About Us

Brief Bio and Educational Journey

Dr. Andy Hamilton grew up in Western Massachusetts and has worked with children his entire life. While at Hobart College, he traveled to Europe with a friend to explore cities and historical sites in England, France, Holland, Denmark, Scandinavia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and Greece before he began teaching fifth grade history and coaching sports in Louisville, Kentucky, when he also began his Masters in Education at Wesleyan University. Two years later he was back in Western Mass, continuing his graduate work at UMASS Amherst.

In Northampton, he started a business with his college roommate, which he later took to Vermont allowing him to teach and coach part time while also building custom homes and condominiums. After building his own home in southern Vermont while teaching and coaching at the Bement School in Deerfield, Massachusetts, he was offered an opportunity to be a founding member of Desert Academy, an independent school located in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Wearing many hats including Middle School Director, Curriculum Coordinator, Athletic Director, carpenter, bus driver and more, he and a handful of dedicated educators and parents built a successful school from the ground up establishing Desert Academy.

After Desert Academy, Andy worked at Santa Fe Preparatory School as a high school teacher. coach, and faculty representative to the board before eventually accepting a teaching and coaching position in Cairo, Egypt.

While in Cairo at The American International School in Egypt, he taught multiple levels of history and geography, including Egyptian history and IB Geography, coached soccer, and led the Model UN program for students. These two years in Egypt allowed him to learn some Arabic and to explore through field trips, tournaments, conferences, and personal exploration much of Egypt, as well as Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Oman, Thailand, South Africa, Swaziland, and more.

Following Egypt, he returned to his home town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, where he and his wife worked and lived with students as dorm parents as they began a family of their own. During their stay in Deerfield, Andy was the Dean of Residential Life for the campus, elementary PE teacher, and coach of multiple sports. He was also able to resume his graduate work in Educational Leadership and School Improvement, finishing his Masters and completing his Doctorate in Education.

From Deerfield, the family moved to Ojai, California, when Andy was offered a position as Assistant Headmaster at the Ojai Valley School. He served as Assistant Head for two years before being named Headmaster of the K-8 Lower School in 2007. The school, being rooted in outdoor education, allowed Andy to experience the California wilderness as he joined the students on adventures backpacking, mountain biking, surfing, horseback riding, skiing, snorkeling and sailing on tall ships to the Channel Islands.

In an effort to work their way back to the east coast, Andy was then hired as the Lower School Director at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, Florida where he stayed for four years, managing the 420 student PK-5 division and serving on administrative teams and on the board of the Florida Kindergarten Council. With the construction of the Seivold Early Child Center underway, Andy was then offered a one year position in Massachusetts as the Lower School Director at Cape Cod Academy.

At Cape Cod Academy he was able to lead a smaller group of students and teachers through some enrollment and leadership challenges for the year before setting out on his own to create Hamilton EduChange Services and increase his work with local students and families in 2017.

In his first year establishing Hamilton EduChange, Andy was offered an interim sixth grade teaching and advising position in New Bedford to fill in for a teacher who left unexpectedly. While teaching social studies and English at Alma del Mar K-8 Public Charter School, he was able to work with students many of whom spoke English as a second language and came from struggling socio-economic situations. This added to his awareness and understanding of charter schools.

In 2018, Andy was hired by the Plymouth Public Schools in a part time role to pilot an elementary school Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) program to to meet the growing needs of teachers as the number of students displaying challenging behavior in the classrooms and hallways continues to increase. He continues to work with educators and students utilizing strategies for SEL coping strategies in Falmouth and working independently with students and families.