Mrs Barron has been principal at Woodford House in Hawkes Bay, an integrated girls school with 325 pupils, for the past five years.
''At heart I'm a Southern girl,'' she said yesterday.
She was excited to be taking up the position, at the start of next year.
Mrs Barron, who declined to give her age, succeeds Melissa Bell, who announced her resignation earlier this year to spend more time with her family.
''I appreciate Melissa has been a fabulous principal and I have huge shoes to fill but I'm looking forward to working with a committed, passionate and innovative staff,'' Mrs Barron said.
It had been many years since she had lived in Dunedin, she said. She attended Maori Hill Primary School and Pleasant Point and South Otago High Schools, completed an arts degree at the University of Otago and in the early 1990s taught at Bayfield High School.
Immediately before moving to Hawkes Bay, she had been deputy principal at Gore High School (2003-09). Her daughter, Kate, worked in Dunedin and her husband, Grant, and son, Henry, would be moving south with her.
Mrs Barron, who managed the Black Ferns during their 2002 Women's Rugby World Cup victory, and also the Silver Ferns netball team from 2005-09, has given up most of her sporting commitments, although she said she was still on Sport New Zealand's board.
