Kalyan “Kal” Balaven is Head of School at Dunn School in California. A longtime educator and administrator, he has held leadership roles at independent and charter schools, including The Athenian School. Kal is the author of Speaking Truth, Teaching Humanity: What I Learned from Mr. Lindsey to Teach and Lead in the Age of AI (Hutton Press, 2025). He is also the host of The Whole Student Podcast and cohost of The Education Equation, platforms that explore belonging, purpose, and progressive approaches to education in the age of technological change.
He holds degrees from UC Berkeley and UC Davis, with additional executive training at Harvard and the Haas School of Business. Kal is the founder of the Inclusion Dashboard Consortium, a pioneering initiative for measuring belonging in schools, and serves on the boards of the California Association of Independent Schools and Almaden Country Day. A leader in progressive education, his work consistently centers the intersection of innovation, inclusion, and whole-student education.
