Our Story

Archer was founded in 1995 by three women, Megan Callaway, Victoria Shorr, and Dr. Diana Meehan, all graduates of girls’ schools and all parents of daughters who were about to enter middle school. Informed by current research on the clear benefits of single-sex education for girls and guided by their founding principles of innovation, community, and diversity, Archer originally opened in a converted Pacific Palisades dance studio with just over thirty 6th and 7th grade students.

Over two decades later, Archer’s tremendous growth to 500 students on a seven-acre historic Sunset Boulevard campus is a testament to our role as a model of the renaissance of girls’ schools. Our founders’ basic premise - that girls thrive in a learning environment of their own - is now playing out across the country: since our founding, over 25 girls’ schools have started in the United States.