As Head of The Riviera Ridge School and a native Californian, Chris Broderick brings over 30 years of independent and private school experience to our community. She holds a BA in Psychology with a Minor in Women’s Leadership Studies from Mount St. Mary’s University in Los Angeles and an MS.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Scranton. She is also an alumna of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, where she graduated from the Conservatory Program in Musical Theater Performance. She went on to serve as the Director of Performing Arts at Turning Point School in Culver City, California, designing and implementing a new performing arts curriculum and after-school programming. In 2007, Chris served on the founding Middle School administrative team at Parish Episcopal School in Dallas, Texas. In her five years at Parish, Chris worked with more than 400 middle school students annually and served on the Diversity & Inclusion and Strategic Planning Steering Committees for the entire K-12 school. After completing the NAIS/EE Ford Fellowship for Aspiring Heads in 2011, Chris was appointed Head of School for Notre Dame de Sion Schools in Kansas City, Missouri, where she was honored to serve for six years.

 

In 2017, Chris celebrated a wonderful homecoming back to California when she was appointed Head of School at Marymount of Santa Barbara, now fondly known as The Riviera Ridge School. Beginning in 2018, She has proudly and collaboratively led the school through its most successful CAIS accreditation in 2019, the
development of the 2020 Strategic Plan, and most recently in 2021, the successful brand and re-naming
transition to The Riviera Ridge School. In 2019, Chris was selected and participated in the Klingenstein Center
Head of School Fellowship at Columbia University and is also a graduate of the Independent School Finance
Academy at the Kellogg Institute of Northwestern University. Chris will be celebrating 25 years of marriage to
John in 2024, is the proud mom of Jack (20) and Cassidy (17,) and is rather obsessed with her giant ball of
fluff, “Ellie the Belly”, her 2 ½-year-old Sheepadoodle!