About Search Associates

For more than 30 years, Search Associates has helped over 50,000 primary and secondary administrators, teachers, counselors, librarians, and interns find exciting positions in international schools around the world. Every year, we assist over 3,000 candidates secure positions abroad, making us by far the premier international recruitment organization. We believe that our success stems from the decentralized nature of our organization, which permits us to give personal attention and support to both candidates and schools.

Exceeding Expectations in Every Respect

Search Associates was founded in 1990 by John F. Magagna, an experienced teacher and head of school who spent over 50 years as an educator in independent schools both in the U.S. and abroad. After spending seven years as the Headmaster of Jakarta International School in Indonesia, John Magagna returned to the U.S. and started Search Associates. Co-founders John Sly and Dexter Lewis later joined him. Today, Search Associates has grown to include 17 Senior Associates with offices around the globe, each bringing a wealth of experience in international education.

Although our size is impressive, it is our highly personalized approach to schools and candidates that we wish to emphasize. We strive to maintain high standards by providing timely and accurate information, treating everyone fairly and honestly, and exceeding candidate and school expectations in every respect. We accomplish this through hard work and commitment, and by remaining focused and responsive.

Our personal approach

We ensure that we can provide personal attention to our candidates by assigning each candidate to a specific Associate, based on their geographical location or on the job fair they wish to attend. This system allows candidates to have access to their own Associate, and their team, who will personally assist them throughout the entire job search process. In a similar manner, schools can easily contact any of our Senior Associates or our School Coordinator, to gain more information about candidates of interest or to request assistance with a specific hiring need.

To coordinate the efforts of our Associates and ensure we all stay focused on our company’s goals, Search Associates is managed by an Executive Team (ET) comprising of Jessica Magagna  as CEO (daughter of Founding Director, John Magagna), Sheena Nabholz as Director of School Relations, George Entwistle as Director of Consulting Services, and Brent Mutsch as Senior Consultant. This executive team continuously seek to improve Search Associates in order to better serve our candidates and our schools and most important, enrich student learning around the world.

using this site

Throughout this website there is detailed information that will assist both schools and candidates to connect with each other to find the right match. The advice and the tools you will find here are the result of many years of listening carefully to suggestions for improvement offered by both candidates and recruiters.

We encourage you to browse and use the resources we offer to get the information you need. We aim to make your experience easy and productive. However, we recognize that no website can answer every question and that sometimes even the best tools need adjustment. If at any time you cannot find what you need, or have difficulty in using the tools we provide, we encourage you to contact any Senior Associate with questions or comments. If you are unsure who to contact, please get in touch with our Executive Manager, Melinda Williams.

Thank you for visiting our site!

Anti-Discrimination Policy

Search Associates does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or on any other basis.

Did You Know…?

Senior Associate Ray Sparks's over 30-year career as an educator has involved working in Canada, Europe, and Asia.