Steven Solnick has spent over three decades in the higher education, independent school, and philanthropic sectors. In both leadership and board roles, he has extensive experience in strategic planning, academic administration, fundraising, enrollment strategy, financial oversight, campus master planning, communications, and crisis management. Throughout his career, his roots as a teacher have grounded and informed his service to a wide range of organizations and communities.

Prior to joining Storbeck Search | Diversified Search Group, Steve served for seven years as Head of School at The Calhoun School in Manhattan, one of New York’s leading progressive schools for students from preschool through high school. Among other achievements, he led Calhoun’s response to the pandemic, oversaw development of the school’s Anti-Racist Action Plan, and conceived and executed a merger with a nearby Montessori school.  Before Calhoun, Steve served for five years as President of Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC – the only national liberal arts college that fully integrates work and community engagement into its curriculum.

From 2002-2012, Steve was the Ford Foundation’s regional director in Moscow and then New Delhi, overseeing all operations and grant making in areas as diverse as human rights, education, poverty alleviation, public health, and the arts. In that role, Steve supported and partnered with hundreds of nongovernmental organizations and international agencies working throughout Russia and South Asia. Prior to joining the Foundation, he taught Russian and post-Soviet politics as a member of the Columbia University political science faculty.

In addition to his teaching and administrative roles, Steve has extensive board experience. He served as board chair for the American Embassy School in New Delhi, a leading independent K-12 school with over 1,400 students from 57 different nations. He has also served as a Trustee of Barnard College in New York, where he was a member of the Executive Committee through two periods of presidential transition.

Education

PhD, Political Science
Harvard University

BA, Politics and Economics
Worcester College, Oxford University

SB, Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology