ARLINGTON, VA — May 31, 2012 — Marilee Fitzgerald, Director, Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) has assigned Ms. Martha Hayes Brown to serve as the senior civilian responsible for managing day-to-day business operations and directing activities DoDEA Pacific for 60 days.

In addition to serving as the senior civilian, Brown will continue her current duties as the Superintendent of DoDEA's Okinawa District. Since November 2011, Dr. Steven R. Bloom has been serving as the senior civilian for DoDEA Pacific. Bloom has returned to Guam to resume his regular duties as Superintendent of DoDEA's Guam District.

In her assignment as the senior civilian, Brown will be responsible for managing 24,000 students attending 49 DoDEA schools on 22 military installations in Guam, Japan, Okinawa, and South Korea as well as managing nearly 3,100 full-time professional educators and support staff. A formal job announcement for the permanent Area Director for DoDEA Pacific was posted to the USAJobs website in November 2011, and the selection process for that position is underway.

"Ms. Brown's extensive experience, both as an educator and administrator in DoDEA's schools make her a strong educational leader with a proven record of success," said Ms. Fitzgerald in announcing the assignment. "She has a deep understanding of the unique challenges of transition and separation that our students face and her commitment to delivering educational excellence is critical to the success of our schools in the Pacific. As the current superintendent in Okinawa, Ms. Brown's assignment to as the senior civilian minimizes the disruption associated with any senior school leadership change. We look forward to Ms. Brown continuing Dr. Bloom's exemplary leadership during this time of transition."

Ms. Brown has more than 30 years' experience as an educator and administrator. A native of South Carolina, she attended Limestone College in Gaffney, where she earned her bachelor's degree in English with a minor in education. Prior to joining DoDEA, Brown taught for several school districts in South Carolina and Georgia and earned a master's degree in education with an emphasis in English from North Georgia College.

In 1980 Brown accepted her first DoDEA assignment in Europe where she taught English at Ramstein Junior High School. Brown went on to several teaching and administrative assignments in Europe before earning an Education Specialist degree in School Administration from Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C. in 1988.

Brown was selected as the DoDEA Secondary Schools Principal of the Year in 1997. That same year she moved to a position in the DoDEA Europe Area Office with supervisory oversight for area-wide curricular and curricular-support programs. She was selected for a sabbatical in 2000 and spent a year pursuing advanced graduate studies focused on leadership for educational change at the University of Utah. She returned to DoDEA Europe as the principal of Heidelberg High School where she served until 2002 when she accepted an assignment in DoDEA's Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools (DDESS) as the principal of Lejeune High School in North Carolina.

Brown went on to serve four years as the Community Superintendent of the DDESS Fort Campbell Schools at Fort Campbell, Ky., before being selected to her current position as the Superintendent of DoDEA's Okinawa District in August 2008.

DoDEA consists of the Department of Defense Dependents Schools located overseas, and the Department of Defense Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools located in the U.S. and its territories and possessions. DoDEA provides education to eligible DoD military and civilian dependents from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. DoDEA also provides support and resources to Local Education Activities throughout the U.S. that serve children of military families.