Michelle O'Hara '93 Engages on All Levels

A Potomac alumna and former homeroom teacher, Michelle O'Hara '93 is now a Lower School librarian and currently serves as the Lower School's interim dean. Needless to say, Ms. O'Hara loves Potomac! Of her new administrative role, she says, “So far, I'm enjoying being the dean. Like so much of what we do in LS, I help lay the firm foundations. I love thinking about what we teach, how we teach it, and why. I work with the faculty to think about curriculum through the LS and into MS, and I am also responsible for helping build the community.”

When asked about the school's recent work to diversify perspectives in literature, Ms. O’Hara referenced Potomac’s DEI Guiding Principles, which state, “We learn from one another and firmly believe that our community is intellectually enriched and morally strengthened by the presence of many different voices and viewpoints.” She adds, “Ensuring that we have libraries that represent all kinds of kids, cultures, families, and perspectives is important, and I certainly don't do this work alone. The LS library, all our school libraries, and the children's publishing industry at large have been growing in this way for years, especially in the past decade or so. I prioritized this work when I became the LS Librarian six years ago. I focused on thoughtful purchasing of high-quality representative and own-voice literature, and it has been central to my work.” She adds, "It is important for every child to see someone like them as the hero of stories. It's also important for every child to see children who look, think, or are otherwise different from them as the heroes of stories. Everyone benefits when libraries, stories, and lives are diverse." 

If you have young students who come home with library books, you have experienced the joy we see every day when our students skip out of the library holding their chosen books full of diverse stories.