Bloomfield Hills’ Cranbrook Educational Community has announced that the current director of Cranbrook Schools, Aimeclaire Roche will assume the role of president of Cranbrook Educational Community, effective July 1, 2021.
Roche will succeed Dominic DiMarco, who has served as president of Cranbrook Educational Community since 2012. DiMarco will stay on through June 30, 2021 to assist Roche with the transition.
“The COVID-19 pandemic brought many unexpected challenges to our campus, and it also revealed the exceptional leadership skills of our staff, particularly Aimeclaire Roche,” says DiMarco. “Aimeclaire showed incredible pragmatism while transitioning to an online curriculum and was able to bring out the best in her staff to quickly adapt to our changing needs. As we move into an uncertain climate over the next several years, it became clear that Aimeclaire will be able to use her knowledge of Cranbrook and her decades of experience as a leader to protect all of our programs and help them grow. She will be an exceptional president of Cranbrook Educational Community.”
As president of Cranbrook Educational Community, Roche will oversee Cranbrook Schools, the Cranbrook Academy of Art, the Cranbrook Art Museum, the Cranbrook Institute of Science, the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, and Cranbrook House and Gardens.
“I am honored and humbled to take on the new role of president, continuing to lend my hand to the work of Cranbrook, an institution that values the inherently collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of all inquiry and all creative processes,” Roche says.
Roche began her position as director of Cranbrook Schools in August 2018. She was previously head of The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, Calif. She also served as president of the board of directors at the California Association of Independent Schools and as vice chair of the board of trustees for School Year Abroad.
Roche is currently a field instructor for master’s degree candidates in the leadership academy program at Columbia University’s Klingenstein Center. She has presented nationally at the National Association of Episcopal Schools and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. She holds a Master of Arts from Columbia University and an applied baccalaureate from Harvard University. She graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy.
“As we began the search for a new president of Cranbrook Educational Community, our search committee worked diligently to find someone who could lead Cranbrook with the same drive and passion as Dom,” says Mark Reuss, chair of the Cranbrook Educational Community board of trustees. “They identified several outstanding candidates, but we now realize that Aimeclaire had the voice and vision that Cranbrook needs at this time. In a short amount of time, she has earned the trust and support of the entire Cranbrook Schools staff, and we look forward to her using her exceptional leadership skills to unify the rest of the community. We are incredibly lucky to have a leader like this on our team who is poised and ready to build upon Cranbrook’s legacy.”
Cranbrook Educational Community has begun searching for a new director of Cranbrook Schools to succeed the outgoing Roche.
Cranbrook Educational Community was founded in 1904. The community receives more than 300,000 people every year.
