Inverness Associates is led by Paul Chapman who brings to his consulting a wealth of experience about education and how to develop good schools. His perspective has been shaped by a long career in education in which he served for over 25 years as Head of the Head-Royce School, a K-12 school in Oakland, CA. Previously he was Assistant Head and Academic Dean at San Francisco University High School and Associate Director of Admissions at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.  

Since launching Inverness Associates in 2010, he has consulted widely on a host of issues, especially environmental education and sustainability and how to “grow greener schools.” During that time, he has published two books, Greening America’s Schools and Greening America’s Schools 2.0: (NAIS), conducted extensive survey research to map green schools in the Bay Area, California, and the nation, and published a series of reports titled Environmental Education and Sustainability.  He has visited over 100 public and private schools, colleges and universities to study their environmental education and sustainability programs and has presented more than 50 talks on green schools at National Association of Independent Schools and California Association of Independent Schools conferences, school association meetings, and school sites.  He was appointed as a member of the Blueprint for Environmental Literacy Task Force by California Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2014-15 and chairs the private school selection committee for the Green Ribbon Schools program in California. He was a Visiting Scholar in the schools of education at UC Berkeley and Stanford in 2010-12.

He currently serves on several boards, including Yale Blue Green, Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Chabot Space and Science Center, UC Berkeley Library, and the Ten Strands advisory board. And he heads the Campaign to Save Anna Head School (annaheadschool.org).  He has served previously on the boards of The National Association of Independent Schools, the California Association of Independent Schools, Prospect Sierra School, The Hamlin School, San Francisco Day School, San Francisco Friends School, Marin Country Day School, and the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, among others.

Raised near Chicago, Paul attended Hinsdale High School and graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. in history from Yale and an M.A. in American history and a Ph.D. in the history of education from Stanford. His book Schools as Sorters: Lewis M. Terman, Applied Psychology, and the Intelligence Testing Movement, 1890-1930 (NYU Press, 1988) continues to provide valuable historical perspective about assessment issues today.  Active in the professional education community, he is a member of the Heads Collegiate Forum and the Heads and Principals Association.  Paul and his wife Helen have three children, and he enjoys reading, fishing, traveling and seeing his grandchildren.