Leadership
Dr. Mercedes "Merchy" Ricon
Director. Part of the Killian Oaks community since 1996 and Director since 2020, after serving the school as a teacher, department head, business manager, and assistant principal.
Nearly three decades at the Academy have given Dr. Ricon a deep understanding of its students, families, faculty, and mission, and one central belief: children learn best when educators understand how they learn, meet them at their individual level, and then challenge them to grow. Since becoming Director she has strengthened Killian Oaks academically and institutionally while preserving its individualized approach, and under her leadership the Academy expanded its accreditations to include both the Middle States Association and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from St. Thomas University and both her Master's degree and her Ph.D. in Exceptional Student Education from Barry University, specializing in learning disabilities. An expert in accreditation, she has led and participated in numerous accreditation teams at other schools. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent Schools of Florida since 2007 and currently serves as its President, received the AISF Allen O. Scotch Service Award in 2018, and presents at regional and national conferences including the AISF Annual Leadership Conference and the Florida Step Up Conference. She developed the educational program for The Leadership Learning Center in Allapattah. Born in New York and raised in Spain and Miami, she is bilingual in English and Spanish and lives in Coral Gables with her three children.
Children learn differently. That doesn't mean we expect less from them. It means we find the way they learn best and give them the confidence to expect more from themselves.
Meeting children where they are is only the beginning. Once they experience success, we challenge them to take the next step, and then the next.
Success shouldn't mean making things easier for a child. It means giving that child the tools and confidence to tackle something that once felt impossible.
Mercedes Ricon
Founder and Director Emerita. She began her career in 1976 teaching in the inner city of New York City, served as a teacher and administrator at a private school in Miami, and went on to found Killian Oaks Academy, leading it as Director for 25 years.
She created a school where individualized education isn't simply a teaching strategy but the foundation of the philosophy, a place where children could feel understood and supported while still being challenged, and where differences in learning would never be mistaken for limitations in potential. Ms. Ricon is a respected leader in accreditation and educational standards: on the Board of the Association of Independent Schools of Florida from 1994 and an Emeritus Board Member since 2020, recipient of the AISF Outstanding Service Award in 2003 and the Richard and Dorothy Lear Memorial Distinguished Educator Award in 2022, on the Board of the National Independent Private Schools Association since 1998, more than 15 years as its Vice President of Accreditation for East Coast Schools and now Vice President of Accreditation for International Schools, on the Board of the Independent Schools of South Florida since 1999, and 15 years on the Board of Amigos for Kids.
A native of Spain, she earned her Bachelor of Arts from Fordham University and her Master's degree from New York University. Her passion for children and commitment to individualized learning inspired the current Director to dedicate her own life to education. Although she no longer serves as Director, she remains a beloved presence at the school she founded, and the proud grandmother of four.
Before we can teach a child, we have to know the child. We have to understand how they think, how they learn, what gives them confidence, and what makes them believe they can try again.
Individualized education does not mean expecting less from a child. It means finding the path that allows that child to learn, experience success, and then challenging them to take the next step.
Killian Oaks will always hold a very special place in my heart. It was created to be a school where children are seen for who they are, encouraged to recognize their strengths, and inspired to discover their true potential.
Our teachers
Every Killian Oaks teacher works inside the same method: know the student, teach to mastery, reteach a different way when a lesson doesn't hold, and keep the family informed.
The same person, all day
Teachers also staff Homework Club each afternoon and the after-school tutorials, so the person helping with homework at 4:00 p.m. is the person who taught the lesson at 10:00 a.m.
Accreditors themselves
Our leaders evaluate other schools for AISF and NIPSA, so the standards a strong school is held to aren't abstract here.
Meet them on a visit
The best way to meet the faculty is on a school-day visit: watch a lesson and see how a teacher checks for understanding.
+We'd love to meet your child
The best way to know whether Killian Oaks is right for your child is to walk the campus on a school day, watch a lesson, and talk with the people who would teach them. Tell us your child's grade and we'll set a time.