"It is always possible to move beyond the perceived constraints in one's life into the realm of vast opportunities," says Catherine Payne, principal of Governor Wallace Rider Farrington High School in Honolulu. Having spent most of her 21 years as an educator working in communities that are labeled "disadvantaged," Ms. Payne believes that successful education always integrates what she calls "repair work" into instruction. As the newly appointed principal of a large urban high school serving several public housing communities and a multicultural and multilingual student body, Ms. Payne is currently working with her staff to implement the restructuring of her school. Her numerous accomplishments, including her work with incarcerated students at the alternative Olomana School, won Ms. Payne a Principal of the Year Award from the National Association of Secondary School Principals in 1991.
1973 University of Hawaii - Manoa, B.A.
