Ms. Adele Cadres: Vistamar’s Favorite Dancing Queen

Volume 19: Issue 2

If you have spent any time on Vistamar’s campus, you are sure to have seen Ms. Adele Cadres’s smiling face and felt her vibrant energy. You truly cannot miss her. On Oct. 25th, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Ms. Cadres to learn more about her many roles at Vistamar and her interests outside her work. 

Ms. Cadres works as the Executive Assistant to the Head of School, Mr. Chris Bright, and as the Board Liaison. She has a bird’s eye view of everything happening at Vistamar and understands the many moving pieces that keep the school running, making her one of the “go-to” people for Vistamar-related questions. To ensure Vistamar operates smoothly, she organizes meetings with staffulty, the Board of Trustees, and various other committees at Vistamar, among many other things.

Ms. Cadres says the most valuable lesson she has learned from her time at Vistamar is the importance of being patient with people. It takes patience to schedule and re-schedule a meeting between five people because aligning multiple people’s schedules is difficult. It takes patience to listen to the thoughts of a distressed parent and figure out the best course of action to ensure the parent is heard and their complaint is properly handled. 

Ms. Cadres serves on the Diversity and Access Committee (DAC), a board of directors who work closely with the SAAIG (Student Affinity Alliance and Interest Group) leaders to guide Vistamar’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work. DAC is the only board committee at Vistamar that includes students in its meetings. It allows student leaders to share their perspectives directly with those holding higher leadership positions at Vistamar. Ms. Cadres says that her favorite part of serving on DAC is hearing many students’ voices and perspectives, as it opens her eyes to ideas she had not thought of before. She says, “I learn something every day…not just from the adults, from the students.” 

Ms. Cadres has worked at Vistamar for nine years. Previously, she worked as the Executive Assistant to the Dean at Pepperdine University for 10 years. Having worked at Vistamar for nearly a decade, Ms. Cadres has seen the school transition heads of school, helped Vistamar navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, and watched the modernization of Vistamar’s campus, among many other things. She says, “[Vistamar] is a beautiful space,” describing it as “alive” and “vibrant.” Vistamar’s campus has transformed into a space beyond what Ms. Cadres ever imagined when she first stepped on campus. 

Throughout her time at Vistamar, attending student performances and athletics remains one of Ms. Cadres’s favorite parts of her job. Ms. Cadres explained how she is constantly blown away by how involved students are in performances and events. She says, “It’s a gift that I get to sit in the audience.” Some of her fondest Vistamar memories were made during the dance parties at the end of past Soulful Celebrations and Taste of Vistamars. Particularly, when she and Dr. Karen Eshoo, Vistamar’s previous head of school, were dance partners. 

Outside of Vistamar, Ms. Cadres spends her time eating good food with her beloved family. She believes in the importance of community and building a village of people who love and support one another. Her community has grown beyond just her biological family members to the friends of her children, creating a vast network of loved ones. “We come together around food, and we have a good time,” she says. Four to five times a week, her community comes together around family recipes passed down from Ms. Cadres’ parents, such as cornbread and gumbo. Each dinner is an opportunity to connect with each other and make lasting memories. 

Ms. Cadres’s message to Vistamar is to immerse yourself in the community. Looking back on her first few years at Vistamar, Ms. Cadres believes she would not be as happy as she is today if she had not taken the initiative to get to know the community members around her and taken advantage of all Vistamar offers. Events like athletic games, Soulful Celebration, and Taste of Vistamar helped Ms. Cadres immerse herself into the community and find her place. As much as Ms. Cadres is a staffulty member at Vistamar, she says, “I am still a student at Vistamar.” She loves how each day working at Vistamar brings new opportunities for her to learn about the world around her. Make sure to stop by her office to say hi and thank you!

Photo Credit: Cliff Williams