Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Mancini Family Establishes Faculty Diversity Fund

In 2020, Country School grandparent and parent of alumni Bob Mancini reached out to NCCS to express his family’s interest in supporting the school’s commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI).
The family has a deep legacy of support here at Country School. They established a separate endowed fund to support the school’s sports program several years ago. In conversations with Head of School Aaron Cooper, Bob shared the family’s intent to shift the scope and focus of the fund - and add additional funds - to directly support Country School’s dedication to being a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community, with the goal of becoming a leader among independent schools.

Bob and his daughter Meaghan Mancini ’03, an educator and Country School parent - and a longstanding advocate for DEI work in schools - partnered together with Kojo Clarke, NCCS Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Ryan Smith, Director of Advancement, to discuss the school’s needs, and to explore some meaningful opportunities to support Country School’s DEI efforts. These conversations ultimately led to the formation of the Faculty Diversity Fund, which will exist as a permanent part of the school’s endowment. The formal description for the fund can be found below:

Led by the efforts of Bob and Beth Mancini P’01, ’03, ’07, GP’30 and Meaghan Mancini ’03, P’30, with support from Matthew Mancini ’01 and Julia Mancini Kuebler ’07,  the Mancini family established this fund to provide funding for the recruitment, hiring, retention, and development of faculty of color at New Canaan Country School.

The Faculty Diversity Fund was borne out of a shared observance and understanding that we have a real opportunity and responsibility as a school community to help create a sense of belonging for marginalized groups. This fund will directly support Country School’s recruitment of employees of color, with a focus on black employees, with emphasis placed on hiring teachers. 

We are enormously grateful to the Mancini family for establishing this critically important fund, and for thoughtfully and generously partnering with Country School in support of our DEI efforts. 

Together, we are eager to work together with others in our school community to grow this fund. If you are interested in supporting the Faculty Diversity Fund or learning more about it, please contact Ryan Smith, Director of Advancement, at rsmith@countryschool.net or (203) 801-5633.
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New Canaan Country School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin and are afforded all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry, or disability in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, financial aid policies or any other school-administered programs.