Dana Markham, President, Pine Crest School

May 2026 — In an interview with Invest:, Dana Markham, president of Pine Crest School, offered a compelling vision for what K-12 education must become in an era of rapid technological change and global competition. “Culture trumps everything,” Markham said, describing a school built equally on high academic expectations, entrepreneurial thinking, and the conviction that every interaction shapes a child’s future.

How would you describe the current landscape for private and independent education in South Florida?

At Pine Crest, we are very much entrenched in monitoring trends in education and industry and doing the research to understand what’s happening not only in Florida, but globally. What we’ve experienced is that interest in our school remains significant. There are a lot of people moving to South Florida, particularly toward the northern end of Broward County, but we serve families across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. The demand is high, and we remain selective because we want the right fit. We want to serve the mission of our school and stay true to that, and we want families who share that philosophy.

How is K-12 education changing as students prepare for a workforce shaped by technology and global competition?

The honest answer is we’re preparing students for jobs and careers that don’t yet exist. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report, one quarter of all jobs are projected to change by 2027 — and 69 million new roles are expected to be created through AI and technology shifts, while 83 million existing roles will be displaced or require retraining. So we can’t prepare students for a specific job. What we can do is prepare them to be adaptable.

This fluency requires mastery over both the mechanics of algorithms and the full, real-world consequences of their deployment.It means having the narrative intelligence to evaluate information critically and discern: is this real, is it founded in data, and how do I apply it to the problem I’m actually trying to solve? It means being a powerful writer because there is not a single field where that skill doesn’t matter. And it means resilience, understanding that you may not solve the problem on the first try, but you get back up, apply the lesson, and keep moving forward.

We stay true to our core curriculum. But we also ask: how do we morph and build onto it? We often say we’ve got to get students comfortable with being uncomfortable. 

We also significantly expanded our global reach because our students are going to be competing and collaborating with people from all over the world. To that end, we established a partnership with the London School of Economics (LSE) that has been transformative. Our entrepreneurship students traveled to Tokyo to study longevity with LSE Generate. That research, which started here at Pine Crest, has since expanded to the United Kingdom, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, and the Philippines.

How is AI influencing the way Pine Crest approaches teaching and learning?

We believe AI education starts with our youngest learners. Young children are naturally native to devices. They just go with it, in ways adults are often more hesitant to do. So we’ve built the curriculum from pre-kindergarten all the way through, integrating both entrepreneurship and AI.

We teach coding, but the more important piece is depth. What are the consequences of what you’re building? When you design something, what is the ripple effect? We also use AI as a companion in the classroom, not as a shortcut to answers, but as a tool to enrich learning. Virtual reality is a powerful example. Being placed in ancient Greece brings a story to life in a way no textbook can. But with all of this comes an essential ethical component. AI can be manipulated, with images altered and sources fabricated. Our students need to know how to use it responsibly and how to judge whether what they’re looking at is credible.

How are expectations from students and families evolving beyond academics?

Culture trumps everything. One thing I believe deeply is that every conversation has an impact, not just in the classroom, but in the hallway, at a game, in a passing moment. At Pine Crest, everyone — from our facilities department to our safety and security staff — has ownership in raising these children.

Part of my job is to take care of our faculty and staff so they have the energy to pour into our students. If we invest in our faculty’s health and wellness, they come back and give 10 times more. We’ve also arranged a wellness partnership with a local health and longevity organization, and Pine Crest was the first organization to establish a partnership like this for its faculty and staff.

We support our students through life’s hardest moments as well. We have a peer support group for students who have lost a parent — upper school students partnering with younger students going through the same experience. Each spring, they hold a lantern lighting ceremony together to honor their parents. It takes courage to create that kind of space, but that vulnerability is part of what makes this community what it is.

We’re not here to compete with other private or public schools. We’re all raising children together. In Florida, there are many avenues for many different kinds of families. One size does not fit all. Find what matches your family’s philosophy, and we’ll support that.

How are partnerships with universities and global institutions enhancing student opportunities?

Beyond LSE, we have a partnership with Vanderbilt University through their Dialogue Vanderbilt program. We launched it last September with a two-day summit on Vanderbilt’s campus, bringing together 10 to 12 independent schools from across the country with their administrators, students, and faculty. The focus is dialogue, not debate — how do you sit across from someone whose views differ entirely from yours, hear them out, and then go have lunch together afterward? Given what we’ve seen on college campuses in recent years, we felt this was essential preparation for our juniors and seniors heading into higher education.

We also partner with Pioneer Research and the Polsky Center at the University of Chicago, and we partner with the University of Delaware Horn Entrepreneurship Program for high-quality competitions. Beyond our students, Pine Crest neXt is our professional development platform for educators from around the world, offering training in AI, teaching strategies, entrepreneurship, and leadership development. Our 12th Annual Innovation Institute in April brings educators to Fort Lauderdale from across the country because educating educators is one of the most meaningful things we can do beyond our own four walls.

What is your vision for Pine Crest over the next few years?

Everything goes back to our children. The question we always return to is what do our students need?

I want to build a team that understands it’s okay not to have all the answers, and that you don’t have to get it right the first time. What matters is that you model adaptability, look to the horizon, and develop those emerging leadership skills. Knowing when to step up, what you bring to the table, and then when to step back and let someone else lead because they have a skill set you don’t. That’s collaboration, and it’s one of the most important things we can teach.

If our students leave Pine Crest knowing what they do best, when to lead and when to follow, how to work with people from across the world, and how to keep moving forward no matter what, then I think they’ll be able to solve any problem. Wherever they land, they’ll be fine.