Meet Brady Dowling: Highlands High School’s New Assistant Principal

By Chuck Keller, Writer

The Nineteenth Century writer, Robert Ingersoll, wrote “We rise by lifting others,” and that pretty much describes Brady Dowling’s education career. Dowling and I got together one morning to chat over coffee shortly after he was appointed to be the new Assistant Principal of Highlands High School. 

Dowling has taken a pretty direct career path. Dowling is a 2008 HHS graduate where he played on the 2008 state championship football team. He also played baseball. He attended the University of Kentucky where he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in education. 

He landed his first teaching position at his alma mater where he taught English and coached. Dowling and his wife, Ashley, have two children and live in Fort Thomas. 

But, after some years in the classroom, he thought it was time to mix things up so he pursued his Rank 1 certification in school administration. After thirteen years in the classroom, he is now moving into administration. So why the move? 

It relates to his philosophy on education. He said that “It is definitely always evolving. You have to be that way in education today. Kids are always changing. Parents are always changing. If you can’t adapt then I don’t think you can be successful in education or even the world…. You have to be willing to learn and willing to change every year.” 

Find where people are. Meet them there. And then move forward. That is a sensible approach that works. 

Before becoming a teacher, Dowling considered a legal career. He said, “I shadowed a few attorneys when I was in college and just seeing the day-to-day work that they do, I felt like it wasn’t necessarily a great fit for me.” So he was confident in pursuing education. 

Pursuing administration was not always the goal but “It was something that I kept in the back of my mind that I felt like I could be successful. I wanted to continue the positive academic tradition of Highlands. But there was a point where I saw everything that went into it” and he had some doubts, he said. 

But after observing what administrators did and the influence they had, he reconsidered that path and pursued that certification. “I think I could be good at this. I think I could really help our community, our school,” he told me.  

Dowling has a calm demeanor. He’s soft spoken but firm. And he’s observant. “I’ve tried to develop that ability to sit back and watch and see how things work before reacting. That’s easier said than done, but I think that’s helped me a lot.”

Dowling is an addition to the administration. Not only will he partner with the current assistant principal but he will be primarily tasked with overseeing state and standardized testing for the high school. This will relieve the guidance department so they can focus on guidance instead of administrative tasks.  

Throughout his career Dowling developed a good relationship with administrators and they were positive in offering career advice. Mark Goetz will be Dowling’s mentor for the first year. Goetz is a retired Fort Thomas principal and is well-respected in the community. Dowling summed it up when he said, “Never say never….I know there’s going to be a steep learning curve.”