MARYETTA ANSCHUTZ, C’97
Los Angeles, California
The Rev. Maryetta M. Anschutz is the founder of the Episcopal School of Los Angeles (ESLA). Incorporated in 2009, the school began with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) after-school and summer programs. In August 2011, 28 students matriculated into a middle school (sixth–eighth grade) program in a rented facility in Hollywood. Today, there are more than 250 students (350 by 2020). The school owns a $25 million campus in the heart of Hollywood and manages a $20 million endowment with an annual budget of $7 million. ESLA is unlike any other school of its kind in that 30 percent of the student body lives at or below the poverty line and receives full scholarship, 40 percent of the population receives a sliding scale of tuition assistance, and finally 30 percent are full-pay students. Each year, the school provides over $4 million in scholarships and aid, which is supported through the annual fund. Today, the school selects students from a richly diverse and talented population representing 28 zip codes across greater Los Angeles.
In California, Anschutz served on the staff of All Saints’ Church in Beverly Hills and sat on the Diocesan Commission on Schools. Before moving to California, she was the associate dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, where Anschutz launched the Educational Leadership Project designed to recruit, train, and place graduate students in secondary schools as teachers, chaplains, and administrators. The program was designed to refocus Yale graduates and secondary schools on the opportunities for service within an academic community, as well as to expose young people to opportunities for service in their communities of faith, the nation, and the world. Before working at Yale, Anschutz served as a parish priest and school chaplain at Christ and Holy Trinity Church, Westport, Connecticut.
Anschutz has been an ordained priest for 17 years and has worked in both schools and parishes. Prior to being ordained, Anschutz worked for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a political/military think tank in Washington, D.C. Additionally, Anschutz served on the board of Children’s Mission of New Haven and the Madeira School. She is a published writer, is active in policy work advocating for the rights of children, and continues to preach in parishes around the city of Los Angeles and nationwide. She was an American studies major at Sewanee, and also is a graduate of the Madeira School and Yale University. At Sewanee, she played field hockey, was a proctor, and a member of PKE sorority. As an alum, she has served as an Alumni Arcadian (admission volunteer), a Sewanee Fund class volunteer, a Sewanee Club host, and a Beyond the Gates keynote speaker (Sewanee Career Readiness volunteer). She has also hired several Sewanee graduates at ESLA.
Anschutz is a sailor, a painter, and spends a great deal of time with her two poorly behaved dogs, Huck and Finn.
