Trish Cox, the new Dean of Students, has joined The MacDuffie School for the 2018-2019 year. Cox has various tasks to do every day here at The MacDuffie School. These tasks include conducting conversations with students about behavior, working on attendance, planning for assemblies, and planning activities for class meetings.

Cox also was given the major task of making changes to the Student Handbook (with the help of other faculty members) for the new year. Cox believes that the changes she has made to the Student Handbook address main concerns and important elements of the school and that they will help clarify other small details as well.

“What I want to do to help MacDuffie is just to make sure that students are having a good experience, that they’re learning, that they’re safe, and that they feel important,” Cox said. In addition, Cox likes to see her students progress through life and move on to become better and more successful people in the future.

Cox likes to read, walk, go on hikes with her husband, and watch lots of sports such as tennis and soccer. In addition, Cox enjoys visiting her family. She explains, “I like visiting my family and watching [sports] and getting to hang out with my nieces. That’s really fun too.”

Cox was born and raised in Connecticut. She moved to Maryland and lived there for 27 years before finally moving to Granby, MA. She attended two colleges in Maryland several years apart. After she graduated, Cox got her first job as a Dean of Students 24 years ago. With this, she had the responsibility of dealing with the discipline system of the school. However, Cox has had a variety of other roles in schools, such as an athletics director and a full-time teacher. Despite this, Cox has been a Dean of Students for 17 years now and has received recognition for it. For example, Cox has received recognition from her old school’s headmaster because of the 5 years of work she dedicated to the school.