Rye Country Day School will have a new leader next summer. The school's board of trustees on Monday, Aug. 17, approved the appointment of Kristen Klein as head of school, effective next July

According to the Rye Record, Klein is currently associate head of school at Durham Academy in North Carolina, where she also teaches Upper School English. She has spent eight years at the pre-K–12 school and more than two decades total in independent school education.

Board of trustees president Rosa Hyun Perkins said the search committee unanimously recommended Klein from what the board described as an exceptionally strong candidate pool.

"Kristen distinguished herself through her educational leadership, strategic vision, commitment to students, and genuine care for people," Perkins said. "We are tremendously excited to welcome her to Rye Country Day."

Klein's resume centers on curriculum innovation. At Durham Academy, she established a civil discourse program, led a shift toward problem-based learning in the upper school and oversaw competency-based learning in the middle school. Before that, she spent 14 years at Winchester Thurston School in Pittsburgh, where she rose from English department chair to director of upper school and helped build the E.E. Ford grant-winning City as Our Campus experiential learning program.

She holds a bachelor's degree from Trinity College and a master's in English education from Brown University.

The hire fills a vacancy. Randall Dunn, who joined RCDS in 2022, resigned at the end of the 2025–26 school year. Dr. Stacey Sotirhos, previously the school's lower school principal, stepped in as interim head of school on July 1, 2026, and will continue leading the 973-student campus on Cedar Street through the current academic year.

Klein will remain at Durham Academy for the full 2026–27 year before making the move to Rye.

According to a Durham Academy announcement, the Westchester County location puts Klein and her husband, Michael, within a 45-minute drive of her parents, sister and niece. At the conclusion of her interim year, Dr. Sotirhos plans to step away from the school to spend time with family.

RCDS said it will form a head of school transition committee and create opportunities for families, students, faculty, staff and alumni to meet Klein before her July 2027 start. No specific dates for those events have been announced.