Meet the Head of Lower School

“For the sake of a single child, I would have founded the Society.” These frequently-cited words of St. Sophie Barat resonate deeply for Dr. Jessica McGibbon and inform her own approach to the education of children. She strongly believes in child programming that inspires and invites wonder. Before joining Sacred Heart Greenwich in 2020 as the Head of the Lower School, Dr. McGibbon taught and developed programming for eight years for a learning cooperative in Pelham, NY, in which her own children were students. This period of working with children of all ages introduced her to the richness and joys of an interdisciplinary and mixed-age classroom.

One of six children of two college professors, Dr. Jessica Vitz McGibbon grew up in New York City, in Greenwich Village. After receiving her primary education at a local parochial school, she was then educated at Loyola High School in NYU and at Georgetown University, from which she graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She  received her doctorate from Princeton University in Comparative Literatures and taught English and Comparative Literature classes at Barnard College and New York University.

She and her husband, Jim, have eight children between the ages of twenty-one and five. Three of her daughters attend Sacred Heart Greenwich. 

Dr. McGibbon is deeply committed to Catholic education. Watch the videos below to better get to know Dr. McGibbon and her role as the Head of Lower School.