Dear Providence Community,
I am incredibly excited about what the Lord is doing at Providence School.
For the past 29 years, God has faithfully poured His blessings upon our school, and now, as we celebrate our 30th year, we continue to see His provision in remarkable ways. It is with tremendous enthusiasm that I announce the addition of Mr. David Welling as Providence School’s Associate Head of School. This newly established position represents another important step forward for Providence. Mr. Welling will join our already strong administrative team and will provide leadership and support in areas including academics, student discipline, arts programming, and other key initiatives across the school. His addition gives us an opportunity not simply to maintain the excellence that exists at Providence, but to strengthen and enhance the work God has entrusted to us.
Mr. Welling brings more than 26 years of educational leadership experience and an extraordinary depth of knowledge to Providence. For the past nine years, he served as Head of School at Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, leading a school community of approximately 1,600 students. Prior to coming to Jacksonville, he served as Head of School at George Washington Academy in Casablanca, Morocco, a trilingual AP and IB school serving nearly 1,000 students from more than 40 nationalities. Earlier in his career, he spent 14 years at Pacific Bay Christian School in Northern California, developing leaders, strengthening academic programs, coaching faculty, and building community.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and a master’s degree in School Administration and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership. He is also a Certified Professional-level Head of School through ACSI and has completed governance training through the European Council of International Schools.
As impressive as his experience is, what excites me most about David joining Providence is who he is.
David is Kingdom-minded. He loves God, loves people, and loves Christian education. He believes deeply in developing students both intellectually and spiritually and understands that forming intelligent, virtuous, servant-hearted young men and women is important Kingdom work. His convictions align beautifully with our mission to prepare students to be boldly Christian and unquestionably academic servant leaders who change the world.
I have also had the privilege of knowing David professionally for the past nine years. During that time, I have come to know him as a trusted colleague, an outstanding educator, and a thoughtful and principled leader. His leadership style is collaborative and steady. He listens well, develops people, builds strong teams, and approaches challenges with wisdom and humility.
David is not coming to Providence to change what makes Providence special. He is joining us because he believes in what God is already doing here and wants to help us build upon that foundation. He brings additional experience, perspective, leadership capacity, and energy to an administrative team that is already deeply committed to serving our students and families.
I am also tremendously grateful to our School Board for recognizing this unique opportunity and having the vision to add someone of David’s experience and character to the Providence leadership team. Adding exceptional people makes strong organizations even stronger, and I believe David’s presence will allow us to continue improving the ways we serve our students, support our faculty, strengthen our programs, and fulfill our mission. David and his wife are the parents of four grown children and grandparents to three grandchildren. He enjoys reading, kayaking, traveling, riding motorcycles, and watching international rugby. Most importantly, he is eager to become part of the Providence community and begin building relationships with our students, faculty, staff, and families.
There is so much to be excited about as we enter Providence’s 30th year. We honor what God has done, we are grateful for where He has brought us, and we look forward with great hope and anticipation to what He will do next.
The addition of David Welling is another reason I believe Providence’s best days are still ahead of us. Please join me in enthusiastically welcoming David and his family to the Providence family. When you see him on campus, take a moment to introduce yourself and welcome him to the Stallion community.
Go Stallions!
Tim M. Anderson, Ph.D.
Head of School
Providence School of Jacksonville
