Welcome Casey Asato, Head of School

Dr. Casey Asato named new St. Francis Head of School.

Honolulu-born Dr. Casey M. Asato, 46, has been named St. Francis School’s new Head of School.

The school’s board of directors selected Asato after a nationwide search that began in early June. Asato will be the first man to lead the school in its 94-year history.

He succeeds Sister Joan of Arc Souza.

Asato, who has been Director of Curriculum at Seabury Hall on Maui since 2012, ushers in a new era for St. Francis. He will be the first person to lead the school who is not a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities. But Asato is committed to the mission and philosophies of the Franciscan sisters.

He has been married to his wife, Mariangela, a native of Peru, for 10 years. They have a recently adopted four-month-old, part-Hawaiian child, Nina Kalealoha

A lifelong Roman Catholic, Asato is a 1989 graduate of Damien Memorial School.

An advocate of global education, he is a world traveler who has visited 24 nations. He said he has done four motorcycle tours of Japan and one of the U.S. mainland. Asato has also bicycled through France.

He said he wants to raise St. Francis to another level during his stewardship. “My vision for St. Francis would be a world class college preparatory school in which students are pursuing their interests, they’re engaged with their learning and they find meaning and purpose through their contributions to society.”

Asato, a teacher with a quarter century of experience, has worked with Seabury Hall since 2006 in administrative and teaching capacities.

In his dozen years at the school, Asato taught World History, Introduction to Economics, Advanced Placement Macroeconomics, Asian History, Global Issues, and Japanese Art and Aesthetics.

Asato earned his EdD in Professional Educational Practice from the University of Hawaii (Manoa) in 2017. He interviewed Souza as part of his doctoral dissertation.

Before stepping down in June, Souza had led St. Francis for 27 years, transforming it from an all-girls high school into a Pre-K-to-12 coed institution.

Asato praised Souza as an educator, noting that his older sister was her student. “My sister graduated from St. Francis in 1984 and she had Sister Joan of Arc Souza as a teacher.  She always admired Sister for her down-to-earth, approachable style.”

Asato earned his Masters Degrees in Social Studies (Columbia University) and in Asian Studies (University of Hawaii at Manoa).

He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Santa Clara University (major in Finance and minor in Japanese).