Stephanie Balmer

Head of School
Harpeth Hall (Nashville, TN)

Stephanie Balmer was appointed Head of School at Harpeth Hall in July 2014. Prior to joining Harpeth Hall, Balmer served as vice president for enrollment, marketing and communications, and dean of admissions at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania since 2009.  In this role her responsibilities included the strategic enhancement of admissions, NCAA Division III athletics, financial aid, institutional research, and marketing and communications. Her leadership in developing integrated enrollment and marketing strategies resulted in record applications and enrollment with an increasingly more selective and improved student profile. Prior to joining Dickinson as the dean of admissions and financial aid in July 2008, she served as associate vice president for enrollment and dean of admission at Agnes Scott College in metropolitan Atlanta.

Balmer’s professional service includes the College Board’s National Guidance and Admissions Assembly Council (GAAC), and the National Council for Enrollment Policy and Planning. Previous appointments include the Board of Directors of The Common Application where she served as chair of the applications advisory and membership committees, and past president of the Southern Association for College Admission Counseling (SACAC). She is a frequent presenter at national and regional meetings of The College Board, the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) and the Council of International Schools (CIS), and lends her time presenting at secondary schools nationally and internationally on selective college admissions and the high school to college transition. She is frequently called upon to comment on media inquiries related to admissions selectivity, accessibility, affordability and higher education marketing. Balmer has also consulted with liberal arts colleges on enrollment management areas related to undergraduate admissions, marketing and financial aid strategy, student persistence and degree attainment, and serves as a trustee of Harrisburg Academy.

Ms. Balmer holds a certificate from the Institute for Educational Management (IEM) at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University, an MBA from the Stetson School of Business and Economics at Mercer University, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Murray State University.