Success Stories

We have really enjoyed working with you, Art Charles, and David Chojnacki. The value-add of your advice throughout the process, as well as your contacts within the international school world, have been incredible. We hope that you count on us as a reference going forward.

Lawrence's thoughtfulness, intelligence, and charisma are really something special. He is able to walk a very delicate line of being both approachable, kind, and forgiving, as well as challenging and thought provoking. With an intense topic like implicit bias, he was able to guide us forward into a series of discussions that may otherwise have felt overwhelming. Lawrence has a special talent as moderator, teacher, and soundboard. In addition, his deep understanding of the college admission process meant that our work together could launch right into the heart of our challenges. I would highly recommend Lawrence to any office.

Thanks go to Amanda Riegel of Carney, Sandoe & Associates. She did a wonderful job first of learning a great deal about our school and then seeking out the candidates who were the best fit for us. I have never met a consultant who works harder on behalf of a school.

I just wanted to send you a brief final note of gratitude. Conducting conversations and facilitating dialogue is what you do for a living but, for me as a witness, it takes on special significance. Your expertise, professionalism, and experience help different people (with different perspectives) find a common table around which all can gather and communicate. Thank you for your time, patience, and especially your dedication to the process. Your attention and professional acuity serve as life-giving sources to those of us who view this transition as not just important but urgent. We are grateful for your viewing STA not simply as another project but, as you said so well, an opportunity to find s/he who will best carry the Catholic mission forward.

Lawrence Alexander works beautifully with independent schools on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. His background as an independent school administrator, faculty member, and parent positions him uniquely to understand the most effective and lasting way to help schools bring about needed change. He believes it's important to start this work with the community you have rather than to wait for the community you would like to have. He draws on a wealth of resources as well as years of experience, and he brings his whole heart and mind to each community he helps. We have found him to be the perfect match for our DEI work at East Woods School.

I really enjoyed the process and couldn't be happier with the outcome. Needless to say, I thought you two and (CS&A in general) were outstanding in every respect.

Working with Bill Clarkson as an executive coach has been an enlightening experience for me. Although I was not an inexperienced head, I felt that I needed help to navigate my relationship with our board of trustees in a difficult context. My coaching sessions with Bill have helped me frame the questions and challenges I was facing and establish strategies to deal effectively and professionally with complicated situations. Bill has been a very effective coach because he is an excellent listener who knows to ask and make one ask oneself the right questions.

In addition, he has superb analytical skills and has the ability to walk one through problems, helping one separate the mundane from the important. Moreover, Bill has a long experience both as a school leader and as a coach that he is able to draw from, encouraging one to devise both tactical and strategic solutions to complex questions. In addition to coaching me with governance issues, Bill has also helped me with all the matters with which a head deals on a daily basis, favoring, there again, the development of long-term strategies to address issues.

Bill encouraged me to develop a strategic proactive mindset with every aspect of my job and his advice and coaching has been instrumental in my growth as a school leader. I recommend him with the utmost enthusiasm to any school leader who wants to hone his/her skills.

Bob Windham and Bill Christ did an excellent job for Trinity School of Midland last year in conducting the head of school search. They represented the School well, identified and helped recruit several strong candidates, and gave good advice to the Search Committee all throughout the process.

I want to take a moment to thank the three of you for your guidance, professionalism, insight, and constant vigilance as we undertook this most important undertaking. I think we had a series of good decisions in this process but the best one we had was the selection of Carney Sandoe as our search team. It got us off to a great start and an ultimately successful end! I learned a great deal through this process and I will always be grateful for the experience.

Carney Sandoe provided tremendous support to the Hockaday search. The breadth of the candidate pool, the connections within the independent school community, and the depth of the personal interviews with the candidates prior to meeting the search committee were all hallmarks. In particular, our consultants, Rayna and Aggie, were keenly aware of and sensitive to not only the requirements of the position but also the emotional needs of our school during our time of transition. They were accessible 24/7 and immediately responsive to all of our requests. The success of our search was due to their thorough process, their talented candidate pool, and their wise counsel along the way. I highly recommend CS&A for any independent school search.