin, I ask you all to complete a survey. Please click here to view and begin.  All aspects of this survey will be facilitated by our search firm experts. The confidential results of the survey will be an important tool for André and Doug to discover more about the strengths and needs of our MVS community prior to their first on-campus visit. Raw data will ONLY be visible to our search firm experts and the search committee.  I ask all of you to please be open, honest and thorough in your responses.

It was wonderful seeing so many of you at Convocation.  Our community and our traditions make me so proud and I look forward to working alongside all of you in this adventure.

With Love for MVS,

Radha Reddy ‘90, P ‘22, ‘24, ‘27

Chair, MVS Board of Trustees

September 14, 2022

Dear MVS community,

By now, you should have received an electronic letter from our Board of Trustees Chair, Radha Reddy, introducing you to André Withers and Doug Jennings of Educators Collaborative. We hope you have had the opportunity to review André and Doug’s letter to the MVS community and understand why we are confident they are the perfect partners to be on this journey with us as we search for the next Head of School.

Search Committee Membership

The MVS Head of School Search Committee has been formed to assist Educators Collaborative in this important and exciting work.  We recognize that the individuals listed below represent just one small sample of the people in our community who are passionate and thoughtful about the school’s mission and future, and who represent a diverse set of backgrounds, occupations, and perspectives. As such, the search committee will be working with Educators Collaborative to ensure that interested representatives from all constituent groups are involved in the process of discovering the culture, strengths, and needs of The Miami Valley School and how those factors will shape the Head of School search.  We want to hear from you!

Thank you to the following members who will be serving on the MVS Head of School Search Committee:

• Kim Jarvis P ‘23 (Co-Chair)

• Keri Brown Kirschman P ‘25, 30 (Co-Chair)

• Steve Chambal P ‘18, ‘19, ‘22

• Kenya Crosson P ’30

• Sanjeeth Pai P ’26, 27

• Susan Strong P ‘10, ‘11

• Tracey Tomme

The Discovery Process

Campus Visit #1: As part of the initial discovery process, André and Doug will visit The Miami Valley School on Monday, September 19.  Our consultants will spend a full day with a wide cross-section of the MVS community, including dedicated time for classroom observations, student conversations, an open faculty forum, meetings with parent association leadership and administrators, and drop-in times for members of the MVS Board of Trustees. Click here for the campus visit agenda.

Pre-Visit Community Survey: In preparation for their first visit, André and Doug would like you to take a short, confidential survey that they have designed to be an access point to the process of discovery and will be helpful as they form themes to better facilitate conversations. All members of the MVS Community are encouraged to participate in this survey as one way to have a voice in this process. Thank you to those of you who have completed the survey. If you have not completed the survey, you can find it here.

Virtual Meetings: During the two-week period after their visit, André and Doug will conduct  virtual meetings/forums for MVS affinity groups, such as student-led groups (e.g., The Black Experience), alumni, and retired MVS faculty/leaders. These details are still emerging and we appreciate your patience.  If you would like to recommend an affinity group to participate in a virtual meeting with André and/or Doug, please let one of the Co-Chairs of the Search Committee know of these ideas.

Campus Visit #2: In early October, André and Doug will return to campus to continue to build a leadership profile based on the culture, mission, strengths, and needs of the community.  They will continue to meet with interested parties via focus groups and open community meetings with stakeholders such as parents and faculty.

We will be updating the community regularly, communicating important information in the coming weeks as more details about future touchpoints with our search firm become available.

Thank you for your trust and confidence in the entire Search Committee.  We are excited about the future of MVS!

Sincerely,

Kim Jarvis P ’23

Keri Brown Kirschman P ’25, ‘30

October 21, 2022

Dear MVS Community,

I wanted to provide you all with an October update regarding our Head of School Search. Some of you were able to meet with André Withers, one of our two dedicated search consultants from Educators’ Collaborative, at the Harvest Gathering on October 7. We were fortunate he was able to see our community in full celebration mode. I have no doubt he will pass along to the potential candidates (many of whom have already been identified)  the warmth and strength of our community.

I would like to thank all of you who participated in the survey, face-to-face meetings, and virtual sessions with our Search Consultants. I am proud to report they were impressed with the robust participation. In this process of discovery, we have learned even more about our school– strengths and challenges alike. I loved seeing the common themes emerge across all our constituency groups.

The Search Committee has embarked on a marathon! While most of their work will need to remain confidential, I’d like to provide an outline of what is going on behind the curtain. Starting this weekend, the Search Committee will review applicant dossiers using carefully crafted tools in order to ascertain how well candidates’ skillsets match the needs of our school. This will lead to the selection of a semifinalist pool of candidates that will be invited to be interviewed via ZOOM. Finally, after discussion and consensus, the Search Committee expects 2-3 finalist candidates will be invited to campus for interviews in November with the hopes of announcing our new Head of School by December 1.

