This summer students, staff and friends said farewell to a founding member of the Episcopal School of Knoxville. Mrs. Lois Ross is retiring after 23 years of service as the best guidance counselor anyone could ask for. However, her journey to ESK began years before the school was even built. In 1996, a small group of parishioners from St. John’s Cathedral downtown decided that Knoxville families needed an Episcopal school option. Among those parishioners was Lois Ross, wife to John Ross, Dean of the Cathedral, and daughter to Gene Haas, long-time priest at St. Andrew’s in Maryville. Lois came to the conversation steeped in a lifetime of Anglican theology and tradition, but more importantly, she brought years of being a school guidance counselor to the table of planners and dreamers. The Episcopal School of Knoxville became a reality and opened its doors in 1998. Lois joined the faculty in 2000 and immediately began developing a proactive guidance and counseling program that defined the cultural values that continue to shape the school today. Current Head of School, Dr. Jack Talmadge, credits Mrs. Ross for creating “a school where students can feel safe and comfortable to discover who they are, to take risks, to speak out, to be loving, to be inclusive, to be the very best they can be” and praises her scientific, academic, data-driven methods that support the pedagogy delivered by ESK educators. She established dozens of long-standing ESK programs and traditions including Kindness Week, Banana-Splits, TRIBES training, Second Step, expert speaker series, book discussions, and more. About their working relationship, Dr. Talmadge says, “She is firm when we need to be firm, funny and witty when we need comic relief, calm and steady when things get chaotic, honest-bluntly honest- at times, when things need to be heard, and hands down, one of the best listeners I have ever encountered.” Her 23 years serving as ESK’s guidance counselor have prepared our faculty to help meet the needs of its students, especially in our current times, when the mental health crisis is at an all-time high. In appreciation and recognition of her dedication, professionalism and patience resolving thousands of meltdowns - children and grownups, alike - a new guidance room will be created in the ESK Lower School - “The Lois Ross Counseling Center”.