Dr. Natalie Holter, Middle School Principal

Dr. Natalie Holter is a Central Florida native who has been working in education for the last 20 years. She joined The First Academy in 2011 as the 12th-grade English and AP Literature teacher. In this role, she inaugurated the Senior Thesis project, the capstone graduation project that asks students to find the intersection between God and seemingly secular topics. As a certified SAT/ACT expert, she also launched a number of test preparation initiatives to help students improve their scores. She was recognized as “Christian Teacher of the Year” in 2014.

In 2018 she transitioned to the Middle School, first as its Academic Dean and later as its Principal. In this capacity, she directs the daily operations of the division. Her primary focus is ensuring a strong academic foundation and healthy emotional/social development in order to lay the best groundwork possible for student success in high school. She also coordinates the Learning ie program, focused on providing accommodations for students with learning differences. Her passion is building supportive relationships with her students and mentoring faculty to be the best teachers they can be.

Dr. Holter earned her Bachelor of Arts in History from Yale University, her Master of Liberal Studies in Humanities from Rollins College, and her Doctorate in Education with a focus on Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Central Florida. She was also blessed to attend Oxford University for one summer on a scholarship she won to pursue a more in-depth study of English literature. She is the proud mom of two TFA students, one of whom has attended since Kindergarten and the other since pre-Kindergarten.