Katie Jackson

Katie Jackson has been a member of the Renbrook community since 2021, serving as the Upper School Woodworking and Design Teacher. She brings together craftsmanship, engineering, and artistic vision in her STEAM and woodworking classes. Katie holds a Certificate in Cabinetmaking from the New England School of Architectural Woodworking and a BA in Education and Visual Arts from Bennington College.

Her career has been anything but ordinary. Before coming to Renbrook, Katie founded and co-coordinated a STEM makerspace at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hartford, supervised a makerspace summer camp at the East Hartford Public Library, and worked in marketing, design, and quality assurance. She has built custom tables, served as Head of the Woodworking Department at Camp Onaway for Girls, and contributed to public art education in New Haven. She is also the author of Hand-Built Outdoor Furniture: 20 Step-by-Step Projects Anyone Can Build, reflecting her belief that anyone can learn to create with the right tools and guidance.

At Renbrook, Katie teaches STEAM and woodworking to Upper School students and serves as a robotics coach. She supports set building and Flight Day, helping students translate ideas into tangible creations. Her philosophy centers on relationships. In robotics, she emphasizes teamwork over trophies. In woodworking, she values collaboration and safety over perfection. In teaching, she believes working together to reach a student matters more than any single skill mastered.

Katie loves the Renbrook community and especially the camaraderie among colleagues who share a commitment to creativity and problem-solving. Outside of school, she enjoys singing, exploring old houses and cemeteries, and restoring a 1910 farmhouse with her extended family. She lives with her fiancé and a pit bull with 1.9 ears and brings the same playful creativity to life that she brings to her classroom, including the ability to walk on stilts, ride a unicycle, and curl her tongue in three loops.