Re-opening in a COVID19 World: Lessons and Perspectives from Our International School Counterparts

Online via Zoom with Educators from Dwight School; Shanghai, Seoul, and New York

Target audience: Heads, Administrators, Business Managers, Physical Plant Managers

Join a conversation with Heads of School from the Dwight Network (Shanghai, Seoul, and New York) whose Asian and London campuses have been open for more than a month. These educators will offer a global perspective about their school operations with the goal of helping AISGW and AIMS administrators prepare for a safe and effective fall opening.
Panelists will discuss:

• School logistical considerations
• Health and safety protocols
• Curriculum and classroom changes
• The social and emotional impact of the virus on their school community
• What has worked and what has not
• How they are planning for the fall in light of their reopening experiences

Q&A and discussion will be an important part of this session.

Click Here to Register

This event is for members of AISGW and AIMS only.

Panelist Bios

Blake Spahn '89, Vice Chancellor, has oversight of all Dwight School operations, extending across the Main Campus, Riverside Campus, and the Dwight School Athletic Center. His strategic oversight ensures the efficient and effective management of all facilities, systems, and staff in support of Dwight's innovative world-class programs.

Oxford. Author of America and the International Baccalaureate, Dr. Spahn has taught English and philosophy in classrooms in the U.S., U.K., and Japan. In addition to founding Dwight’s Early Childhood Division, he has had oversight of our London campus for the past 20 years.

In 2000, Dr. Spahn co-founded BOOST (Building Opportunities on Student Talent), a non-profit designed to advance prospects for university students in Southern Africa, enabling them to contribute to their own countries’ development. Dr. Spahn was also able to enhance his global vision as a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations, to which he was elected in 2005. He is very excited to have his wife, Maryll (Director of Admissions, K-6th), and children, Kyra ’23 and Ronin ’26, join him at Dwight.

Dr. Spahn was named a 2017 Distinguished Leader in Education at the 15th annual Education Update Outstanding Educators of the Year Awards Program.

Dianne Drew, Global Education Director, native of Melbourne, Australia, is an internationally recognized educator with over 28 years of experience in administration, teaching, curriculum development, and educational consulting in both public and private schools in Australia, Asia, and the U.S. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Post-Graduate Diploma of Education from Australia’s Monash University, and a Masters degree in Educational Leadership and Management from Bath University.
In combination with her New York Head of School role, Ms. Drew serves as Dwight's Global Education Director supporting the academic needs of all the schools in the Dwight network (Shanghai, Seoul, London, Dubai, and Dwight Global Online School).
In 2015, Ms. Drew was elected as a member of the prestigious International Baccalaureate Global Heads Council, serving in a strategic leadership capacity and advising the Director-General of the IB, Siva Kumari, on important IB issues impacting students today. She was voted into the position of Chair of the Heads Council in 2019, and therefore, holds a Board member position on the IB Board of Governors as well.
Ms. Drew is an accomplished IB workshop leader, site evaluator, and consultant for the IB. For five years, she served as Vice President for the Guild of IB Schools of the Northeast (MYP), which is comprised of over 100 public, private, and parochial schools. Ms. Drew is passionate about promoting faculty professional development to ignite the spark of genius in every teacher; and fosters enriching cross-campus curricular collaborations among The Dwight Schools to benefit all Dwight students.

Brantley Turner has lived in Shanghai for the majority of the past 20 years. Her interest in China was sparked when her parents moved from Brooklyn to Hong Kong as she was graduating from high school. A summer spent traveling in Mainland China in 1994 prompted her to study Mandarin and ultimately East Asian Studies at Brown University. For graduate school she moved to Nanjing, China to study at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. After a stint as an English teacher in Beijing, her career began in qualitative market research, consumer insights, and marketing, which gave her an in-depth understanding of detailed Chinese market trends with a special focus on contemporary Chinese youth in both rural and urban China. In her early career she served as a China market advisor to various consumer brands including Nike and Coca-Cola.
In 2006, she founded China Prep to create programs to bring International students to China and primarily worked with middle and high school students from the United States and MBA students from Europe. She also served as the Director of the Summer Discovery Program in Shanghai and taught international students at the University level.
In 2009, Brantley joined the Dwight School international group of schools and in 2012 became the Director of Programs - China. From 2008-2014 the school ran a joint diploma program with The Attached High School to Capital Normal University in Beijing. In 2013, Qibao High School and Dwight School New York announced the formation of a three-year boarding school, Shanghai Qibao Dwight High School, where Brantley serves as the founding American Principal and Board Member. Qibao Dwight is an International Baccalaureate World School and is the first and only independent Sino-American cooperative high school officially approved by the Ministry of Education of China. In 2020, Brantley was named Regional Director East Asia - Dwight Schools.
Currently pursuing a PhD at the International School of Management in Paris, France, with a specialization in Higher Education and Intercultural Communication, Brantley is passionate about exchange and dialogue between China and the West. She is fluent in written and spoken Mandarin Chinese and lives in Shanghai with her husband and three children.

Kevin Skeoch, originally from Toronto, Canada, is the founding Head of Dwight School Seoul, the first three programme International Baccalaureate (IB) World School in Seoul, South Korea. In 2019, Mr. Skeoch initiated and chaired the first IB Association of Schools in South Korea and sits on organization boards located in South Korea, India, and the USA. Mr. Skeoch, since 2019, has served on the Board of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Korea.
Mr. Skeoch’s passion for international education has seen him through 25 years in Switzerland, the UK and South Korea where his expertise in IB World Schools saw him as chair for Councils of International Schools and IB authorizations teams across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. He is past Executive Director of the Dwight Schools and shares a long working history with Dwight, with schools located in Qibao Shanghai, Dubai, London, New York and Seoul.
Mr. Skeoch is a highly motivated and strategic global executive with extensive educational leadership experience having held positions as a global executive director, headmaster, and senior leader of schools on three continents. Mr. Skeoch possesses a deep knowledge of building and aligning school development projects, global recruitment and management practices. Known as an optimistic and inspiring leader, Mr. Skeoch understands what it means to be a lifelong learner and has a genuine belief in recognizing people at all levels of the organization, and in nurturing collaborative team building and communication.