WAIMEA — Head of School Robert McKendry recently announced two administrative appointments at Hawaii Preparatory Academy (HPA), effective July 1.
Dr. Alain Carmen Sykes has been named dean of academics, overseeing all aspects of the school’s K-12 academic program. She also will serve as a member of the school’s residential life team. Dana Petteys has been named interim HPA Middle School principal, responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operation of the middle school, and coordinating curriculum and faculty development.
Sykes, who has roots on Maui, brings extensive administrative and classroom experience in the United States and abroad to her new position. She most recently served as the Middle States Accreditation internal coordinator, social studies department chair and teacher at the American Overseas School of Rome. She previously taught history and English and served as the K-12 director of multiculturalism and inclusion at Chadwick School in California, taught seventh and eighth grade English at the Berlage Lyceum in Amsterdam, and taught seventh, ninth and 11th grade English and standard/IB history at Anatolia College in Greece.
She also served as a site coach for the University of Washington’s Teacher Education Program, where she mentored teacher candidates in humanities and STEM subjects. She taught the theory and practice-based multicultural teaching course for the University of Washington’s Elementary Teacher Education Program. Sykes earned her PhD in education from the University of Washington with a focus on curriculum, instruction and multicultural education. She has been published in the areas of student identity and philosophy for children and has presented at conferences on mixed raced families and teachers and identity.
Petteys joined HPA in 1999 as an ESL teacher at the Upper School. She assumed full-time registrar duties in the 2006-2007 school year and was responsible for the Upper School’s overall schedule and working on curriculum, coordinating and leading workshops, and co-advising the Service Learning Advisory Council Club.
She most recently served as interim dean of academics overseeing all aspects of the school’s K-12 academic program. Petteys, who is a strong service-learning advocate, studied in France at a private Catholic university, and earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington. She holds a certificate in teaching English as a second language from Seattle University and received her master’s in English as a Second Language (ESL) from the University of Hawaii-Manoa.