Head of School Search Update
Dear UHS Community,
After an expansive and deliberate search, we are thrilled to share that the Board of Trustees and the Head of School Search Committee have unanimously selected Max Delgado as our next Head of School. Max will begin his tenure as our 12th Head of School on July 1, 2026.
Max comes to UHS with 23 years of experience in adolescent education, school administration, and leadership. He has served independent schools in a variety of capacities, including as Upper School (grades 9-12) Principal, most recently at Colorado Academy, Upper School Principal and Dean of Students at St. Paul Academy, Executive Director of Breakthrough Minneapolis, Grade Dean at The Blake School, and in early administrative and teaching experience at The College Preparatory School.
Max is an insightful, warm, charismatic leader who mirrors our values of inquiry, care, integrity, agency, and interconnection. We were struck by Max’s intellectual depth, strong emotional intelligence, commitment to cultural competence, and focus on student well-being. These qualities, combined with his demonstrated success in advancing academically rigorous institutions, make Max an ideal fit for our community. Max’s view that students are best served in settings with a balanced focus on academic rigor, social-emotional support, and cultural competence resonated with our desire for a student-centered, forward-thinking leader. Together, we expect to build upon UHS’s legacy—empowering the spirited pursuits of our students while further establishing UHS as a model for transformative education.
Our search process was broad, patient, and collaborative. We cannot thank our community enough for your dedication and support throughout this process. The spirit of our school is rooted in the diverse voices that define our community, and we were fortunate to have robust participation to help inform this search. We thank our Search Committee for thoughtfully supporting us through this process, ensuring that it was comprehensive and anchored in our school’s values. We also thank our Faculty Staff Advisory Committee for their efforts in the screening of candidates. Additionally, we are grateful for the many alumni whose feedback helped anchor the search in the historic values of UHS.
We remain deeply grateful for Nasif Iskander’s leadership throughout our interim period, including during the upcoming 2025-2026 school year. His dedication and care have thoughtfully well-positioned UHS for its exciting next chapter.
We are excited for Max and his teenage daughter, Ana, to connect with you during their visits next academic year and we will share more about those opportunities soon. Please join us in warmly welcoming Max Delgado to San Francisco University High School!
Sincerely,
Holly Hagens P’24, P’21
Board Chair
Kimberly Fullerton ’81, P’27
Nehal Raj P’ 26, ’27
Head of School Search Committee Co-Chairs, Trustees
headsearch@sfuhs.org
Dear Families, Colleagues, Students, and Alumni,
I have long admired UHS and am thrilled to be joining the community in 2026.
During my visit to campus last month, I was repeatedly met with bright, eager students, teacher-scholars passionate about knowledge, staff and administrators devoted to their craft, and a nurturing, joyful, high-spirited culture. I discovered what you already know: UHS has a bone-deep commitment to shaping the lives and passions of the young people who will make our world a better place.
During my campus tour, I found a small display—one of those classic high school hallway trophy cases, but this one housed an arresting collection of miniature devil novelties. I'm sure many of you know it or know the story behind it. The display was so creative and eclectic that I had to stop and take a photo. To my outsider eyes, it looked like an art project curated with love and
crafted by multiple hands over many years. While a University High School Red Devil pennant anchored the installation, the surrounding items—masks, keychains, earrings, ornaments, even a teddy bear with horns—clearly hadn’t been created with UHS in mind. Yet bringing these individual pieces together on campus gave them a new, collective identity, expressing to those who happen by that this is a place where individual expression harmonizes into a collective voice. How rare and wonderful.
There are exciting days ahead for UHS. And the timing couldn't be better.
Next fall, UHS celebrates fifty years, a watershed moment that has inspired students and faculty to think in broad, expansive ways. While all schools contemplate the future, nearly everyone I met at UHS—teachers, administrators, staff, students, and parents—imagined the next fifty years. People wondered what new stories UHS could write, what new voices it could discover, and how these elements might contribute to the world of ideas, scholarship, and practice. Dreaming in such a broad arc is uncommon—it requires balancing the "now" while planning generationally, and serving today's students while staying true to those still to come. Already, with the California Street Campus expansion, UHS is thinking in these terms and stands at an exciting intersection of evolution and tradition.
Having served as a leader in independent schools for 23 years, I understand the delicate balance that periods of growth require. During times of change, a school's essential culture can be refined when it truly knows itself and what it stands for. More than any other school I've had the honor to visit, UHS possesses this self-knowledge. The creative spirit I witnessed—unique elements woven into a cohesive whole—precisely reflects the values that will guide UHS on the path ahead. The good work UHS has been known for since its founding provides the ideal launching point for the next fifty years to come.
Early in my career, I served as the Executive Director of Breakthrough Minneapolis—a program that originated from UHS’s Breakthrough Summerbridge, which established the standard for public-private partnerships at independent schools nationwide. This program encapsulates a vital aspect of UHS's mission: to “empower purpose larger than self.” The opportunity to serve the very school that pioneered this innovation—one whose model I have both lived and learned under—is an incredible privilege and the honor of my career.
It is for these and many other reasons that I am overjoyed to be joining you as your next Head of School.
My best,
Max Delgado