About the Head of School
“Princeton Friends has the kind of institutional DNA that makes students feel safe and quickly brings out the best in them. That culture speaks volumes to me.” So explains Craig N. Sellers about his excitement at serving as the school’s head until 2025.
Craig is an experienced teacher, administrator, fundraiser, and leader. A graduate of the Lawrenceville School, he holds a B.A in English and government from Franklin & Marshall College; a J.D. from New York Law School, where he was an articles editor for the Human Rights Law Review; and an M.A. in educational administration from the Klingenstein Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College.
Craig began his education career at New York’s Friends Seminary, where he was director of development and taught U.S. history and constitutional law. He went on to head United Friends School, an N-8 Quaker school in Bucks County, PA, 2000-2007, during which he received a Fulbright Administrative Exchange Scholarship to Thailand to study their approach to K-12 education.
Next Craig was head at the Derryfield School in Manchester, NH, for five years, before returning to the Philadelphia area to lead Friends Central School in Wynnewood, PA, serving more than 800 students (K-12) on two campuses.
Now Craig is writing a new chapter by serving as an interim head, most recently at Idyllwild Arts Academy in Idyllwild, CA. “I found interim head work to be as satisfying as it was engaging,” he says, “and realized that applying my experience as a committed member of the community to help a school that captured my heart was really moving.”
At two of the schools where Craig was head, he had the good fortune to follow interim heads, who had “done work that made wonderful gifts to their school communities.” Now, with his own experience as an interim, Craig is uniquely qualified to lead PFS for two years and “build a graceful and sturdy bridge so my successor can be wildly successful.”
Along with his wife of 30 years, Cary, with whom he raised their two adult children, Bridgman and Clare, Craig is enthusiastic about being part of the PFS community. As a member of the Society of Friends and former board member of Friends Council on Education, he understands that “the benefits of a Quaker education are time-released. This gift that parents provide their children, and teachers bring to their students, is best measured over the course of a lifetime. I believe our graduates will make the world a more peaceful place, where it would be unthinkable not to serve others and reflect on the values they learned during their time at 470 Quaker Road.”