Building Connections: The Board's Role in Community Engagement

In this episode, Reveta Bowers, interim head of The Early Childhood Center in Los Angeles, shares her insights on how boards can engage and communicate with their communities around critical issues facing independent schools, as well as specific examples of effective board engagement opportunities from her own leadership experience. Reveta served as the Head of School of The Center for Early Education in Los Angeles for 40 years before retiring in 2016. Prior to her retirement, for fifteen consecutive summers, she was a Lead Faculty Member at the National Association of Independent Schools’ Institute for New Heads, where she taught more than 700 NAIS Heads of School. Upon her retirement from The Center, Reveta began coaching institutional leaders and consulting with for-profits organizations, colleges, school boards, and non-profits on issues of governance and governance best practices. She returned to The Center on July 1, 2020 as Interim Head of School while the school searches for its next leader.


Reveta has served and continues to serve on a number of boards. She was an outside director of The Walt Disney Company from 1993-2003. She has served as Board Chair of The California Association of Independent Schools, The Educational Records Bureau, and The California Community Foundation. She also served on the Klingenstein Center Advisory Board at Teachers College, the Board of Trustees of Teachers College, on the board of the Coalition for Justice, and as treasurer of The National Association of Independent Schools. She continues as Chair of the Board of Councilors of the Rossier Graduate School of Education at USC, and also on the boards of The Stepping Stones Fund, The Fedco Foundation, and The EE Ford Foundation. She attended the University of Southern California, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Humanities, earned a master’s degree in Developmental Psychology, as well as three life teaching credentials.