It is with great pleasure that The Heads Network Board of Trustees has named Ann V. Klotz, Head of Laurel School in Shaker Heights, OH, as the recipient of the 2025 Beverly H. Sgro Award. The Sgro Award is given annually by the Board to an individual who has supported and advocated for the advancement of women in leadership of independent schools.

Ann began her tenure as Laurel’s tenth Head of School in 2004, a position from which she will retire in July of this year after 21 years of dedicated service. At Laurel, she typically teaches English in the Upper School and drama in the Primary. Particularly interested in the public purpose of private school, she is proud that the NorthStar Collaborative, the Environmental Justice Semester and Laurel’s Center for Research on Girls, all founded at Laurel, were established to put the School’s resources to use on behalf of girls at Laurel and beyond.

A graduate of an all girls’ school, Ann has worked in girls’ schools as a teacher and administrator for more than forty years and is devoted to the social and emotional development of girls. She is equally committed to supporting women in leadership in independent schools. Professionally, she serves on the boards of The Heads Network, The 1911 Group, The Agnes Irwin School, and One Schoolhouse. She was a member of the teaching faculty for NAIS’ Aspiring Heads program and led THN’s Women’s Leadership Seminar for many years, inspiring and encouraging legions of women to have the courage to take the next step in their careers, always with the encouragement to “leap, and the net will appear.”