ABOUT US
Head of School Julianne Puente

Julianne Puente grew up in Yonkers, New York, and is the granddaughter of musician Tito Puente. She shares with him a love of music, playing both the drums and guitar. She is also an athlete who has coached school teams throughout her career in education. She cherishes afternoons at a field, gym, pool, track, or court, watching her students compete, and appreciates the power that team sports can have in shaping ethical and courageous young people as well as developing deep friendships.

Julianne graduated from the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, and credits much of her success as an educator to her relationships with the faculty at Hackley. At Cornell University, she received her bachelor of science degree from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, before returning to Hackley, where her former teachers enthusiastically welcomed her. She remained at Hackley School for 14 years in a variety of roles: kindergarten intern, history teacher, associate director of admissions, college counselor, dean, coach, and, finally, director of middle school student life. While working at Hackley, Julianne earned her master’s degree in American Studies from Columbia University.

In 2009, she was recruited by a colleague to work at a new school in Madaba-Manja, Jordan, known as the King’s Academy. Unintimidated by a challenge and a dramatic change of culture and eager for a new opportunity, Julianne took the position as deputy headmaster and dean of students at King’s. From writing handbooks and developing curriculum to establishing a shared culture among students from dramatically different backgrounds, she helped create a world-class school in the desert that serves children of royalty alongside those receiving financial assistance.

Impact on Albuquerque Academy

Julianne took on the role of head of school at Albuquerque Academy in July 2020 and immediately set to work on adapting the Academy educational experience to fit the requirements of COVID-19 restrictions. For the 2020-21 school year, the Academy switched from a quarter/semester system to trimesters, and students took just two classes per semester, limiting contacts when school was in person and reducing the chaos of a busy schedule when classes were online. She also immediately began creating optional, in-person extracurricular offerings.

In the years since, she has brought about a number of initiatives that will help the Academy embrace the future of education.

• Introduced new daily schedule (classes meet every other day – more time for projects, labs, deep discussion; better-paced homework)
• Changed graduation requirements to provide more flexibility so students have the ability to dive deeply into their passions
• Has overseen the creation of dozens of new course options
• With the Board of Trustees, school leadership, and input from all community members, created a strategic plan to take the school into 2025
• Is a member of a group of leaders from independent secondary schools across the U.S. developing a written framework to help secondary schools support academic inquiry, expression, and viewpoint diversity in light of rising levels of partisan rancor and national polarization (read more)