Meet the Narconon Hawaii Staff

BOBBY NEWMAN- EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Bobby grew up in a small southern Oklahoma Bible belt town with two older sisters. In High School he excelled in sports, both football and basketball, going on to play football at East Central University in Ada, Ok.

His two older sisters attended the same University and excelled, both aspiring to fulfill lifelong dream career choices. For Bobby, things did not work out quite so well.  School and sports lost their appeal and he soon dropped out.

He completed training at a four year trade school and became a journeyman Sheet Metal Worker out of Oklahoma City, but life did not go well there for Bobby either and, after many failed attempts to find happiness and having turned to drugs as a solution, Bobby ended up in the Narconon program in Oklahoma.

When he completed the program in Dec 2000 he soon became a staff member at Narconon Arrowhead in Oklahoma and began educating kids, youth and adults across Oklahoma about the dangers of using drugs.

Bobby has since educated over 130,000 kids, youth and adults, many of the adults being professionals in their own right in six states across the U.S. He was instrumental in getting the Narconon Arrowhead drug education program off the ground, which now educates over 60,000 kids a year.

Bobby is a Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor through the National Board of Addiction Examiners and has helped thousands of drug users regain control of their lives.  As part of this experience he has been involved with the planning and execution of hundreds of successful interventions throughout the U.S.

He came to Hawaii in 2005 as part of a state wide campaign to eliminate drug abuse and addiction in the Islands and has since stayed on as the Executive Director for Narconon Hawaii. Since arriving in Hawaii he has lead the charge in educating over 26,000 kids, producing and distributing over 10,000 parent education kits throughout the state of Hawaii. He has been happily married for three years and has a 17 year old son who is doing very well in life.

Kyle Whitaker – SENIOR DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION.

Kyle graduated the Narconon Program in 2004 at Narconon San Diego.  He decided Kyle stayed on at Narconon and completed the Narconon Internship, since that time he has been trained in several areas of program delivery.

Since becoming a Narconon staff member Kyle has had the opportunity to help save many lives, not only as a Narconon staff member but also as Captain of the Sunshine Summit Volunteer fire department where he was awarded fire fighter of the year in 2006 and received congressional recognition for invaluable service to the community.

Kyle achieved what he considers his biggest accomplishment when he met and married his wife, who has also been a Narconon staff member for several years.

EDEE WHITAKER – SENIOR DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION

Edee Whitaker grew up in Provo, Utah with four brothers.  She learned how to play sports from her brothers and played basketball up into high school for eight years as well as soccer for fifteen years.  She played triple A (club) soccer and lettered in soccer at Provo High School.

Edee graduated high school with honors and received a full-tuition, 4 year scholarship to UVU.  Hoever, after making poor decisions in life, she was lucky enough to find and go to Narconon Newport Beach where she completed her Narconon program in April of 2004.

After graduating the program, she stayed on as staff and wanted to work in the delivery aspect of the program.  She went through the training to supervise students in the course room and went on to get trained in all the other areas of the technical delivery, including: Withdrawal, Sauna, and Case Supervisor.

She held the position of the Case Supervisor (which holds the lives of every student in the program in her hands) for over a year.  After this she became the Qualifications Supervisor which is over the Quality Control of the program delivery as well as the training for all employees.

Edee currently holds the position of Senior Director for Production (Program Director) which is the senior over all of the areas of delivery for each student at Narconon Hawaii.  Edee is grateful for Narconon and for the integrity it’s given her back.

“Narconon saved my life and I enjoy paying that back to others in need, however I can.”

AMY NEWMAN – SAUNA IN-CHARGE/COURSE SUPERVISOR

As a youngster Amy decided she wanted to make the world a better place as a school counselor.  At 14 she began smoking pot and drinking at a local pool hall after school, which eventually lead to methamphetamine use when she was 17.

In her first year of college in Eastern Oklahoma Amy realized that her drug use was getting in the way and she decided to stop using, and she did. She made the honor roll that year. But her success was short lived – an after school party led to a relapse that she could not pull out of, and she went into rehab at the Narconon Arrowhead facility. She graduated the program in 2003 and subsequently joined staff.

At the Narconon International training center in Oklahoma she became the Staff Course Supervisor responsible for ensuring staff were properly trained for their posts. Amy is now in training to be the Case Supervisor for Narconon Hawaii.

During her years on staff at Narconon Amy has fulfilled her dream of helping others. She’s been happily married for the last three years and looks forward to continuing her service to others.