Three years ago, Peter Gilmore moved from Baltimore, Md. to Shelburne to become the Head of Vermont Commons School (VCS). Peter said that he feels his career path has been a meaningful hike on a great trail leading up to this moment. Shelburne News thought readers might like to learn more about the man and the path that led him here.

Family: Peter was born and raised in Plymouth Mass. His father was a radiologist and his mother was busy at home raising seven loud and gregarious children. The middle child of seven, he has three sisters and three brothers.

Peter's wife Cynthia is an educational consultant and the couple has two children: daughter, Eliza, a junior at Middlebury College; son Nate, a graduate of Tufts, and a family dog named Joey.

Education and Career: After elementary and high school in Plymouth, Peter went to college at Holy Cross in Worcester. He loved the study of ancient civilizations and graduated with a degree in history. He taught high school for two years and then went to Harvard and received a master's degree in educational administration.

Following that, Peter taught in several private schools and concurrently was an administrator. "I've always had to include some teaching whenever I was in administration. I find that it's a wonderful relief to come back from administration and to teach every day."

After graduating from Harvard, Peter worked at a school in Connecticut for children with language-based learning differences. He said, "It taught me so much about what is important in education - to teach and to tailor instruction to the way children learn."

Next, they moved to Maine where Peter became an administrator at Berwick Academy (BA), an independent prep school. He spent eight years at BA where he learned a lot about running a school efficiently and empathetically.

Then the family moved to Baltimore when Peter had an opportunity to work at a Quaker School where his children would attend. Peter found Quaker principles and independent school values fit together well.

Peter concluded, "There was a meaningful arc in my career path: At the first school I learned from children with learning differences; at the second school I learned to be an effective and empathetic school administrator; and at the Quaker school I learned about engaging students with the world in caring ways. Now I'm at VCS - a school with high standards, dedicated to meeting individual needs, and to bringing students out of classrooms to engage with the world in meaningful ways. It's where I'm meant to be."

Hobbies: Nordic skiing, hiking, biking, dog walking; travel to historic places; fixing  things - electronic or mechanical -  cars, computers, and schools

Favorite books: history - anything by David McCullough

Favorite food: Good bread! My wife's cooking

Favorite place: Italy - it has it all: food, history, climate

Bucket list: Travel to historic places: "I want to visit Turkey, revisit England and Scotland, see the Danube and the Eastern Block, China, India, Patagonia..."