Summit School Founder to Step Down in July 2013

When Dr. Jane Snider steps down as Executive Director from The Summit School next July, it will have been 24 years since she opened the doors of the school as founder. The Edgewater private school caters to children with dyslexia and other learning differences.

Dr. Jane Snider.

South River Source talked to Snider earlier this year when she was one of the YWCA’s TWIN award winners. She talked about how her role at the school had changed over the years. She’d always been an educator, but she had to add businesswoman to her resume, and break down gender barriers to make her school a success.

In 2010, Snider stepped down as Head of School to serve as Executive Director, focusing on marketing and fundraising for Summit. During the transition, she will continue to consult.

According to a media release issued by the Summit School, Snider isn’t exactly retiring. She will instead move into a new arena, creating initiatives to support schools and nonprofits. She will also help to guide families whose children are struggling in school.

It was Snider’s vision to create the Summit School as a state-of-the-art school for children with dyslexia and other learning differences. From the beginning, she recruited teachers and trained them. In the early years, the school moved from one campus to another, and Dr. Snider managed each transition. Eventually she acquired the 15-acre campus in Edgewater where the school is today.

Over the years, more than 1,800 students have passed through the doors of the Summit School. Each year about 100 new students come into the program.

In 2005, Snider tapped Dr. Joan Mele-McCarthy to return to Summit School and eventually become Head of School. Mele-McCarthy was an early friend and adviser to Summit, developing the school’s speech and language program before accepting an appointment in the U.S. Dept. of Education. Snider tapped Mele-McCarthy to return and is now Head of School. Mele-McCarthy will take on the role of Executive Director after Dr. Snider steps down in July 2013.

Earlier this year, Mele-McCarthy won the prestigious Washington Post Distinguished Educator award. We talked to her in a story that can be found here.

Over the years, Snider received more than a dozen awards and honors and raised millions of dollars to support the mission of the Summit School.

Congratulations to Dr. Snider for having created the Summit School. It will surely be an institution that serves the students who need it for many, many years to come.