Dr. William Matsuzaki will be Columbus Academy’s assistant head of school for academic affairs starting in July 2026, announced Head of School Melissa Soderberg today.
“What first stood out to the search committee about Will was his incredibly impressive resume of serving as upper school head and director of the Tad Bird Honors College at All Saints’ Episcopal School in Fort Worth, Texas,” stated Melissa in her announcement to the Academy community. “During his eight years at All Saints’, he also has taught Japanese and modern world history and served as dean of curriculum for all grades (early childhood through grade 12). In addition, Will has been middle school head at Harford Day School in Bel Air, Maryland, as well as department chair, tennis coach, cross country coach and director of exchange programs at St. Paul’s School for Boys in Baltimore.”
Will grew up in East Los Angeles, graduated from James A. Garfield High School (the school featured in the movie “Stand and Deliver”), majored in Japanese and East Asian Studies at Carleton College in Minnesota and earned his master’s and doctorate degrees at Johns Hopkins University.
The school received over 70 applicants for this position nationally and internationally while guided by RG175, a search firm that specializes in educational leadership. In that pool were three sitting heads of school, multiple assistant heads seeking a lateral move to a stronger school and an abundance of very qualified candidates.
Will’s position on the school’s leadership team is being vacated by Dan Olexio, who will return to full-time teaching in our Upper School.
“I want to take a moment in our excitement about Will to thank Dan for his service to the school as the assistant head for 11 years,” expressed Melissa. “Dan was not seeking an administrative role, as he had a complete career of that work in the Army as a lieutenant colonel and loved being a full-time teacher. Still, he took on an ambitious plan of developing a robust professional development curriculum, establishing an effective evaluation system, creating a Super Curriculum Committee of department chairs and departmental representatives from each division and – all the while – adding some fun in the process.”
In his return to the classroom, Dan will be taking on our economics courses from the retiring John Exline ’64, as Dan taught economics as a professor at West Point, his alma mater.