2012 Conference | Speakers

David V. Hicks is Chief Academic Officer for Meritas LLC, a company based in Chicago that owns and operates K-12 schools worldwide. During his thirty-year career in independent schools, he headed St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Jackson, Mississippi; St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas; St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire; and the Darlington School in Rome, Georgia.  He also served as interim headmaster at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, Virginia and North Broward Preparatory School in Coconut Creek, Florida.

 John Mason Hodges is a conductor, lecturer, composer, and writer. He holds degrees in music from University of Maryland and Indiana University, and worked as a professional conductor from 1983-2009. He lectures on the subjects of aesthetics, classical education, and music, and writes for various publications on the arts. He held the position of Associate Professor of the Arts and Culture at Crichton College where he taught classes on worldview, history of music and visual art, and reader’s theater; directed theater productions, and was founding director of the Institute for the Arts and Cultural Apologetics.  He is founder and director of the Center for Western Studies, and serves as scholar-in-residence for the National Fellows movement.

 Gregory Wolfe is writer in residence at Seattle Pacific University and the founder and editor of Image, one of America’s leading literary quarterlies. He also directs the Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at SPU and has served as a judge for the National Book Awards. His essays, reviews, and articles have appeared in numerous journals, including Commonweal and First Things, and have been anthologized in collections such The Best Christian Writing and The Best Catholic Writing. He received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Hillsdale College and his M.A. in English literature from Oxford University. He is the author of Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Human In An Idealogical Age, and several other books. He and his wife, novelist Suzanne M. Wolfe, are the parents of four children and live in Seattle, Washington.

James Daniels is Senior Partner and Founder of BetterSchools, LLC, and former consultant for the Institute for Classical Schools. He is also the founder of the Symposium, a weeklong “immersion” training program focused on nurturing discernment in teachers about the Christian Classical model of education. He has served as consultant to various schools. Previously, James served at Westminster Academy in Memphis, TN for over eight years (three years of which were in capacity as head of the Upper School). In addition to his responsibilities to research, design, and implement a Classical and Christian pedagogy in this K-12 school, he taught Theology, Rhetoric, Logic, History, and Philosophy. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Biblical Studies from Central Baptist College and a Master’s Degree in Religious Education from Mid-America Theological Seminary. James and his wife Larissa live in Slayden, Mississippi and have one daughter, Alexandria.

Andrew Kern is founder and president of the CiRCE Institute, the founding author of The Lost Tools of Writing, a co-author of the best-selling book Classical Education: The Movement Sweeping America, which he wrote with Dr. Gene Edward Veith, and is on the board of The Society For Classical Learning (SCL). Since establishing CiRCE as a research and consulting service to classical educators, Andrew has trained teachers, led board retreats, and assisted with institutional development and start up in over 100 schools since 1996. He has been directing the CiRCE Institute full time since the summer of 2000. Andrew helped start Providence Academy in Green Bay, WI in 1993, where he served as “Lead Teacher,” Foundations Academy (now Ambrose School) in Boise, ID, where he served as Director of Classical Instruction from 1996-2000, The Great Ideas Academy in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he served as Headmaster from 2001-2003, and The Regent Schools of the Carolinas where he served as Dean of Academics from 2006-2008. He and his family live in North Carolina.

E. Christian Kopff was born in Brooklyn NY, November 22, 1946 and educated at St. Paul’s School (Garden City NY), Haverford College PA (B.A., summa cum laude) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Ph. D., Classics). He has taught at the University of Colorado, Boulder since 1973, serving as Associate Director of the Honors Program since 1990. He is editor of a critical edition of the Greek text of Euripides’ Bacchae (Teubner, 1982) and author of over 100 articles and reviews on scholarly, pedagogical and popular topics. He works with the Classics Department of the University of Urbino, Italy on the manuscripts of ancient Greek lyric poetry. He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and has been awarded research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the CU Committee on Research. From 2004 to 2011 he served as Director of the Center for Western Civilization at the University of Colorado. In spring 2012 he has been invited to spend part of his sabbatical at the American Academy in Rome as Visiting Scholar for the third time in this millennium. Dr. Kopff is the founding faculty father of the CU-Boulder Honors Journal, the University’s elite undergraduate publication.  He is author of The Devil Knows Latin: Why America Needs the Classical Tradition (ISI Books, 1999; Third [paperback] edition, 2002) and translator of Josef Pieper, Tradition: Concept and Claim (ISI Books, 2008). He and his wife, Carmen, who teaches French at CU, are the parents of two boys, Barrett (born in Rome, Italy, 1987) and Theodore (born in their kitchen in Boulder, 1989).

