Meet Landis Green, Head of School

Whether he’s with a group of upper school students in Nepal or sharing a favorite poem with a new class of kindergarteners, Head of School Landis Green brings equal parts passion and focus to the task at hand.

“Over the course of their lives our students will be expected to learn new skills, synthesize information, and collaborate in increasingly diverse work teams,” says Landis. “Practicing all of that shouldn’t wait until college or after, when we already know how to help them develop related skills as early as kindergarten. Being ‘prepared for college’ means honing all of those skills now.”

It’s our responsibility to provide young people with the skills that will allow them to thrive when facing the unknown or unfamiliar.- Landis Green, Head of School

For Landis, it’s not simply a philosophical discussion. He is a deliberate role model for both students and colleagues. Raised in rural Pennsylvania, Landis moved west to join Wildwood in 2007, after 16 years working in independent and public schools back east. California’s future-focused culture, combined with Wildwood’s progressive approach, proved to be a perfect fit.

“For me, Southern California represents society’s strength in the coming together of differing cultures and a willingness to innovate. Generally speaking–and this is specific to the culture at Wildwood and those of us who are drawn to the school–people aren’t stuck. They see change as growth,” he says.

The first member of his extended family to attend college, Landis worked through college and holds a bachelor’s degree from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. He earned his master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Landis began his career as a middle school teacher in southeastern Pennsylvania, in a small, rural, public school district similar to the one he’d attended K-12. He served as head of school for a public-private partnership school in Maine. Prior to that Landis worked at Wilmington Friends School in Delaware for 10 years.

Wilmington Friends School’s Quaker philosophy, which places a premium on respect for individuals, left a deep impression on Landis. 

“Thanks in large part because of the time at WFS, I’m better able to see situations from multiple perspectives and I recognize that structuring a collaborative process usually leads to a more nuanced and better outcome,” he says. 

His commitment to collaboration and perspective aligns precisely with Wildwood’s Habits of Mind and Heart and Life Skills. Landis incorporates these values in his work every day, and expects Wildwood students and colleagues to do the same.

“If the last century taught us nothing else, it is that the call for the future is inclusion, not just tolerance–of differing beliefs, backgrounds, and perspectives,” Landis says. “Young people from every background must see in their teachers and the content with which they engage a reflection of themselves and of others, both as affirmation of who they are and as exposure to—and respect for—those from whom they are different.”