Assistant Head of School
Georgetown University, BS
University of Maryland School of Law, JD
Johns Hopkins University, MA
email: rommel.loria[at]sonomaacademy.org
Over the past fourteen years working in independent schools, Rommel has had significant responsibility for advancing school programs, both in classrooms and through project-based learning well outside of them. He has spent the past four years as a Division Head at Sacramento Country Day School, where he has developed and supported a dedicated faculty, significantly increased staffulty diversity, and cultivated an inclusive culture for all faculty and students. Rommel has also led school-wide inclusion work as the leader of IDEA (Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity Alliance), where he has facilitated DEI training and implemented the NAIS Assessment of Inclusion and Multiculturalism (AIMS) to better understand their community and advance DEI efforts at his school.
Prior to his role as a Division Head, Rommel served as the Director of Civic Engagement and Service Learning at the Park School of Baltimore, one of the country’s leading progressive schools. As the leader of this dynamic program at Park, Rommel worked with colleagues to create new curricular programs focused on supporting students in their growth as citizens; cultivated relationships with community partners; advanced impact experiences for high school students that ranged from providing legal representation to immigrant youth to building community green spaces in the city’s vacant lots; and served as a high school advisor, Asian-American affinity group leader, and member of the Park Board’s DEI Committee.
Rommel has also been a steady advocate for this important work though conferences, publications, and partnerships and he is an active voice on topics near-and-dear to the SA community, ranging from a recent presentation on “Charter Schools and Community Engagement: Building Lasting and Meaningful Partnerships” to presenting at the NAIS People of Color Conference (POCC) on “How Might We Support High School Students of Asian Descent : A Design Thinking Approach.” He has participated on accreditation teams with the Association of Independent Maryland and D.C. Schools and the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), and he currently serves on the Board and Executive Committee of Opening Doors, a Sacramento-based non-profit that serves refugees, immigrants, and human trafficking survivors.
Rommel earned a BS in Business Administration, with a major in Finance and a minor in English, from Georgetown University. Rommel was also a Klingenstein Fellow at the Teachers College at Columbia University, and he earned a MA in Liberal Studies from Johns Hopkins University. He also holds a JD from the University of Maryland, where he was Associate Editor of the Maryland Law Review.
Prior to his first teaching position, Rommel was a practicing attorney in civil litigation with Brown & Sheehan in Baltimore, where he also worked pro bono as an attorney serving youth and families at the Esperanza Center for Immigration Legal Services. Upon graduation from Georgetown, Rommel worked for AmeriCorps as a residential counselor at Boys Hope Girls Hope of Illinois.