Mrs Mary Seah joins SOTA with effect from 17 December 2018. As Principal of Tanjong Katong Girls’ School (TKGS) since December 2011, she has led the school to achieve the School Distinction Award in 2014, oversaw the rebuilding of the Dunman Lane campus in 2017-2018. With TKGS, she has delved into a number of creative projects within and beyond the school. Her professional interests include how educators are able to find coherence between their professional and personal identities, and how students learn through both formal and informal curricula. With her experience as a school leader, she has shared extensively at cluster and national platforms, and initiated a number of professional networks focused on school and curriculum leadership.

Mrs Seah began her teaching career at Raffles Junior College where she taught in the A Level Music Elective Programme and was later appointed the Head of Arts Department. Subsequently, she served as the Vice-Principal of Millennia Institute and Assistant Director, Standards and Research Branch at the Academy of Singapore Teachers.

Beyond education, Mrs Seah was on an attachment to the Permanent Mission to the United Nations, New York, where she served as a Singapore delegate at the 63rd United Nations General Assembly. Upon coming back, she joined the Leaders in Education Programme, a principal preparation course at the National Institute of Education, where she became the valedictorian of her class and winner of the Lee Kuan Yew Leaders in Education Programme Award.

A Music graduate from King’s College, University of London on a Public Service Commission scholarship, Mary is a passionate advocate for the arts, particularly in how it might be a language for young people to explore and process complex social issues. At SOTA, she hopes to work alongside the faculties in integrating the arts and the academic domains, as well as developing cultural leadership in its students.