Jamie Chan will replace Mike Bird as an upper school dean beginning next school year, Head of Upper School Audrius Barzdukas announced in an email May 9 sent to students and parents of the current dean.

Chan is coming to Harvard-Westlake from Emory University, where she is an Assistant Dean in the Office of Undergraduate Admission. Chan will visit May 30 to meet her students.

“[Chan] truly knows of how elite colleges and universities identify candidates for admission,” Barzdukas wrote in the email. “She developed and executed Emory’s strategic student recruitment plan for leading high schools in California.”

Chan was the admissions officer responsible for the Los Angeles area and has been visiting and reading Harvard-Westlake students’ applications, while getting to know the area, for the past three years.

“Ms. Chan believes in learning as a way of life, that it is worthwhile to pursue happiness and balance in school, and that it is possible to do well by doing good,” Barzdukas wrote in the email. “Ms. Chan aspires to help her students grow in mind, body and spirit.”

Barzdukas also said in the email that Bird has agreed to work part-time next school year in coordination with Chan to help seniors with their college application process. She will mostly work with her students and Chan from Maine via the internet.