Ashley Reagan Dunster is not afraid to start things.
After all, the new principal at Holy Angels School in Arcadia began her new role mere months after getting married, beginning newlywed life as stepmom to three young boys, as well as moving to Glendora with a household that includes four dogs.
“I’m a big proponent that things happen for a reason, that there’s a bigger reason for things to happen,” Dunster said.
Her faith that all things work together for good has led the 40-year-old, a convert to Catholicism, to embrace her work.
Holy Angels School, with its 223 students from 165 families, and a staff of 25, is surrounded by high-performing schools, both public and private. So why would a family choose this Catholic school for their children?
It all boils down to something Dunster said we can’t sell: the strength of connection.
“Life is tough and Catholic schools are communities of faith you can’t get anywhere else,” she said. “You can’t sell that. You have to experience it, how everyone supports each other in a way I don’t think you can get it in a school without a faith component to it.”
Her own faith journey began at birth. Dunster is the youngest grandchild of President Ronald Reagan, born while he was in office, but raised far from Washington, D.C.
She and her brother Cameron, children of President Reagan’s eldest son Michael, were born and raised in Sherman Oaks.
Dunster attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, then earned her bachelor’s degree in liberal studies from California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.
A short spell in the corporate world pushed her to pursue a master’s degree in education and a multi-subject teaching credential from Pepperdine University in Malibu.
Dunster jokes that “I’ve hit every religion” in her schooling, from attending a Presbyterian, then Baptist nursery and grade schools through to the Catholic Loyola Marymount University, where she earned her…
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