Taia Perry is the mother of two fantastic daughters and has spent decades being passionate about theatre. Taia has degrees in both Acting and Counseling Psychology, holds her SAG-AFTRA cards and has enjoyed acting, writing, teaching and directing theatre.  She has been teaching, directing and producing plays in Burbank for the last eight years and is excited to continue the Play Production class at Jordan Middle School. 

Christine DeMore is currently the Vocal Music Director at Dolores Huerta Middle School in Burbank where she has four award winning choirs and over 300 students in the program every year. The choirs at Diolores Huerta MS have received first place awards in every classical as well as show choir competitions, save for two, over the past 16 years. They are the top 1st place winning group at the Glendale A Cappella Festival taking 1st place six times in eight competitions.  She is an adjudicator for the Southern California Vocal Association and the national Music in the Parks festival program. She is a guest conductor and clinician for concert and show choirs throughout Southern California.  In the past she served on the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA as vocal coach and music director in the theater school.  Christine has also served as adjunct faculty in the Master of Arts in Teaching Program at the University of Southern California for nine years.  For the past 10 years she has hosted student teachers from the University of Southern California, California State University at Northridge and Azuza Pacific University.  In 2008 she was awarded the Los Angeles County Teacher of the Year Award.  She was the 2012 - 2013 recipient of the NAfME (National Association for Music Educators) Outstanding Educator Award for the Southern Section of California.  Christine received the Education through Music – Los Angeles teacher of the year award for 2013 – 2014.  In 2015 she was one of 20 teachers from around the country who took part in the Inspiring Brilliance Summit sponsored by Disney.  This year she has been awarded the Burbank Arts for All Teacher of the Year.  She is a graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University.  Christine and her husband David, have two children and three grandchildren.

Dr. John L. Whitener began his professional musical career as a percussionist and singer while still in high school in Anchorage, Alaska. He studied percussion and voice performance, as well as Music Education, at the University of Washington in Seattle, receiving both a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education in 1981. Whitener performed and toured widely in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska singing with a professional men's vocal quartet and playing drums and percussion with a jazz sextet. His music teaching career spans over 35 years in both instrumental and vocal music, with experience in the elementary, middle and high school classrooms, as well as a professor in the community college and University settings.
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Troy King has over thirty years of experience in the music field as both a performer and an educator. His interest in music, especially percussion, began at the age of four. In high school he was a member of the California All State Honor Band and was also accepted into the prestigious Santa Clara Vanguard Drum Corps. His formal education includes a bachelor’s degree in music from California State University Northridge. During his time at Northridge was also part of the award winning CSUN wind ensemble and Jazz A and B bands. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in education from CSUN. For the past seven years, Troy has served as the Saugus Union Honor Band director and as music judge for SCSBOA. As a performing artist, he has toured extensively with acts such as Captain and Tennille, Cher, Boy Meets Girl, and Paula Abdul. Troy is also an accomplished composer and has composed current works for Discovery T.V. shows “Little People Big World,” “Alaska Final Frontier” and others. His goal as a teacher is simple. Teach the kids to enjoy, love, and express themselves with instrumental music.

Chris Mitchell runs the Huerta CougarLAB at Dolores Huerta Middle School and teaches Advanced Computers, Advanced Digital Media, Digital Media, Exploring Engineering and Intro to Computer classes and is in charge of the school yearbook and CougarVision (the school video show). He received his undergraduate degree in Economics as well as his teaching credential from Occidental College and has taken a variety of Graphic Design and Photoshop classes at Art Center. He taught at Luther for 25 years before moving to Jordan in 2013 and has also taught evening ROP Photoshop and Web Design classes.  

Tamara Fiola-Rini is the Visual Arts teacher at Dolores Huerta Middle School. She has been teaching art education since 2007 and prior earned both her Bachelor in Arts and her Single subject teaching credential from Cal State Long Beach.  She is always reinventing and evolving her art classes with new lessons, projects, portfolio development, community projects and murals to help her students excel and appreciate the amazing world of the Arts.  When away from the classroom you can find her spending quality time with her husband, two kids, and two dogs…loving the journey of life to its fullest.

Christina Sandlin has been teaching for 27 years and is currently the Culinary Arts teacher at Dolores Huerta Middle School.  Christina has had extensive experience in the restaurant industry and has performed all tasks from washing dishes, to sous chef and restaurant management.  Her 25+ years experience has prepared her to teach the necessary skills in food production while focusing on the terms, techniques and tools used in today's kitchens.  She is adamant on the importance of teaching healthy cooking and eating habits and introducing students to a variety of career paths in the culinary arts.  Christina currently teaches Intro to Foods, Culinary Arts, and Catering.