As Flintridge Sacred Heart starts a new year, so does Mrs. Marlena Conroy. Mrs. Conroy joins FSHA as its new president, taking the place of beloved Sr. Caroline.

Conroy was born and raised in San Diego and has Canadian and Nicaraguan heritage. She loves to spend time with her husband and dog Charlie hiking and also enjoys scuba diving with family. Growing up, Mrs. Conroy attended a Catholic middle school. Since that time, her relationship with God and education has been growing.

“I was able to attend a Catholic elementary school so it was my first foundation in getting to know God. It wasn’t until later in life that I started diving into that relationship with God based on life experiences and so that was a blessing for me. Since then I have been a Catholic educator.” said Conroy.

Through the course of her career, Mrs. Conroy has worked as a middle school and high school teacher, dean of admissions and assistant principal. For the past three years she’s been the principal at Cathedral High School. It was her time at an all-girls school named Our Lady of Peace, however, that stuck to her and in a way led to her arrival at FSHA.

“Prior to becoming a principal at Cathedral Catholic I was an assistant principal at Our Lady of Peace in San Diego and that is where my heart was first exposed to the concept of an all-girls education. The fact I get to go back to that is extremely exciting for me,” said Mrs. Conroy.

“It was that exposure back to an all-girls school that I have definitely missed. There is something very unique and special about an all-girls education and something that is very necessary to have an all-girls education,” said Conroy.

Not only was the all-girls environment at FSHA attractive to Mrs. Conroy, but also the Dominican values and the emphasis on sisterhood.

“When I was looking for a position up in the LA area, Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy was the only school I applied to. I dove deep into who you are as a school community. I fell in love with the Dominican charism. When I met the sisters in the interview process I fell in love with them and the fact that I would work for them,” said Conroy.

Mrs. Conroy will be the first president in FSHA’s 93 year history who is not a Dominican sister. As every Tolog knows, the Dominican sisters embody what FSHA is all about.

“What I love is that the convent is there, you have the sisters in residence that’ll remain there. I will be coming up… to have dinner with the sisters in residence and my goal is that [it becomes] a tradition we continue, to have dinner together because I need to know their heart, their history, I need to know the depth and charism that they hold to be true…I was invited by Sr. Celeste to the mother-house and I will be going up there in the fall,” said Conroy.

“Everything about the sisters and their care for this transition has been beautiful. I feel that they are celebrating me and wanting me to be successful just as much as I am celebrating them and want their legacy to continue. We already care so deeply for each other, and so my job is to make sure that this legacy and charism of the Dominican sisters continues on for the next hundred years.” said Conroy.

Mrs. Conroy not only plans to uphold Dominican values but also the traditions and events that are important to students.

“I want to get together with the students, residential students, day students, and hear what is important to you. What is significant in your mind that is so rooted in who you are as a school that I make sure that I dive deep to make sure that continues,” said Conroy.

As Mrs. Conroy embarks on her journey on the Hill, she wants to uphold what matters most to the community.

“I want to know from you what areas of growth [you] see from a student’s perspective, from a teacher’s perspective, from a counselor’s perspective, and from parents perspective. There are so many different entities of who you are as a school community so I really want to work on my relationships with everybody, that’s the first thing I want to do,” said Conroy.

While recognizing that Dominican values and the perspective of faculty and staff are important, Mrs. Conroy understands that at the end of the day, as the saying goes, it’s all about the girls.

“I am all about celebrating student life… because you are the reason we exist. Without our students we are nothing,” said Mrs. Conroy.