Leadership Bios

Donnette Echols, Ph.D., serves as the head of the Lower School at Potomac. She knew she wanted to be an educator since she was five years old, pretending to teach her siblings and teddy bears. After college, she moved from her hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, and began her teaching career as a middle school mathematics teacher. She found her love of early childhood while in graduate school at the University of Maryland. Shortly after completing her doctoral studies, she became the founding head of school for the Reid Temple Christian Academy, a preschool to grade 8 parochial school where she served for 18 years. She and her husband, Mark, have five children and seven grandchildren. Their youngest son, Donovan, is a rising senior at Potomac.