Our staff

Ms. Jenette Dean is entering her sixth year as HPUMP Director. She holds a B.A. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Maryland and teaching certification from Middle Tennessee State University. She also recently earned a Master's Certificate in Early Childhood Emergent Curriculum from East Tennessee State University.

Jenette has over 34 years of experience in early childhood education. She worked as a teacher's aide at the Kansas School for the Deaf, as a classroom teacher for military families in Aschaffenburg Germany, and in the Preschool for the United States Military Academy at West Point. She has many years of experience with children of all ages in preschools and elementary schools as a military spouse. Most recently, she was the Early Childhood Education Manager with the Creative Discovery Museum, where she developed the current PlayGym Program. She has served on the board for Chattanooga Area Association of Education of Young Children, CAAEYC, renamed ChACEE. She served a year on the Board for the YMCA and also on the Chattanooga Gang Task Force Early Literacy Board.

While at the Creative Discovery Museum, She organized and conducted numerous early childhood workshops for educators throughout the area. Jenette is the recipient of the 2015 Hilda Avant Service to Young Children Award.

Jenette has three grown children -  her daughter Kaitlyn graduated from law school at U.T. College of Law, and who works in Knoxville.  Patrick  is a Chemist in Knoxville. William is writing his third book about Medieval History. Jenette's husband, Paul, is a retired United States Army officer who is also an educator for Hamilton County Schools and an adjunct professor at Chattanooga State Community College. 

Ms. Katie McKenna returns to the HPUMP team for the sixth year as our Office Manager and Admissions Coordinator .  Katie has been in the HPUMP family for 10 years; while her sons Owen (12) and Brecken (10) were both attending, she was often found volunteering in the office or working on marketing support for StudioPendous.  She earned her Bachelors in Marketing and Masters degree in Business Administration at UTC and worked in sales and marketing in several different industries prior to becoming a stay at home mom. Her husband Kevin is a Citrix engineer with BlueCross BlueShield.  In their spare time, the family loves exploring new places or tinkering with new projects.  Katie is also excited that her youngest, Bennett (3), gets to experience HPUMP with her as well!  

Ms. Mary Locke could not be more excited to join the HPUMP crew!  She will be co-teaching with Ms. Marcia in the Twinklers class. Mary  moved from Memphis, TN to Chattanooga for college where she graduated  with a degree in Communication. During her years in college, she  primarily worked with children and loved it! 

She  and her husband Bryson enjoy spending their days playing outside,  taking photos, eating yummy food, exploring new places, traveling the  country and being anywhere with their pups Rhett and Wilder. They are  part of a great church family at Mission Red Bank and love living in  Chattanooga.

Ms. Kelly DeJong returns to our team for her seventh year as co-teacher of the Starshine Friends class. Kelly has a Masters of Rehabilitation Counseling degree from the University of South Carolina.  She has worked in homes and classrooms providing support and training to families and teachers of children with autism for over 10 years.  Her previous work experience was as a classroom coach at Siskin Children's Institute and a consultant providing home support for families and professionals of young children receiving early intervention services.  Kelly has two children, Jakob, 14, and Zayda, 13, who attend Chattanooga Center for Creative Arts. . Her husband, Ray, is an engineer at Komatsu.

Mr. J. Maddox returns to our teaching team for his eleventh year! He spent nine wonderful years in our Rainbow Kids classroom teaching pre-kindergarten children.He moved to our Moonbeams  classroom to impact the younger children. He is co-teacher with Ms. Anna. These two make a great team! J. is his first name- just the letter J followed by a dot. It is on his birth certificate that way. J. holds a BA degree in art studio from Tulane University, New Orleans, LA; his emphasis was in printmaking. Additionally, J. is a docent at the Tennessee Aquarium and volunteers at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre. J.’s son, Nick, is in 10th grade at Chattanooga Christian School and his daughter, Lainey, is in 8th grade at GPS.  J. also has a rescue dog, a black lab mix puppy named Downton.

Ms. Charlotte Wells is thrilled to rejoin HPUMP as a co-teacher in the Rainbow Kids this year. She holds a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Early Childhood Education from the University of Chattanooga. Charlotte has been a part of the HPUMP community since 2013, first as a teacher and then as a parent. She is glad to be back after staying home with her two boys, Bennett, age 4 and Elliot, almost 2.

While not teaching, Charlotte stayed involved with HPUMP by co-chairing StudipPendous and most recently subbing as the Atelierista. Charlotte loves the Reggio method and is passionate about learning as much as she can about this wonderful teaching style.