Martha Hayes Brown

Ms. Brown was born and raised in South Carolina and attended Limestone College where she earned a BA in English with a minor in education. Ms. Brown began her career by teaching drama at League Junior High School in Greenville, South Carolina. Prior to joining the ranks of DoDEA, she taught in school districts in Columbia and Spartanburg, South Carolina as well as Jefferson and Gainesville, Georgia. She earned a Masters Degree in Education with emphasis in English from North Georgia College.

In 1980, Ms. Brown accepted her first DoDEA assignment in DoDDS-Europe where she taught English at Ramstein Junior High School. Her other teaching assignments in DoDDS were at Berchtesgaden Elementary School and Kaiserslautern High School.

Ms. Brown accepted the position of Education Program Manager at Kaiserslautern Elementary School in 1987. She served as Education Program Manager then Assistant Principal at Kaiserslautern High School from 1988 to 1991. She earned an Education Specialist degree in School Administration from Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1988.

In 1991, Ms. Brown was selected as Principal of Augsburg High School in Augsburg, Germany, and in 1993 she was selected as Principal of Kaiserslautern High School in Kaiserslautern, Germany. During her four-year tenure at KAHS, the school adopted and implemented a restructuring initiative, undertook an extensive cross-curricular technology initiative in partnership with the National Science Foundation, implemented a computer-assisted math support program, again in cooperation with the National Science Foundation. KAHS was the only school in the DoDDS system to join with the Boy Scouts of America to initiate a school-wide program focused on bringing the community into the school through a guest speaker forum.

Ms. Brown was selected as the DoDEA Secondary Principal of the Year in 1997. This same year she was tapped for a position at the DoDDS-Europe Area Office where she had supervisory oversight for curricular and curricular-support programs managed at the area-level. Among her duties there included responsibility for the implementation of the DoDEA school reform initiative in DoDDS-Europe.

In 2000, Ms Brown was selected for a sabbatical and spent a year pursuing advanced graduate studies focused on leadership for educational change at the University of Utah. She returned to DoDDS-Europe and the principalship of Heidelberg High School where she served until she moved to DDESS to become the principal of Lejeune High School (LHS) in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in 2002. During her tenure at LHS, the school implemented an initiative focused on easing the transition of 9th graders into the high school setting, expanded curricular offerings in advanced placement courses and the professional technical studies arena, and initiated steps to restructure the school schedule.

In February 2004, Mrs. Brown was selected Community Superintendent of the DDESS Fort Campbell Schools at Fort Campbell, KY, and served in this position for over four years. She assumed the duties of Superintendent of the DoDDS-Pacific Okinawa District in August 2008. In this position her focus is accelerating achievement for all students through exceptional instructional delivery linked to the individual needs of students, standards-based curriculum, targeted assessment for and of learning, and building collaborative cultures attentive to the academic success of each child.

Ms Brown is married to Rex Brown. Both her son, Hayes, and daughter-in-law, Monica, are graduates of DoDEA schools. She has one grandson, Alan.

Area Leadership