Barbara Beachley is the Interim Head at Childpeace Montessori in Portland and was previously the Interim Head of School at Charleston Day School for the 2024-25 school year.
Prior, Barbara worked as a consultant with Independent School Management (ISM), a leading, world-wide consulting firm that specializes in supporting independent schools. During her 13-year tenure with ISM, Barbara began as a consultant, became Director of Research, and ultimately sat on ISM’s leadership team as Executive Director of Organizational Learning and Development. Her areas of expertise include academic leadership; employee culture, evaluation, and growth; organizational systems; and student-centered and brain-based pedagogy. Her areas of expertise include employee development and culture, organizational systems, academic leadership, faculty evaluation, student-centered and brain-based pedagogies, mission identity, survey design, and data analysis.

Before her tenure at ISM, Barbara served as an adult literacy teacher at Boston University, Massachusetts; an upper school modern language teacher at the MacDuffie School, Massachusetts; and a language teacher and lead advisor at Collegiate School, Virginia. She also served as Academic Dean at Cape Henry Collegiate School, Virginia, where she oversaw curriculum and professional growth in grades PreK−12.
Barbara earned her bachelor’s degree in French and Spanish from Trinity College in Connecticut and her master’s degree in applied linguistics from Boston University. She earned her second master’s degree in education administration from Harvard University and a third master’s degree in independent school leadership from the Klingenstein Center at Teachers College, Columbia University.