In the 2026-27 school year, Lakeside Upper School will be welcoming six new faculty members. Tatler interviewed them so they can tell the community a little bit more about themselves, as well as their own unique set of ideas and experiences. 

Brian Husted will be joining the Lakeside community as the Engineer and Design Lab Manager. Originally from Michigan, when he and his wife moved to Washington, the state’s public schools wouldn’t accept his Michigan teaching credentials, so he connected with independent schools. He briefly joined Lakeside 16 years ago in a paternity-leave position as a physics teacher and has since taught physics, engineering design and analysis, and industrial design at the Overlake School. In his free time, he enjoys building and designing things such as rockets and model airplanes with his two kids, as well as machining and woodworking. While he doesn’t follow any sports, he loves supporting his students in their extracurricular activities, whether that involves cheering on the sidelines of the sports field or being in the audience when they’re on stage for a performance. At Lakeside, he’s excited about “developing a new engineering program and spreading that across the Upper School campus” and “help[ing] to design and mold the new space [that is being renovated in Allen Gates].” He was also the robotics coach at Overlake for 13 years and looks forward to connecting with the robotics team at Lakeside. 

Joining the Upper School Library next year is Candy Sunick. She’s been in the Seattle area since 1992 and has worked for Kellogg Middle School in the Shoreline School District for the past 14 years. She has a passion for connecting with students who like to express themselves through writing. At Kellogg, she started the first after-school writers’ club for students and will continue to lead its fifth year after she leaves the Lakeside library in the afternoon. Next year, she’s looking forward to working with and learning from the other librarians, as well as meeting and being there for the students. Outside of her role as an educator, she’s also an aspiring author, and she’s close to the final revision stage of a draft of a mystery novel that she’s been writing for several years. She really enjoys reading and watching mysteries and true crime, and one book series recommendation she has is the Dublin Murder Squad by Tana French. In her free time, she enjoys watching shows with her husband and son, and spending time with her “really bossy cat,” Lucy.

Erin Montero is Lakeside’s newest language teacher, and she will be teaching Spanish II and III. She recently drove to Washington from Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she worked at Girls Preparatory School. For her, the hardest thing about leaving her old school was missing her former students, especially when seeing them post their school traditions on social media, and she hopes to fill that void by interacting with Lakeside students, getting to know the community, and better understanding school culture. Outside of working as an educator, she has a lot of hobbies, including playing water sports like rowing and synchronized swimming; working with the Humane Society as a cat ambassador; learning how to rock climb; practicing aerial sports like aerial silks; and taking dance lessons like salsa and belly dancing. She also really enjoys traveling and has been to 47 countries as well as 42 of the 50 states of America. She says that exploring new places and activities helps her get in touch with different communities and also makes her a more empathetic teacher, as she can understand the discomfort of trying something new like a language. This school year, she looks forward to talking to students and getting to know their niche hobbies. 

Libby Zorn will be joining Lakeside as a math and computer science teacher. A Washington state native and outdoor-lover, she grew up in Woodinville and graduated from Redmond High School. However, the bulk of her middle and high school experience was at International Community School, a small public school that she says had a lot of the elements of the things she’s excited about at Lakeside. These include small, tight-knit classes, and space for the teachers and students to build the kind of community they wanted. Following her education in Washington, she moved to the East Coast to earn a computer science degree, then worked at Microsoft as a program manager. Throughout her schooling and time at Microsoft, she volunteered as a teacher and teacher’s assistant before discovering that she was more drawn to education than to her tech job. She began her professional education career teaching math at Tahoma High School. As she transitions to Lakeside, she’s looking forward to getting to form deep connections with each student, and also to be able to teach math and computer science at the same time, an opportunity not common in high schools. In her free time, she volunteers at a dog shelter, makes handmade rugs, and plays recreational soccer. 

Mahina Hanneman-Gago will be joining Lakeside as our new athletic director. A basketball player from a young age, sports helped pave her way through high school and finance her college education. She credits her passion for basketball with giving her motivation to continue studying from grade school to college, and calls herself a lifelong learner. However, it was her mother’s inspiring presence that led her towards being an athletic director: she describes her mother as the best coach in her life, someone who instilled in her the importance of sports and representation. Her experience prior to Lakeside includes serving in similar roles at the Francis Parker School in San Diego and at the Kamehameha schools in Hawai’i. In her free time, she loves to spend time with her friends and family, and is sure to try an escape room any place she goes. She has already completed one with the rest of the Athletics Department, following her move to Seattle! At Lakeside, she is excited to get to know athletes personally, beyond their roles on the field or court.

Regina Bautista will be joining Lakeside as an upper school visual arts teacher and studio assistant. She spent the past year volunteering as a studio arts assistant, as part of her education minor at UW. She is a 2025 graduate of the 3D fine arts program. In her free time, she loves watching movies, especially David Lynch, paddleboarding, and even ocasionally playing tennis. Originally intending to become an English teacher due to the inspiring English faculty she remembers from her school days, she ended up combining her passion for teaching with her passion for art. As someone who attended a high school without a robust arts program, she notes that “I love to see students grow as artists.” She is excited to finally teach her own class and get to know each of her students!