Expect a communication at the beginning of November from our Search Chairs.  We will be calling on all of you again to physically participate in the process of not only vetting, but also wooing, our finalist candidates. As much as we are asking finalists to prove their worthiness, the responsibility falls to us to convince these talented individuals that leading MVS is a once in a lifetime opportunity not to be passed up.  Opportunities may include meeting the candidates in a town hall setting, selling our growing city of Dayton and all it has to offer, participating in social hours with the candidate, etc. Please reach out to me, Kim Jarvis or Keri Brown Kirschman if you have a particular passion to help.

It was wonderful seeing so many of you at the Harvest Gathering. Our community and our traditions make me so proud and I am honored to work alongside all of you in this adventure.

With Love for MVS,

Radha Reddy ‘90, P ‘22, ‘24, ‘27

Chair, MVS Board of Trustees

November 7, 2022

Dear members of The Miami Valley School community,

It is with great pleasure that we announce the MVS Head of School Search Committee has identified the finalists to serve in the position of the school’s eighth Head of School! Three finalists were selected from a highly qualified pool of independent school leaders and will be coming to MVS for on-campus interviews in the next two weeks.

We appreciate your patience and your understanding of the confidential nature of the Search Committee’s work over the past few weeks. On October 21, the committee began their review of 20 dossiers from a pool of very impressive national and international candidates. These candidates were pre-screened by our consultants, André and Doug, to fit the leadership profile that emerged during their “discovery” work with the MVS community earlier this fall.  From this highly competitive pool of applicants, ten candidates advanced to the semi-finalist round, where they were interviewed via Zoom by the full Search Committee.  On November 1, the committee engaged in the difficult process of selecting three finalists to participate in on-campus interviews with the MVS community.

Listed below are the interview days for the three finalists.  While we recognize that these dates are fast approaching, we also appreciate the importance of conducting the on-campus visits prior to Thanksgiving with the hope of naming the next Head of School by December 1, 2022.  We have been told by the search consultants that this timeline will keep us competitive given these individuals are likely finalists in other searches at this time as well.

We are busily finalizing candidates’ itineraries. As soon as possible, we will notify the community with more details, including information about each candidate and the specific times set aside for the community to meet with the finalists.  The on-campus interviews are:

• Candidate 1: November  9-11 

• Candidate 2: November 13-15 

• Candidate 3: November 17-19

We want to sincerely thank all the members of the MVS Head of School Search Committee – Kenya Crosson, Steve Chambal, Tracey Tomme, Sanjeeth Pai, and Susan Strong – for their tireless work over the past few weeks, and an additional big thanks to Lisa Garvic, MVS Human Resources Manager. We are also grateful to Radha Reddy, Chair of the MVS Board of Trustees, for her leadership and her endless investment of time to ensure that we bring forward the right candidates for our school at this time. In addition, we appreciate all the support that Elizabeth Cleary has given us as we navigate the process and the important role she will provide to ensure a smooth transition to the next Head of School, who is slated to begin July 1, 2023.

And, now, we turn to you,  faculty, staff, administrators, students, parents, alumni, and trustees, to welcome and enthusiastically engage with our finalists during their campus visits.  Please stay tuned for more information on candidates’ credentials and their visit itineraries.

Sincerely,

Keri Brown Kirschman P ’25 ‘30

Kimberly Jarvis P ’23

MVS Head of School Search Committee Co-Chairs

November 30, 2022

Dear MVS Community,

In this season of giving thanks, the Head of School Search Committee would like to thank the MVS community for their engagement and trust as we navigated each of the stages of the search for the next MVS Head of School. We are in the final stretch of the search process, and we anticipate that Radha Reddy, Chair of the Board of Trustees, will announce the new Head of School in early December.  Each Head of School Search finalist completed a series of interviews, observations, and conversations during their 2 -3 day campus visits.  All three finalists expressed that MVS “stands out” in terms of the clarity of the school’s mission, the emphasis on the Immersion Method, the inclusive culture, and the feeling of community. Thank you, MVS!

In keeping with the spirit of MVS,  we would like to use the MVS core values of Integrity, Kindness, Grit, and Celebration as a framework to communicate the process the search committee took to arrive at our final recommendation.  We apologize in advance for redundancy with any prior search communications, but we feel it is justified in an effort to provide transparent communication to all constituent groups.

