During the 2017-2018 school year, Head of School Chris Fortunato has continued to bring the Blair community together to discuss topics of national and global importance at Head of School and Alumni Roundtables. The events, which have been held in the Chiang Center for Innovation and Collaboration during the academic day and in the evening, have been well attended by students, teachers and staff members eager to engage in dialogue with expert speakers and one another on subjects that matter to them and to our society at large.

The focus of this year's Roundtables has ranged from human rights with Harvard professor Dr. Timothy Patrick McCarthy to bitcoin with Blair parent Allen Gibson P'20 '20 to careers in law and finance with Blair alumni William Cramer '64 and Matthew Maillet '06, respectively. The community also recently convened to discuss subjects that are part of the current national conversation on gun violence, school safety, mental health, and the advocacy and political power of students affected by these issues. (To read a statement from the heads of the six schools comprising the Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL) and Six Mid-Atlantic Boarding Schools (SMABS) calling for meaningful change to end gun violence, please click here.)

"It is important to come together as a community to ask questions, share our perspectives on a variety of topics, and remind our students that they are global citizens whose opinions matter," Mr. Fortunato said. "Such dialogue helps us to collectively consider how we experience and respond to the issues and national and international happenings of our time as students, teachers, staff members and, ultimately, human beings."