All Hands On Deck At Kamehameha
That will be the battle cry of popular CEO Dee Jay Mailer, who just made one year on the job, until the school is educating all Hawaiian children. It doesn’t take long to realize that people like Dee Jay Mailer. Really like her. After just over a year at the helm of Kamehameha Schools, Mailer’s honeymoon period could certainly be considered over, yet people continue to sing her praises.
By Alice Keesing
E-mail this story | Print this page | Archive | RSS |
Del.icio.us
Mailer typically starts her weekdays at 4:30 a.m. when she descends to what she fondly terms “the dungeon” in her Nuuanu home. There, she catches up on her thoughts as well as her reading and e-mail. The day is usually back-to-back meetings followed by evening functions. When she can, Mailer also takes the time to explore Hawaii, to meet with people, to learn more.
One day might be spent on campus in a classroom. Another might take her to a valley to learn about the auwai system and lo‘i. The next day might be focused on financial matters. Or learning greeting protocols. Or attending an alumni function.
“I learn every day about this incredible world of my ancestry, this incredible world of Hawaiian history, and then I can go and step into that world right here today on our campuses and see what our students are doing — it’s great,” she says.
Despite the challenges and the long hours, Mailer always maintains the down-to-earth and pleasant demeanor that has made her so popular, says senior executive secretary Coleen Ka‘anehe.
“I have worked for a lot of executives here and in New York, and of all the executives I have worked with she is … she just makes everybody feel like she’s on the same level as them,” Ka‘anehe says. “It’s nice to come into work every day.”
Be welcoming of all people. Respect all people. Those are the things Mailer learned from her parents when she was growing up in Kailua. Her father, a former mechanic at Hawaiian Air, taught her the value of the people who make up an organization — the boss is nothing without them, he once told her. Her mother, from whom Mailer gets her Hawaiian ancestry, taught her a generosity of spirit.
“My mom,” Mailer says, “was really good at just giving away everything that she had, whether it was her love or her material goods.”
She remembers one time her mother — at the time very ill —offered her own burial plot to someone she had just met in a hospital waiting room.
“She gave this to this gentleman in this waiting room whom she had just had a chat with,” Mailer says, smiling. “And I had to tell my mom, ‘Mom, I don’t think this is the right moment to give him a burial plot because his wife is here and not doing well. But the point is, that’s the kind of kahe au, the giving generously of oneself, that I was born in. And that’s the kind of climate and environment that we want here at Kamehameha Schools. To be focused on others, not ourselves.”
Mailer has quickly made the princess’ mission her own. She’s credited with pushing forward the trust’s strategic plan, which aims to extend Kamehameha’s helping hand to more and more Hawaiians.
“It takes leadership to get buy-in from a large business that’s seen 100 years of doing business the same old way,” Plotts says. “But she’s getting it moving and she’s getting that buy-in.”
Robert Witt, executive director of the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, also gives Mailer kudos for her first year on the job.
“She rearranged the organization chart several months after she arrived, so she has direct and regular contact with the headmasters from the three schools,” Witt says. “That means she’s not going to delegate that responsibility. I give her a big gold star for that.”
And by all accounts Mailer is getting the juggernaut trust moving at a blistering pace.
Kamehameha spokesman Kekoa Paulsen nods. “It’s been relentless,” he says.
But whenever Mailer or others gets tired, she just thinks of the people who need help. While she grew up proud of her culture and sees many magic moments in the Hawaiian community, she has come to appreciate the depth and breadth of the Hawaiian struggle.
She has learned about families where three generations — grandmother, mother and baby — are fighting drug addiction. She has met children whose first meal in two days was the breakfast they received at school on Monday morning. And others who don’t have the clothes they need to go to school.
That’s why the blistering pace.
The cost of wasting time, of not moving forward fast enough, is a cost borne by individual children who don’t get the support they need, she says.
“As we look at the statistics surrounding Hawaiians, there are a lot of Hawaiian people who are doing exceptionally well, and we are proud of that,” Mailer says. “But the statistics show that some are still falling behind other ethnicities, and until those statistics reverse themselves, it’s all hands on deck at Kamehameha Schools.”
In the last year, Kamehameha Schools has increased the number of children it serves on its campuses and in preschool programs and extension programs. That push will continue, and Kamehameha is venturing even further into prenatal care, when the foundations of a child’s success are truly laid.
The trust also has forged a growing number of partnerships to help extend its reach and create a more unified community. And in the next year, it will begin mapping out the best use of its 365,000 acres of land.
Meanwhile, hanging over the trust’s head is a lawsuit that could radically change everything. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is considering the lawsuit, which challenges the schools’ Hawaiian-preference admissions policy. The future path of the 118-year-old trust hangs on the ruling of three judges.
“We are always planning for our response,” Mailer says. “If (the ruling) is positive, we will celebrate and focus on our mission. If it’s negative, we will appeal it, and we will be upset and saddened by it — and we will focus on our mission.
“Whatever happens, we will continue to focus on our mission.”
Page 2 of 2 pages for this story < 1 2
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS
Most Recent Comment(s):