Integrity: We are proud of the discovery process utilized to identify the needs of our community. Through many interviews, group meetings, and personal conversations this fall, a “leadership profile” emerged that was used to guide our recruitment, assessment, and selection of the candidates for the Head of School position. A connector, an ambassador, and a motivational, culturally competent director emerged as important priorities in this post-pandemic era of educating the 21st century student.

With integrity, we worked to keep diversity, equity, inclusion—so important to the past and the future of MVS—central to the search.

• We began by consulting and following the guidelines set by The National Association Independent Schools (NAIS) Head  Search Handbook: A Strategic Guide for the Search Committee (2018) and other resources for best practices in developing a diverse candidate pool. This included building a diverse Head of School Search Committee and selecting a search firm with expertise in diversity, equity, and inclusion.

• André and Doug, our partners from Educators’ Collaborative, built our candidate pool from independent schools, as well as other private, international, and public schools, to increase interest in the position, paying particular attention to ways to promote women and people of color applying for the position. They actively recruited individuals from diverse backgrounds and followed up with leads that were submitted by the MVS community on the community survey that solicited names for the next Head of School.

• All ten semi-finalists, who were interviewed by the full search committee, were asked a set of five core questions to assess candidate fit and ability to meet the needs identified in the leadership profile. These questions included the candidates’ knowledge and expertise, and examples related to being a school  ambassador, cultural competency in reconciling disparate positions, management skills in building effective teams in solving contemporary problems, and expertise in working with multiple stakeholders in executing strategic plans, and ideas in hiring and retaining faculty of color. The search team also asked questions of individual candidates that were needed to assess whether they had the experience necessary to fulfill the roles and responsibilities of the Head of School position entails.

• The three finalists that emerged were invited to interview on-campus. These candidates met with a sample of individuals across all constituent groups: parents, students, alumni and alumni parents, faculty, staff, administration, the current Head of School, the Board of Trustees and former Board members, and community leaders. To ensure that the search committee continued to assess the candidate in light of the leadership profile that emerged, additional questions were asked of the candidate in those priority areas during the search committee meeting.

• The search committee met during Thanksgiving Break to finalize a recommendation to the Board of Trustees. This recommendation was based on the candidates’ fit with the leadership profile, prior experiences that would prepare them for the role, the candidates’ emphasis on diversity and inclusion, and understanding/appreciation of the Immersion Method. We appreciate the community responses to candidate surveys, as this was helpful and valuable information in the Search Committee’s final recommendation. The Head of School is the only employee of the MVS Board of Trustees, and therefore the final decision lies with the Board. However, we could not make the decision without the input of the entire community throughout the search process.

Grit: To be successful, a Head of School search requires time, effort, and commitment by all constituents in the community. We thank you for all the efforts that you have made to support the Search Committee in their work at each stage of the process. Thanks to the entire Head of School Search Committee who showed incredible dedication to this process, devoting many hours of service to MVS in this role.

Kindness: All three finalists commented on the warmth and kindness shown by MVS community members. In addition, we thank you for your kindness as the Search Committee navigated aspects of the search that were difficult or complex to coordinate. We appreciate the kindness that was shown to respect confidentiality at various points in the process as well.

Celebration: Soon, we hope to announce the next Head of School at the Miami Valley School. It will be a time to celebrate the successes of Elizabeth Cleary and her continued tenure, as well as generate excitement for our next leader. Until then, we celebrate YOU—the students, families, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, and other “legends” of MVS. Indeed, you are a selling point for our school!

Sincerely,

Kim Jarvis, P’23

Keri Brown Kirschman P’25, ‘30

MVS Head of School Search Committee Co-Chairs

Dear MVS community,

On behalf of the Miami Valley School Board of Trustees and the Head of School Search Committee, I am thrilled to announce that David Long will be The Miami Valley School’s eighth Head of School.

Following an intense three-month national and international search, the MVS Board of Trustees has unanimously selected David to come to MVS from The Galloway School in Atlanta, and begin his tenure as Head of School on July 1, 2023. This follows Elizabeth Cleary’s courageous and successful five year tenure in which she led the school through a global pandemic. Elizabeth will be leaving behind a school that prioritizes safety and wellness of all its constituents as well as a strong commitment and plan to elevate the vision of MVS. We are truly grateful for the leadership and growth MVS has achieved with Elizabeth at the helm, and we are now excited to welcome David, his wife Claire, and their three children: Caleb, Bennett, and Virginia.

