Marla Schay, MEd, CAGS

Marla Schay served as Head of Guidance for the Weston Middle and High Schools for a decade, building on her previous years as a school counselor. In the role of Guidance and Counseling department head, she was an integral member of the leadership team and was involved in numerous initiatives including late start time, moving to an unweighted-only GPA, advisories, and rethinking the secondary schedule, as well as building the master schedule. Prior to a career shift to education, Marla was an involved parent volunteer in the Canton Public Schools, serving on the educational support board, founder of a nonprofit to support music in the schools, and coach of student enrichment teams. With a proven history of building strong personal relationships, balancing the needs of multiple constituents, and creative problem-solving, Marla is dedicated to student wellbeing, parent/guardian engagement, and administrative collaboration.

Marla came to school counseling after a successful career as a graphic/information designer and design strategy consultant in which she spent years working with corporate and non-profit marketing and customer service teams to cooperatively define problems, analyze needs, create solution approaches and implement plans. Her work included corporate identities, publication design, financial statement redesign, wayfinding maps, and more. She found that the communications and problem-solving skills that she honed in her professional career were invaluable in the school setting.

A graduate of Yale University as a Design major, Marla earned her M.Ed in School Counseling at Suffolk University, her CAGS in School Adjustment Counseling at Boston University, and her M.Ed in Organizational Leadership from the Educational Leadership Institute (ELI) in collaboration with Endicott College.