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Welcome to the K-12 Office of Education
See Also: Early Childhood Education and Higher Education
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 Kelly Bock, director
The Education Department oversees the administrative supervision of Seventh-day Adventist schools within the Pacific Union Conference territory (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah). Services include participating in administrative boards, development of policies, training and more.
Dr. Kelly Bock has worked in numerous educational settings since graduating from La Sierra University and embarking on his career. Most recently he served as an Associate Director of Education for the North American Division. He has also served as an Academy and College Dean of Men, Guidance Counselor Assistant Principal, Principal and Conference Education Superintendent. His goal is to provide a positive learning environment that maximizes the talents of teachers and students, both now and throughout eternity.
High resolution photo of Kelly Bock
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 Thambi Thomas, associate director for secondary education
Dr. Thambi Thomas has been an educator in the Pacific Union Conference since 1978. He served in the Southern California Conference as elementary and academy teacher and principal for twenty years before his appointment as an Associate Superintendent of Education in the Southern California Conference in 1998. He chairs the Pacific Union secondary curriculum committee and has also served on numerous curricula related committees for the North American Division.
Dr. Thomas is committed to improving the quality of secondary education in the Pacific Union and to do all he can by working in collaboration with conference curriculum committees, secondary associate superintendents, secondary administrators and teachers to prepare students for higher education, for effective citizenship here, for the Kingdom, and for eternity.
He is a member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
High resolution photo of Thambi Thomas
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 Martha Havens, associate director for elementary education
Martha Havens, who came to the Pacific Union office in 2006, earned a Master of Arts degree in Elementary Education and a Bachelor of Arts in French, both from Loma Linda University. Besides English and French, Havens in fluent in her first language, Spanish. Before coming to the union office, Havens spent 11 years in the Office of Education in the Southeastern California Conference.
After completing her education, Havens taught in Riverside, California, first in Alvord Unified School District, then at La Sierra Elementary School. At the latter, she directed the on-site training of 18 student teachers in multigrade teaching (grades one to eight) for the School of Education at Loma Linda University. After several years of teaching and training, Havens served as principal of schools in the Potomac and Southeastern California conferences—interrupted by a year as an administrative assistant in the Colombian Embassy in Beijing, China.
Havens is a member of Southern Counties Women in Educational Management, the Association for School Curriculum and Development, and Phi Delta Kappa.
High resolution photo of Martha Havens |
Collaborating to Educate for Eternity
Our Role and Function
The directors of the Office of Education provide administrative, supervisory and leadership assistance to the seven conference offices of education in the five states that comprise the Pacific union Conference territory—Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah. Our role and function is to assist the conferences implement a distinctive Seventh-day Adventist curriculum and meet the challenges that face Adventist education.
The distinctiveness of Adventist education is found in the philosophy, mission and goals that provide the purpose and direction for the schools. The beliefs are:
1. That God is the ultimate source of existence and truth, and the Bible is accepted as God's revealed will. Thus, students are directed to the loving and redeeming God of Scripture in all areas of the Christ-centered program.
2. That each person is endowed with characteristics similar to those of the Creator; "individuality, power to think and to do." Thus, there is emphasis on academic excellence and high achievement where students are challenged to be "thinkers and not mere reflectors" of other persons' beliefs and philosophies.
3. That education should be more than just completing a particular course of study or preparing for life on this earth. Thus the emphasis on character development.
4. That each person is created in the image of God and is of inestimable value. Thus the total program is to provide for the balanced and harmonious development of the whole person—intellectually, spiritually, physically and socially—that the divine purpose for each one might be realized.
5. That unselfish service is a basic principle of life. Thus there is an emphasis on meaningful and productive work and on participation in witnessing/service learning activities and projects where the emphasis is on unselfish service and on developing sensitivity to the needs of others.
6. That the education of children and youth requires the cooperative efforts of the home, the church and the school. Thus the emphasis on connecting students to a system of support services, activities and opportunities at the school and within the constituency that meet the challenges of the curricular/cocurricular program.
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 Beverly Benson, certification registrar/administrative assistant
Beverly Benson grew up in Riverside, CA with a 5 year stint in Singapore. She attended La Sierra University and graduated with a degree in Secretarial Administration. Over 33 years ago Bev started with the Pacific Union Conference at the Glendale location. She made the move to our current office and over time has served four different union directors. Firm and steadfast—like a brick in the building—Bev gives unending support to our education team. She is right hand to the director, Kelly Bock, and manages to still maintain the service records for all teachers, updates and issues certification, processes teacher job applications and education scholarships, etc.
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 Kimberly Stubbert, administrative assistant-elementary and secondary
Kimberly Stubbert brings a new air of service to the department as she is a Southern belle who recently moved here from Tennessee, with her husband and daughter, Kaitlyn. Young and full of energy, she bustles around the office fullfilling requests for Thambi and Martha.
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Education
