School Leadership

Dr. Grace Cheng Dodge is the former Director of Admission at Wellesley College. Prior to joining Wellesley in 2015, she was an Associate Director of Admissions at Harvard, having first joined the Harvard Admissions Office in 2002. From 2009-2012, she took a professional leave from Harvard and spent three years here at Taipei American School as a college counselor and Director of College Counseling. She also taught geometry and essay writing during three summers of TAS Summer Academy. Grace returned to the TAS College Counseling office in 2018 before assuming the position of Deputy Head of School in the 2019-20 academic year. She became Interim Head of School in the fall of 2020 and was chosen as the fifteenth Head of School, starting July 2021.

While back in the US, Grace was nominated to be a US State Department/College Board Overseas Schools Program traveler to western Europe. In this capacity, she traveled to various international and American schools abroad, presenting to lower, middle, and upper school communities of US expatriate children and parents on developing the whole child and mastering the building blocks to being a successful student in an American school system.

Grace has been a presenter at the EARCOS Teachers' Conference on the subject of college application essay writing, and she has also presented at various National Association of College Admission Counseling conferences and national College Board Forums. She was Chair-Elect of the New England College Board Regional Council before relocating to Taiwan. 

Grace is a 1997 graduate of Harvard University with a cum laude degree in applied mathematics. She holds an MS in accounting, an MBA, and an EdD from Northeastern University. She is certified as a PreK-12 administrator by the District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education. Prior to entering the field of education, she was employed by PwC LLP and she remains a licensed CPA in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Born and raised in the US, she is fluent in Taiwanese. Almost seen on Season 4 of MasterChef USA, Grace enjoys cooking with her husband, TAS Director of Facilities, Mike Dodge. 

Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) Gale joined TAS after working in Shanghai, where she served as the Deputy Director of Schools for Shanghai Community International School (SCIS), and the Head of School for the SCIS-Pudong Campus. Within this role, Liz provided leadership, direction, and oversight surrounding the implementation of innovative, research-based, and data-driven practices across three campuses. Additionally, Liz led the systemwide WASC/IB synchronized re-accreditation self-study process, as well as the development of a five-year strategic action plan aimed at standardizing operational and curricular practices, increasing student achievement, and executing a systemic commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion across the organization. Prior to her current position, Liz served as the Lower School Principal for SCIS-Pudong. She also has experience as an Elementary Assistant Principal, Curriculum Coordinator, and Elementary and Middle School teacher.

As a leader in education, Liz strives for excellence, values diversity of thought, and is constantly looking for opportunities to build capacity and ensure the development of an inclusive and innovative learning community committed to making the world a better place. Liz is a member of the Advisory Board for Teacher Horizons and has presented at various conferences on women in leadership in education, as well as other topics primarily related to curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Liz received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her Ed.D from the University of Nottingham. Her dissertation focused on early numeracy acquisition and the factors contributing to differences in early number knowledge between Mandarin- and English-speaking students. Liz is currently pursuing a Certificate of Advanced Educational Leadership from Harvard University.

Larry Kraut joined TAS in 2017 with an MBA from Drexel University, an MA from Temple University and a BA from the University of Idaho.

Larry served as the Finance and Operations Director at the American School of Warsaw for seven years. Prior work experiences include three years as the Business Manager at Cairo American College in Cairo, Egypt, four years working as the Assistant Director of Finance and eight years as a classroom teacher in Grades 4 and 8 at Germantown Academy located near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

He is also an active volunteer who led the Business Manager Interest Group for the European Council of International Schools (ECIS) and supported the Council of International Schools (CIS), Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges (MSA), and New York State Association on Independent Schools (NYSAIS) with various school accreditation visits.

Dr. Kathy Limmer joined TAS in 2014 after serving as the Director of Development and External Affairs at The Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas. While there, she successfully managed Hockaday's communication, alumnae and development operations as well as the centennial celebration and US$100 million campaign. As an active member of the Hockaday community, she was an advisory leader, taught a lower school summer school class, coached soccer in the YMCA league, and supported multiple Hockaday Board committees.  She chaired the 2014 National Conference for the National Association of Independent Schools and Council for Advancement and Support for Education, has been recognized nine times as a stellar speaker by the CASE organization. She served the planning committee for the Council for Advancement and Support for Education Asia Pacific 20-21 Conference and is a judge  for the 2022 CASE awards program.  Kathy serves the Taipei Community Services Center as a member of their community council.

Prior to joining The Hockaday School, Kathy also served as the Associate Dean for Advancement for Humanities and Social Sciences at Texas Christian University and the Director of Development for The School of Social Work at Tulane University. She holds a CFRE certification, a BA from Texas Tech University, an MA from The George Washington University, and an EdD from the University of Southern California.

Prior to joining the leadership team, Amanda Jacob served as the Lower School Literacy Coordinator at Taipei American School. She has been a teacher and literacy coach for over twenty years in the US, Haiti, The Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Poland, and Taiwan.

Amanda Jacob stepped into the role of Lower School Literacy Coordinator seven years ago after having taught in Grades one, two, and five at TAS. In her role as Literacy Coordinator, Amanda works to ensure articulation of the Lower School's reading and writing programs, provides coaching for teachers, and plans professional development. She has led the Lower School language arts committee through the adoption of new curriculum standards, teaching materials, and assessment tools.

In addition to her work with homeroom teachers, Amanda worked closely with the Mandarin team to make sure that children have a similar literacy experience in English and Chinese. As a result of this work, Amanda established the Chinese Literacy Symposium with the Mandarin team; the only conference for Mandarin teachers devoted to using balanced-literacy components to teach Chinese. She has helped organize and present at the symposium for the last four years, bringing together language teachers from international schools in Asia and the United States for a weekend of learning about best literacy practices. 

While Amanda has focused on literacy at TAS, she has a bachelor's degree in mathematics and led K-12 math curriculum committees at the International School of Manila and the American School of Warsaw. 

She has presented at the annual Teachers College Reading and Writing Project's coaching institutes at Teachers College, Columbia University and has consulted at schools throughout the Asia region. 

Amanda appreciates everything that her family, Paul a KA teacher and her son Theo a student in the Upper School, has gained by being a part of the TAS community for the last 15 years. She is excited and honored to serve our community in this new role.

E-chieh Lin joins TAS from Seattle, WA, where she was the Director of Diversity and Community & Director of Hiring at University Prep, a 6th-12th grade independent school. In this role, E-chieh provided leadership for the school community to learn about and engage in various diversity, equity, and inclusion topics and experiences, and she oversaw the community service and service-learning programs. She helped develop UPrep’s diversity strategic plan and oversaw the successful implementation of it. E-chieh has been on two accreditation teams for the Northwest Association of Independent schools (NWAIS) and led a self-study committee for UPrep’s re-accreditation through NWAIS.

E-chieh’s passion for equity, inclusion, and social justice started from exploring her own identity as a BFA student at the University of Washington as well as learning about institutional and structural oppression through equity pedagogy while completing her master’s degree at Seattle University. Prior to her time at University Prep, E-chieh administered, grew, and taught for Cornell University’s Intergroup Dialogue Project - a series of social identity-centered college-level courses offered through the Education program in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The Intergroup Dialogue Project focused on recognizing individual, institutional, and structural privilege and oppression through the skills of dialogue by exploring identities, listening to understand, developing both empathy and allyship.

E-chieh has presented at the People of Color Conference (PoCC), the National Association of Independent Schools Annual Conference, and the Northwest Association of Independent Schools Educators’ Conference as well as conducted workshops for higher educational institutions and non-profit organizations.