Head of School (retired) , Lincoln School , Providence, Rhode Island
Nominee: Steve Curwood
Joan Countryman retired in June 2005 after twelve years as Head of Lincoln School in Providence, Rhode Island, a Quaker school for girls in grades kindergarten through twelve with co-educational infant and pre-school programs. Previously, she served as Assistant Head for Academic Planning and Director of Studies at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia where she taught mathematics from 1970 to 1993. She has also lectured at the University of Pennsylvania and served as a consultant to the School District of Philadelphia. Her publications include Writing to Learn Mathematics (1992), “Is Gender an Issue in Math?” in Math and Science for Girls (1993), and Black Images in American Literature(1977).
Ms. Countryman is a member of the Board of Managers of Haverford College, the Board of Trustees of Sarah Lawrence College, the Board of the Providence Journal Company, the Board of Trustees of Women and Infants Hospital, the Advisory Council of the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, and the Board of Trustees of the Paul Cuffee School, a non-profit, public charter school. She has served on the boards of the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, the National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls, and the National Association of Independent Schools.
Ms Countryman grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was the first African-American graduate of Germantown Friends School. She received her B. A. from Sarah Lawrence College, a Master’s from Yale University, and studied at the London School of Economics as a Fulbright Scholar. She and her husband, Edward Jakmauh, an architect and Principal with Ballinger Associates, live in Providence and Philadelphia. They have two children and four grandchildren.
