Michelle teaches art for preschool through 4th grade. Michelle has a B.A. in art from San Fran­cisco State Univer­sity and an M.A. in art educa­tion from Cali­for­nia State Univer­sity, Los Angeles. A working artist and print­maker, Michelle always knew she wanted to teach art. To support her students, she says, ​“I try to meet chil­dren where they are and listen to their ideas and what they are inter­ested in explor­ing and express­ing.” Michelle has two daugh­ters; her daugh­ter Nadine is enrolled in the 8th grade at Waverly.

Jack teaches phys­i­cal educa­tion to the preschool, elemen­tary school, and middle school. Jack has a B.S. in Kine­si­ol­ogy Phys­i­cal Educa­tion Teacher Educa­tion from the Univer­sity of La Verne, and an M.S. in Kine­si­ol­ogy Curricu­lum and Instruc­tion from Cal Poly Pomona. Jack enjoys teach­ing P.E. because it allows him to work with students of all ages and lets him see them grow and develop from year to year. He feels that P.E. is a great time to not only teach students about motor skills, but inter­per­sonal skills as well.

Tina is the elemen­tary school librar­ian and teaches library skills for preschool through 6th grade. She joined Waverly in 2014 after working for nearly 15 years as a children’s librar­ian at Altadena Public Library and a branch librar­ian at Pasadena Public Library. Tina majored in English and jour­nal­ism at the Univer­sity of Cali­for­nia, Los Angeles, and co-produced a nation­ally syndi­cated public affairs program for Paci­fica Radio prior to her library work. The most grat­i­fy­ing part of Tina’s job is seeing the looks on the kids’ faces when they find a book they’ve been looking forward to reading. She says,​“The smiles of surprise…and the eager­ness to open that book the moment it’s in their hands make all my efforts worth it.” Tina lives in Altadena with her husband, Bob, and daugh­ter, Johanna, who grad­u­ated from Waverly in 2017.

Caitlin teaches well­ness. Caitlin received a B.A. in English from Harvard College and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Colum­bia Univer­sity. A life­long learner, Caitlin completed a post-baccalau­re­ate premed­ical program before her work as an educa­tor with Planned Parent­hood inspired her to forgo medical school and return to her first love: teach­ing. Caitlin has been an educa­tor for over a decade. She is an avid yogi, published poet, and an advisor for Change The Talk, a peer-to-peer social justice work­shop. She incor­po­rates themes of toler­ance, mind­ful­ness, and empow­er­ment into her lessons for all ages. Caitlin’s daugh­ter, Ramona, is in kindergarten.

Bret teaches Spanish at the high school and is the 5th/​6th Spanish special­ist in the elemen­tary school. Bret earned a B.A. in French and Spanish and an M.A. in both languages from the Univer­sity of Hawai’i at Manoa. He enjoys sharing his passion for the Spanish language, its people, and its culture with his students and encour­ages them to use as much Spanish in the class­room as possi­ble to develop into confi­dent speak­ers. In his free time, he loves to travel, explore new places, and ride roller coasters.