Head of School
Jan Pullen is the Head of Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School in Bradenton, Florida. She was appointed to this position in 2003 after having worked in other administrative positions at the school since 1988. Earlier in her career, Mrs. Pullen was the Parent Resource Program Coordinator at Manatee Community College and taught in the Hillsborough County (FL) school system.
Mrs. Pullen holds degrees from Florida State University (BS) and National Louis University (M.Ed.), and she is a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 2007 and 2009, Mrs. Pullen was invited by the College Board/Hanban’s Chinese Bridge Program to visit China. Through this program, Saint Stephen’s participated in the Chinese Guest Teacher Program which enabled the school to bring the first Mandarin teacher from China to Manatee County (FL). The program has been very successful for the past three years, and students in grades K-4th and 7th/8th study Mandarin five days a week. Also, students in the Middle School Skype frequently with our sister schools in Guilin and Harbin.
Mrs. Pullen is a member of the Board of Directors of Global Outreach, a non-profit organization working to introduce cultural exchange, language development and computer literacy into the curriculum of secondary schools in central Tanzania. In 2009, she visited the Lugalo School, Saint Stephen’s sister school in Tanzania, to strengthen the relationship between the two schools. For a number of years prior to her visit, Saint Stephen’s donated supplies and technological assistance and sent teachers during the summer to the Lugalo School. Students in all grades at Saint Stephen’s take part in weekly lessons with the Lugalo School through Skype.
Mrs. Pullen is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Florida Council of Independent Schools and the Chair of its Professional Development Committee. Additionally, she has presented workshops at the national level for the National Association of Independent Schools, the National Association of Episcopal Schools and the National Council for Teachers of English.
