About Chris Gunnin

Chris Gunnin became head of school at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in 2016. Since that time, he has led a team of more than 200 faculty and staff dedicated to fulfilling the school’s mission and living its core values. Gunnin also is responsible for overseeing execution of the school’s strategic plan, Spark 2023. During the second year of his tenure at St. Stephen’s, Gunnin spearheaded the collaborative, year-long process that produced Spark 2023. More than 1,000 members of the school community representing every constituency participated in the visioning exercise that defined the school’s five-year roadmap to reach new levels of excellence across all areas of campus and student life.

 

Before joining St. Stephen’s, Gunnin served from 2009 to 2016 as head of upper school at Trinity Valley School in Fort Worth, Texas. In addition to leading Trinity Valley’s upper school faculty, staff, department chairs and administrators, he chaired searches for key leadership personnel, including heads of Human Resources, the Experiential Education Program and the Middle School. He also directed the Committee of Learning and Instruction, forged a partnership with Virtual High School to provide students with online learning experiences and taught 11^th grade English.

 

From 1997 to 2009, Gunnin served in a variety of faculty and leadership roles at St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas. These included Upper School English teacher, advisor and track coach, as well as head of Upper School. In addition, as director of the Life Skills Program, he coordinated student and parent programs related to human health and wellness for students in grades 1-12. 

 

Gunnin today serves in leadership positions on several boards and committees. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Independent School Association of the Southwest (ISAS), where he is also chair of ISAS Programs and chair and co-chair of ISAS Accreditation teams. In addition, Gunnin serves on the Board of Directors and on the Standards Committee for the Southwestern Association of Episcopal Schools (SAES). He also serves on the Southwest Preparatory Conference (SPC) Operations Committee and is co-chair of the Task Force on Healthy Relationships for the Episcopal Diocese of Texas.

 

After receiving his B.A. in English from Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas) in 1994, Gunnin went on to earn his M.A. in teaching from Trinity in 1995. While at Trinity, he was a member of KAPPA DELTA PI, the Education Honors Society. Gunnin is the recipient of the 1998 Rising Star Teaching Award given by the University of Texas Ex-Students’ Association, and the 2000 Murrell Excellence in Teaching Award given by the St. Mark’s School of Texas.