Dr. Betty Noel-Pierre ’99 is the new Head of School at Castilleja school in Palo Alto, California, where she brings her experience and passion for girls’ educational excellence. Previously Dr. Noel-Pierre served as the Head of Upper School at the Brearley School and held leadership roles at Saint Ann’s School and the Browning School and taught at Johns Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth. A proud Chapin alumna, Betty has been a dedicated volunteer, serving as Chapin’s Young Alumnae Trustee from 2014-2017 and returning to the Board as a Trustee in 2024. She has four children, including two daughters who attended Chapin; Juli ’28 and Gladys ’23. Dr. Noel-Pierre holds a B.A. in Biology from Brooklyn College and earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Stony Brook University. While attending Stony Brook University, Dr. Noel-Pierre was given a Distinguished Service Award for her contributions to their graduate teaching program. Over the course of her career in school leadership, she explored her passion for teaching and science by running a variety of science courses with a particular enthusiasm for biotechnology. Her career reflects a deep commitment to girls’ education, shaped by her own K-12 experience at Chapin.
*Published in the 2025 Alumnae Bulletin
Even as a young student at Chapin, Betty, now Dr. Noel-Pierre, loved science. She recounts a Lower School science class where they dissected a fish and remembers her excitement and fascination at the chance to see something so close, saying, “I was looking over [the fish] and thinking ‘this is so cool!’ I was in it.” This enthusiasm never waned for Betty as she notes, “In high school, by the time I got to ninth grade science, I remember we were talking about diseases and I thought, ‘this is incredible, why aren’t we sick all the time?’ It just put a spark [in me].”
From there she followed her passion to college, thinking at first that path meant medicine. “I thought that I was going to go off to college and do the pre-med route, [but] I realized that it's not treating people that I’m interested in — it’s the research. It’s the asking of questions and looking for answers that interests me.” Instead, Betty pursued a Ph.D. program to follow her passion for research. “I picked a path that would allow me to do very little teaching, I just wanted to be at the bench [researching].” It came as a surprise when, in her one semester of teaching pre-nursing students, she fell in love with the one part of her academic path she had tried to minimize. “I remember saying, oh my gosh, what am I going to do, I might love teaching more than research.”
Dr. Noel-Pierre did finish her Ph.D., but never again strayed away from her love of teaching, finding ways to continue developing her teaching expertise alongside her research. She did this so well that it garnered her a Distinguished Teaching Award from Stony Brook College for her contributions to the Ph.D. program. After completing her degree, she knew she wanted to be in the classroom with young students.
As her teaching career progressed, Dr. Noel-Pierre found herself following her curiosity down another path, just as she had with her academic journey. She began asking questions about how schools made decisions and why. It was at Browning where the opportunity arose to turn that curiosity into her next career move. “When I moved to Browning, I was given space to really participate in a lot of different ways as a faculty leader. I was on their diversity and equity committee and eventually became their first leader in the equity space. I got to focus on the quality of student life and on broader questions the school was grappling with. That really propelled me [to say] ‘ok, I love this, I love the big strategic thinking, I love the in the weeds thinking, now what area of school admin would be the right fit for me?’”
Not only did this ability to follow her curiosity lead Dr. Noel-Pierre to her next position, but it took her career in a whole new direction — professionally and now, physically. Her newest position, as Head of School at Castilleja school in Palo Alto, California, is taking her out of the city she has called home for the majority of her life. While she is sad to say farewell to New York, she’s excited for this next step and the challenges it presents. For Dr. Noel-Pierre, challenges and their questions are part of what makes her job intriguing and dynamic. At Castilleja, she looks forward to exploring how to keep education up to speed with constant real-world changes and, of course, she is excited to be a part of their flourishing STEM program.
When not inspiring young minds, Betty likes to spend time with her family and friends, exercising (weight lifting is a favorite!), getting her nails done, creating intentional moments of silence and squeezing in the occasional night of karaoke. Self care is important to Betty and something she tries to incorporate into the lives of her students. Dr. Noel-Pierre knows that her students rarely need someone to push them to work harder — they do that themselves. “When I think about the majority of the students I work with, they are driven. They don’t need me to say, ‘do more.’ So I think about stretching them the other way and saying, how much sleep did you get? Did you take a break? What did that look like? What are you reading for fun? What are you watching on Netflix? Asking them about balance.” She says, “I want them to be ambitious, and I want them to be able to follow their dreams the same way I followed mine, but I also want them to give themselves grace, so I try to model that balance for them.”
Betty credits Chapin as “a space to ask questions [knowing] that’s what you're supposed to do,” and is thankful for that foundation as it has served her well in her life after graduation. For Chapin alums considering similar career paths Betty’s message is simple: “Do it!” For Betty, this path has allowed her to continue sharing her love and knowledge of science while expanding on opportunities to guide young people to their fullest potential. She encourages anyone to follow where their natural skills and curiosity take them and to always to ask questions. She is incredibly excited to bring this energy with her and create an environment like that in her new role at Castilleja.