The priorities of the Search Committee in choosing MVS’ next leader were guided by the feedback we received from the MVS community through surveys and in-person interviews. The resulting Leadership Profile was clear. It showed that the MVS community desires a leader who is a community connector, a bold ambassador and a masterful director whose nuanced leadership style will carry our great school to even higher levels. Our next Head needed to have demonstrated success in all areas of independent school operations, while at the same time showing us he truly believed in and could protect the core of MVS—our mission, vision and commitment to the immersive education of the 21st century student. We have found all of this and more in David Long.

David’s educational career reflects a leader who has devoted his life to independent school education. He is a distinguished scholar, receiving a B.A. in History and Secondary Education from Grove City College, an M.A. in U.S. History from Duquesne University, an M.Ed in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard University, and is currently enrolled to earn his Doctor of Education Degree (Ed.D.) in Leadership and Innovation from Arizona State University. His doctoral dissertation, which will directly impact and improve MVS, focuses on the hiring and retention of faculty and staff of color in independent schools.

David began his independent school career in 1998 as a teacher at Sewickley Academy in Pittsburgh, where he taught history and served as an advisor, coach and grade dean.  In 2008, he was recruited to Louisville Collegiate School, where he served as Upper School Dean of Students, Department Chair, Assistant Head of Upper School, and then Head of Upper School. As Department Chair, David spearheaded the creation of a history curriculum map for PK-12. As head of Upper School, David developed a Global Citizens program, the Co-Edge program, and re-envisioned Collegiate’s “immersion” with a new May Term. In 2019, he was recruited to The Galloway School, an institution with a similar community and culture as MVS, where he holds the #2 position, Assistant Head of School. His accomplishments there, while too numerous to list, demonstrate success in all areas of independent school operations—advancement, curriculum development, enrollment, DEI, and financial management.

James Calleroz White, David’s current Head of School at The Galloway School, said, “I am both incredibly excited for David and MVS and really sad that he is leaving, because David has been an absolute rock star and a joy to work with over our nine years together!”  Galloway’s current Board Chair, Jenny Gruel, spoke of how David has forever transformed and elevated The Galloway School by defining academic excellence in his tenure there.

We are all eager to see how David’s arrival will energize our community, bring new perspectives, and guide healthy change. As Board members, there is a great sense of comfort in the choice we have made. Throughout this process, I have heard from our community what a great fit David would be for our small but mighty school. The numerous connections that have emerged with the Long family make this feel as if it was meant to be. When you consider David and Claire’s Midwestern roots, the fact that Claire taught at MVS from 2004-2008, and that David’s oldest son is being taught at Galloway by an MVS grad, it feels obvious and clear that David Long was meant to lead our MVS community.

David and Claire will make their first trip back to MVS with their children on Friday, February 24, 2023. Caleb (9 years old and currently in 4th grade), Bennett (7 years old and currently in 2nd grade), and Virginia (5 years old and currently in PK 4) will have a shadow/tour day while David and Claire begin the transition process by meeting with various constituents to learn more about the school and David’s new role.  On February 25, David and Claire will join us at the Gala as we lean in to our core value of celebration! Please mark your calendars and plan to attend this event as you are able so we can extend a warm, in-person MVS welcome to our newest Head of School.

I want to close this letter by thanking everyone who participated in this process. In particular, I am so grateful for our committed Search Committee, led by co-chairs Keri Brown Kirschman and Kim Jarvis, as well as our dedicated search consultants at Educators Collaborative. André and Doug will continue to work for the next year to ensure the transition of leadership is smooth.  It has been my honor to work alongside all of these individuals, as well as the countless other community members who took the time to support the search and make their voices heard. The number of hours spent doing this work cannot begin to measure the talent, care and passion that was put forth to bring us to this day.

With Love for MVS,

Radha Reddy ‘90, P ‘22, ‘24, ‘27
Chair, MVS Board of Trustees

Dear MVS community,

I am honored to accept the position of Head of School at The Miami Valley School.

I was initially drawn to MVS by the school’s commitment to the Immersion Method to educate the whole child in a diverse and supportive community. While on campus, I fell further in love with the school, as I could see and feel how each community member lived out the school’s mission daily, and I could picture my own children thriving in the classrooms.

I am humbled and excited to be the eighth Head of School at MVS, and look forward to partnering with the community to move MVS forward while holding true to our core values of integrity, grit, celebration, and kindness. Claire and I look forward to getting to know you as we experience and grow in the remarkable MVS community.

Sincerely,

David Long

The Board of Trustees is committed to making the search an inclusive process and will provide opportunities for community input through in-person and electronic means. The first opportunities will occur when the search consultants from Educators’ Collaborative conduct listening sessions in September to learn more about the School’s strengths, as well as the opportunities facing the school now and in the years ahead. There will be sessions for employees, alumni, parents, and students during this time. Additionally, all members of the school community will be invited to share their thoughts about the School and the search through a confidential online survey administered by Educators’ Collaborative consultants. 

