My name is Chase Eddington, and I am a writer and educator focused on the operational and educational vitality of nonprofit, independent schools. In fall of 2024, I will be entering my eleventh school year in education and my ninth in school administration. During this career, I have played a major role in developing the strategies for educational and organizational success that have led to continuous improvement at the primary, secondary, and higher education levels. These strategies have led, among other things, to improved curricular processes, streamlined budgets, and upgraded and expanded facilities.

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Most recently, in the Spring of 2023, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) appointed me to a three-year term on its Standing Committee on Global Citizenship, to promote policies that encourage global knowledge, awareness, and literacy. In the summer of 2023, additionally, I will be joining a two-week National Endowment for the Humanities Teaching Institute at Baylor University, titled Disputatio and the Pursuit of Wisdom in the Humanities. 

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My work as an educator has yielded results both in- and outside the classroom. As a development director, I have raised several million dollars in support of North Texas schools. Currently, I serve as the Director of Development, Communications, and Alumni Relations for the Selwyn School in Argyle, Texas, where I lead all of the school’s fundraising, annual giving, community relations, and communications. I worked with our school community to build a cohesive school culture around our mission, as well as a culture of philanthropy. Since 2018, this sixty-six-year-old institution has seen enrollment growth double while annual giving has more than doubled. Recent development successes at Selwyn include a $175,000 pledge for an on-site dyslexia therapist, a funded Upper School diversity scholarship, and back-to-back six-figure Giving Day fundraising totals. While at Selwyn, I also oversaw a dramatic expansion of the facilities footprint, including the construction of a new Early Childhood Education building, a new dining hall, and, currently, the beginning phases of a new gymnasium and performance space.

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During Selwyn's reaccreditation review through Cognia in 2019, I acted as the school's lead administrator through the process. I wrote the curriculum guide for and helped to launch a Fine Arts Academy at Selwyn, which began with one student and has grown to include one out of every four students in Selwyn's Upper School. I am Selwyn's Advanced Placement Coordinator, and, additionally, I teach Upper School World Literature (English II), Middle School Social & Emotional Learning, and have coached Lower- and Middle School coeducational basketball. Previously, I have worked as the Director of Research and Development and Student Ambassador Coordinator at Bishop Dunne Catholic School, a private school in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas, where I worked with admissions and development to increase the school’s brand awareness and annual giving. I also worked in development and communications for Texas A&M University-Commerce and in the English department at Midwestern State University. 

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On the page, my works have appeared in three books of poetry—A Prairie Song (Bowen Press, 2023), A Willow Grows Aslant a Brook (Bowen Press, 2020) and A Birdwatcher’s Guide to the American South (Flutter Press, 2017)—as well as in The Historian, The Hunter's Horn, The Journal of the American Studies Association of Texas, and elsewhere. For my professional contributions to education and the arts, Midwestern State University in 2021 named me Distinguished Alumnus of the Prothro-Yeager College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

 

When not working on professional or creative pursuits, I enjoy playing backgammon, reading, visiting botanical gardens, working in my sketchbook, and enjoying Dallas’ restaurant scene. If you're interested in connecting, then please get in touch via the social links above or through the contact information on my résumé below.