Alderdice, Corey

The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees appointed Corey Alderdice as Director of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in 2012.  He is now the school’s longest-serving Director. Since joining ASMSA’s community of learning, he has worked to bring national prestige to the school while developing new programs that underscore the unique opportunities available through ASMSA.  During his tenure, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, and the Jay Mathews Challenge Index named ASMSA among the nation’s top and “public elite” high schools.

In 2013, the Bezos Family Foundation recognized him as one of twelve Educator Scholars. In 2014, Arkansas Business named him to their annual list of “40 Under 40” leaders in business, education, and public policy. The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) recognized him in 2015 as one of five school administrators nationally for excellence in computer science advocacy. He is a 2016 graduate of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce’s “Leadership Arkansas Class X.” In 2017, Code.org named him and ASMSA among their inaugural recipients of the Champions of Computer Science award.

His work in utilizing social media and technology for admissions and campus external relations has been spotlighted in Education Week and The Washington Post. Alderdice co-authored a chapter on public residential high schools as a form of academic acceleration in A Nation Empowered: Evidence Trumps the Excuses Holding Back America’s Brightest Students (2015), a follow-up to the landmark report A Nation Deceived (2004).

Director Alderdice serves on the boards of the National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools, Women’s Foundation of Arkansas, Hot Springs Fifty for the Future, Coalition of Leaders for Advanced Student Success (CLASS), Hot Springs-Hanamaki Sister City Program, Arkansas Discovery Network Advisory Council, and Western Kentucky University Center for Gifted Studies. He is a member of the Arkansas STEM Coalition, Hot Springs National Park Rotary, and the Hot Springs Broadband Task Force.

Corey is married to Stephanie Patterson Alderdice, an accomplished communications coach and owner of SixtyOne Celsius, a boutique marketing and digital strategy firm named after Hot Springs’ world-famous thermal waters. They have one son, Elliott.