Our Wildwood, Volume 54

FEATURE Leading with Purpose

BRICK BY BRICK The school that Landis has built reflects his loyalty to the school’s mission and how that mission translates into an ideal education day to day. Over 19 years, Landis helped to grow every part of Wildwood’s program—fiercely protecting its progressive foundation while always aspiring to meet the future head on. From driving innovation through the Wildwood Institute Model, to deepening the school’s commitment to the practice of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB), to securing increased faculty salaries, Landis has helped Wildwood achieve both institutional stability and academic excellence. One of Landis’s many strengths was his seemingly innate sense of what worked at Wildwood when he arrived and where there was room for improvement (or “stretches,” as we prefer to call them). In my opinion, the two most notable achievements in this regard were instigating the coordination of the scope and sequence of Wildwood’s curriculum from kindergarten through senior year, and creating the Institutes which have allowed students to dig deeper beyond their standard curriculum in areas of STEM research, entrepreneurship, and social leadership.

Innovation has long been part of Wildwood’s DNA, but Landis had the courage to take it much further. With the Institutes, he trusted the school’s values and his team enough to try something genuinely bold, and in the process created a high school experience that was both refreshingly different and yet deeply aligned with our mission.”

JOEL BRAND (P. ‘20, ‘21) BOARD CHAIR (2017-2020) BOARD OF TRUSTEES (2010-PRESENT)

In my 12 years on the Board of Trustees, perhaps the most consistent theme that I’ve heard from Landis regards how we value our teachers. Landis knows that without an exceptional faculty, we can’t achieve any of our other goals as a school. He set ambitious targets with quantifiable data by benchmarking the salaries of our teachers against peer schools. To ensure progress, we continue to measure every year. Landis’ acknowledgment that this is a task that is never ‘done’ has kept it at the forefront of our priorities.”

ANDREW SOLMSSEN (P. ‘24, ‘24) BOARD CHAIR (2020-2023) BOARD OF TRUSTEES (2014-PRESENT)

LEE ROSENBAUM (P. ‘11, ‘13, ‘16) BOARD CHAIR (2007-2010) BOARD OF TRUSTEES (2006-PRESENT)

Among his most important achievements, Landis brought strategic clarity to the financial aid program, ensuring that access to a Wildwood education was both principled and sustainable. He also fundamentally changed the trajectory of teacher compensation—affirming that the school’s greatest asset is its people. These were not flashy wins but they were transformative ones, strengthening the foundation of Wildwood for generations to come.”

LISA FLASHNER (P. ‘19, ‘20) BOARD CHAIR (2014-2017) BOARD OF TRUSTEES (2001-2023)

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