Bill Whicker Technology Coordinator

Mr. Whicker has been in Alaska Education since 1983.   His educational career includes teaching multiple subjects, coaching sports, and serving as principal of the Fast Track program. He has been involved with alternative, correspondence and online education since 2001. Bill was also the author and grant administrator for the district's Digital Teaching Initiative grant, which provided the funds to create the Alaska Digital Academy.  His current position is the Technology Coordinator for the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District.  He also serves as the Technical Director for the Alaska Digital Academy.

---

Kepa Wong Software Engineer

Kepa, a transplant from Hawaii, is our software developer.  After serving with the active duty military for several years, Kepa settled into the technology field getting his start with engineering and building satellite RF and microwave test equipment.  In order to increase the efficiency of the test gear, he learned how to program firmware in C/C++ language.  Since then he has written various business, medical, and now, educational software in a number of different languages (C#, Java, Javascript, etc) and frameworks (ASP.NET, Blazor, MVC, etc).  He is also well versed in relational database architecture and design.  Kepa designed and currently maintains the Alaska Digital Academy website and the KGBSD School Board site, its databases, supporting server applications, the web servers, and database servers.

---

Rebecca Bowlen English Teacher

Prior to landing in Ketchikan in 1992, Mrs. Bowlen taught English in Los Angeles and West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer, respectively. Since then, her educational career includes teaching at the secondary and collegiate levels for the KGBSD and the UAS Ketchikan Campus. Over the years, Mrs. Bowlen has participated in numerous extra duty positions and grant writing initiatives. Her first and foremost professional passion is sharing her love of literature and writing with her students. While she considers herself a technical Luddite, Mrs. Bowlen has embraced all opportunities to become more adept at using a variety of tech platforms for her students and herself. 

---

Gerald Scarzella Math / Elective Teacher

Gerald Scarzella has been an educator since 1987, and has taught a variety of courses over the years including all levels of secondary math, wet darkroom photography, digital photography, computer science principles, coding, and computer game development.  He has been involved with the Alaska Digital Academy as an online instructor of math, digital photography, and computer science since the beginning.  He loves the online learning platform and the opportunities it offers students to succeed.  When he is not involved with school, he enjoys the outdoors by taking nature walks, fishing, and loves the shooting sport of archery by using traditional bows and modern compound bows.  He has spread the love of archery by coordinating archery clinics and clubs to youth in the area.

---

Frankie Urquhart Science Teacher

Mrs. Urquhart is a proud Kayhi graduate, and has been teaching science for 20 years. Her first teaching assignment was up north in a Cup'ik village called Chevak. Here students taught her the value of making education relevant, and this is something she strives to do each time she is in front of her classroom. Mrs. Urquhart taught science at Schoenbar Middle School for the past 14 years and especially enjoyed teaching students the camping and survival curriculum. She is excited to be starting a new position at Kayhi this Fall where she will be teaching Health, Anatomy and Physiology, as well as Medical Terminology. She is also excited to be going back to school to be a student herself as she pursues a Masters in Medical Health Sciences. In her spare time she enjoys camping, hiking, fishing, cooking, with her family, as well as participating in First City Players productions. 

---