Peter Thorp

Peter was the founding principal of Gateway and served as its executive director until 2007. Peter then became chief of staff, and for six months the interim chief executive officer, of the California Charter Schools Association. In 2010 he moved to Rwanda to be the founding head of school at Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology, a boarding school for 270 A-level students. Prior to becoming Gateway's principal in 1998, Peter was the headmaster of Cate School in Santa Barbara, and he taught history for 18 years at Fountain Valley School in Colorado Springs. Peter graduated from Williams College with a degree in art history, has a M.Ed. from Boston State College, and has done advanced study at the University of Colorado and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Peter is the father of two daughters--Amy who was with him in Rwanda for two years as the university counselor and now lives in Boston, and Elyssa who lives in San Francisco with her husband and son (making Peter a very proud grandpa!). He is the volunteer college counselor at Mandela International Magnet School and a search consultant for Wickenden/DRG, an firm that finds heads of school for independent and charter schools. Peter lives in Santa Fe NM with his wife Brigitte Uwantege and his stepdaughter Keza.