Amy Willacker-Brown, who founded the Arts Academy housed inside Salem High School, is the new principal of the Canton campus as the 2026-27 school year opens.

Plymouth-Canton Community Schools announced the appointment on Wednesday, Sept. 2. Willacker-Brown has worked in the district since 2003, spending more than two decades as an elementary music teacher, arts curriculum coordinator and high school administrator.

She most recently served as assistant principal at Plymouth High School, one of three high schools on the shared Plymouth-Canton Educational Park (P-CEP) campus. In that role, the district said, she led school improvement efforts and helped develop district-wide protocols for crisis intervention and student support.

Her ties to Salem run deep.

Willacker-Brown was the founding leader of the P-CEP Arts Academy, a visual and performing arts program based at Salem. Building that program meant years of working alongside Salem students, families and staff.

Before moving into administration, Willacker-Brown taught in the International Baccalaureate program, co-taught middle school orchestra and coordinated K-12 visual and performing arts curriculum across the district. She holds a bachelor's degree in music education from Eastern Michigan University and a master's in teaching and learning from Oakland University.

In a 2019 WDET profile of the P-CEP campus, Willacker-Brown described the dynamic of the shared campus. "When you have such a large population, nobody can really consolidate power," she said. "And everybody can find their own place where they are the 'in' group."

Salem enrolls roughly 1,871 students and sits on the P-CEP campus alongside Canton High School and Plymouth High School. The three schools together serve about 6,200 students each day.

The district's announcement did not name Willacker-Brown's predecessor. Board meeting minutes from April 2025 list Kimberly Villarosa as Salem's principal at that time.