A private, all-girls high school in Jamaica Estates will soon see a change in leadership.
Ann O’Hagan-Cordes, who has served as assistant principal for the past eight years, has been named the new principal of the Mary Louis Academy. She will assume the position at the start of the next academic year.
In a statement emailed to community members in February, Sister Kathleen McKinney announced that she would be leaving her post at the high school after 21 years.
“I leave with the happiest of memories and the deepest gratitude for the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people,” McKinney said. “I have every confidence in the bright and successful future of TMLA.”
The school’s board of trustees launched a search for the next principal shortly thereafter and assured the community the outgoing principal “is in good health and ready to take on other challenges” in a follow-up email.
O’Hagan-Cordes has spent her entire professional life ministering at the Mary Louis Academy and other Sisters of St. Joseph’s schools and is an alumna of the Jamaica Estates high school. She earned her bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University and a master’s degree in education from Fordham University.
Located at Wexford Terrace and Edgerton Boulevard, the Mary Louis Academy was founded in 1936 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood. The Catholic college preparatory school for young women is rooted in the mission of “unity, reconciliation and all-inclusive love.”
Sister Helen Kearney, president of the Sisters of St. Joseph, said the congregation and the board of trustees “have great confidence that Ann, along with the dedicated faculty and staff, will lead TMLA into a vibrant future.”
“Ann’s personal experience with TMLA as a student, a teacher and as administrator makes her uniquely suited to her new role as principal,” Kearney said.
