The school's first principal, Jean Wilkinson (née Ewan), was a Scottish missionary. Joan Waithaka, one of the first students to graduate from the school, became its first African principal in 1969. She also served on the 1976 Gachathi Report committee which recommended that the Kenyan government adopt policies which would increase women's participation not only in higher education but also in science and other male-dominated spheres in the country.[2]