After a year of only two principals at the school, assistant principal Rachel Dowell has joined the administration, taking on the role as 9th and 10th grade principal and alleviating some of the burdens felt by head principal Joe Hughes and assistant principal Renee Cox last year. 

Crafty by nature, Dowell said she loves to paint and create Halloween projects with her family. 

“I’ve always been attracted to leadership and so in education, it just kind of made sense,” she said. 

Rachel Dowell said she loves working with both students and teachers. She is looking forward to getting to know the kids at Harding along with the staff. 

“I learned a lot in the classroom just about being a patient person, about being a calm person,” she said. 

After obtaining her master’s in Educational Administration at Oklahoma University, she has had persistent training in being a teacher and administrator for many other schools. 

“So, first off I was a teacher, and I made a lot of mistakes,” Dowell said. 

Dowell has faced challenges in the education department but that hasn’t stopped her. 

“People are expecting you to yell at them, especially administrators, but sometimes if you meet them with a deep breath, and you’re calm, it throws them off,” she said. 

Dowell was born in Oklahoma and later raised in California until she came back to Oklahoma for high school and college. She is married and has a 2-year-old son along with two dogs. She started her journey as a Latin teacher for 15 years, knowing some Harding kids through the Junior Classical League program. She wanted to move out of private schools and when she saw the job opportunity at Harding, she jumped on it.  

“Everything came together,” Dowell said. 

In the end, she hopes to be at Harding where the teachers and the students feel supported. 

“I’ve been in some really toxic environments professionally, and I just want to be happy,” Dowell said.