Zook will represent Hamakua, Kona, Kohala Chapters
Posted: October 26, 2022
The Hawaii State Teachers Association welcomed Audra Zook to her new role of UniServ Director for West Hawaii as she stepped into the role Tuesday. Zook will represent Hawaii public and charter school teachers in Hamakua, Kona, and Kohala Chapters.
She replaces Maia Daugherty, who retired from HSTA this fall.
Zook, a public school teacher in various Keaau-Ka’u-Pahoa Complex Area schools for six years, was born in Oregon and raised between Hawaii Island and Oregon since she was five. She attended public schools growing up and graduated from Kealakehe High.
She earned her hospitality and management degree online from the University of Phoenix and worked as an event planner in Louisiana for everything from funerals to medical conventions and meetings. She went back to school and earned a bachelor of science in business from Liberty University.
Zook took her first substitute teaching job at a public charter school on Hawaii Island in 2016. After that, she served as an emergency hire during the 2016-17 school year teaching 4th and 5th-grade social studies and English. Meanwhile, she completed the Hawaii State Approved Teacher Education Program (SATEP) and went on to teach fifth grade at Naalehu Elementary and Mountain View Elementary.
Zook never had aspirations to become an educator, but her first teaching job sparked a passion for education within her.
“I had the opportunity to work with children before teaching,” Zook said. “Through that and raising my own children, I realized that I would like to dedicate my career towards working with them.” Zook has three children, all of whom attend public schools.
Working in public schools alongside her colleagues, Zook turned to her union for the latest reliable information on her profession and said that HSTA was “pretty much the only thing that really pushes us and reminds us that we deserve more.”
She also realized that there needs to be a deeper, more long-lasting change for teachers.
“A lot of the fixes are surface level, …we need the type of changes that would make the most difference for students, a really deep change,” she said.
In her new role, Zook is “honored to be a part of a group of people to make that change.”
“I’m very excited about advocating for West Hawaii teachers and students,” she added.
She looks forward to building relationships with teachers, organizing, and getting to know their needs and wants, recognizing that “each chapter is very different.”
In her free time, Zook likes working out by running, doing HIIT (high-intensity interval training) and hiking. She also enjoys camping and going to the beach with her family.