As the search nears its conclusion, members of the school community will also have an opportunity to meet the finalist candidates and provide feedback as to their impressions of each. 

It is perhaps best to consider the search process in three general phases, with which there is some overlap. 

The primary purpose of the initial phase is for the Educators’ Collaborative consultants to “get the word out” about the search to prospective candidates and to learn more about the School. This will be done through the aforementioned listening sessions and online survey. In addition, the Educators’ Collaborative consultants will familiarize themselves with school operations, programs, and policies through numerous documents provided by the School.

The next phase is conducted almost exclusively behind the scenes, as the Educators’ Collaborative consultants recruit and do the initial vetting of candidates through interviews and reference checks. While any qualified candidate will be considered up until the completion of the search, interested candidates are asked to contact the search consultants so that timely vetting can take place. 

In the third phase, the Search Committee is highly active in learning more about candidates, conducting preliminary confidential interviews, selecting the finalists, and assuring that their visits to the School are successful. The work of the Search Committee concludes when it presents its nomination of the candidate of choice to the Board of Trustees.

The Head of School Search Committee is leading the search process and will make recommendations to the Board of Trustees, which ultimately bears responsibility for appointing the Head of School. 

A sub-group of the Board of Trustees conducted broad research on national search firms. They reviewed proposals and conducted initial and follow-up interviews. Following reference checks, the group unanimously recommended to the Board of Trustees the selection of Educators’ Collaborative.

Educators’ Collaborative is a nationally-known search consulting firm, specializing in finding heads for independent schools like ours. André Withers and Doug Jennings have been engaged to assist with the search. André and Doug have both headed and/or been senior leaders in independent schools, and together they have assisted dozens of schools with head of school searches. 

The search consultants will provide guidance to the Search Committee on format, logistics, procedures, and best practices in the search process. In addition, they will interview candidates, check references, and support the Search Committee throughout the interview process. Educators’ Collaborative will also provide transition support to the New Head of School after they have been hired. 

The search for the new Head of School is international in scope. A primary goal is to make the search process as transparent as possible, with opportunities for community updates and feedback along the way. Confidentiality about individual candidates, however, remains a critical component for success. Some potential candidates may not be actively looking for a new position, and others may not want it known at their current institution that they are pursuing an interest in MVS. As such, the Search Committee will not comment on candidates participating (or not participating) in the search.

The Search Committee encourages the application of all individuals who have a genuine interest in leading the School, including anyone who is currently employed at the School. To every extent possible, the Search Committee will attempt to create a level playing field, ensuring that the eventual nominee as Head-elect is assessed in the context of the entire field of candidates. In addition, the confidentiality of internal candidates is as important as that of candidates from outside the School.

Candidates will be evaluated based on how well their skills and characteristics match those desired by the school community. Those skills and characteristics will be identified drawing on the survey responses and constituent interviews conducted by Educators’ Collaborative consultants. The Search Committee will go through multiple steps to acquaint themselves with the pool of candidates before narrowing that group down to a small group of finalists (likely three or four). The Search Committee’s evaluation of the finalist candidates will be informed by input from the Advisory Committee, which will conduct interviews with each of the finalists during the campus visits. 

The MVS Board of Trustees appointed Keri Brown Kirschman and Kim Jarvis to be the Chair of the Search Committee and approved the retention of the search consultants Educators’ Collaborative. They then worked to form the Search Committee, which has been charged with conducting a comprehensive, national, and international search for a new Head of School. The Board of Trustees will refer all inquiries related to the search to the Chair of the Search Committee and Educators’ Collaborative. As the process draws to completion, the Board will review the recommendations of the Search Committee, formally resolve to pursue a candidate, bear responsibility for negotiating any terms of employment, and ultimately appoint the new Head of School. The Head of School is the only employee that is hired by and reports directly to the Board of Trustees, and, as a result, choosing a new Head of School is one of the Board’s most important responsibilities.

The person selected by the Board of Trustees will officially become MVS’s Head of School on July 1, 2023. Until that time, Elizabeth will continue to lead the School, a role in which she has served well. We anticipate that there will be opportunities during the 2022-23 school year when the Head-Elect will be on campus and have a chance to learn more about the School, but it is a high probability that the selected individual will have ongoing professional responsibilities elsewhere. 

No. All related information sessions, listening sessions, and interviews will be built around faculty, staff, and student schedules, so as not to disrupt the academic calendar and schedule.