Martin Cothran, the author of Memoria Press’ Traditional Logic, Material Logic and Classical Rhetoric programs, is an instructor of Latin, Logic, Rhetoric, and Classical Studies at Highlands Latin School. Martin holds a B.A. in philosophy and economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an M.A. in Christian Apologetics from the Simon Greenleaf School (now a part of Trinity University). He currently serves as senior policy analyst with The Family Foundation of Kentucky. His articles has have appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Louisville Courier-Journal, and various other newspapers, as well as on radio and television. He has also served as a registered agent (or “lobbyist”) at the Kentucky State Capitol for over 12 years and has served on various state committees that oversee education policy, where he continues to be an influential voice on education policy issues. Martin is the managing editor of “The Classical Teacher” magazine, which also serves as Memoria Press’ product catalog. He and his family live in Danville, KY.

Andrew Pudewa is the founder, principal speaker, and director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing. Presenting throughout North America, he addresses issues relating to teaching, writing, thinking, spelling, and music with clarity, insight, practical experience, and humor. His seminars for parents, students, and teachers have helped transform many a reluctant writer and have equipped educators with powerful tools to dramatically improve students’ skills. Although he is a graduate of the Talent Education Institute in Japan and holds a Certificate of Child Brain Development, his best endorsement is from a young Alaskan boy who called him “the funny man with the wonderful words.” He and his beautiful, heroic wife Robin are parents of seven, grandparents of three, and educators of their two youngest children at home in Oklahoma’s Green Country.

Cheryl Lowe, owner and publisher of Memoria Press, became interested in Latin and classical education while homeschooling her sons 20 years ago. After studying and teaching for several years, Cheryl wrote her first Latin book, Latina Christiana. The course is an introductory Latin course for parents with no Latin background. For the last 10 years, she has been teaching Latina Christiana and developing her line of thoughtfully prepared Latin courses, which now include Latina Christiana II, Lingua Angelica, and a soon to be released comprehensive program called First Form Latin. Cheryl also directs the vision for all of the Memoria Press courses. Cheryl, who is also a former public school teacher, started Memoria Press to serve parents and schools who seek excellence in education by developing and publishing classical education material. Unlike many textbook publishers that “write by committee,” Memoria Press is unique because all of its courses are developed in the classroom.  Cheryl’s teaching experiences include college, high school, homeschool, and cottage school environments. She has taught hundreds of homeschooled and classroom students and feels that her greatest teaching accomplishment is that her students master Latin grammar before high school. Cheryl is a former homeschool mother, and her education includes a B.A. in Chemistry and an M.S. in Biology. She is also a certified teacher in chemistry, biology, math, and history.

Dr. Carol Reynolds is a musicologist and arts educator. She served as professor of Music History at Southern Methodist University from 1985 to 2006 and directed SMU’s Study-in Germany program. After retiring to a ranch, she started designing fine-arts curricula for high-schoolers and adults.  In 2009, she published an unprecedented multimedia course entitled Discovering Music: 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History, and Culture .  In 2011 she released a program covering American arts, literature, and history from the Puritans to 1951 and is now creating a course on the history of Sacred Music from Jewish Liturgy to 1600. For decades she has created educational material for organizations like the Van Cliburn Foundation, The Dallas Symphony, Kimball Museum, Fort Worth and Dallas Operas, San Francisco Wagner Society, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, and the Davidson Institute.  She is a speaker for Smithsonian Voyages and gives talks at educational conferences across the United States.

Angelina Stanford graduated with both an MA and an Honors BA (cum laude, Phi Kappa Phi) in English literature from the University of Louisiana and then worked for 9 years in Christian classical education in a variety of teaching and administrative positions. When her oldest child was in Kindergarten, she began teaching her 3 children at home and has just completed her tenth year of homeschooling.  In addition, Angelina works as a freelance writer and editor and is a feature writer for Home Educating Family magazine.  She is also the founder and director of Acadian Homeschool Tutorial, which offers rigorous Christian classical education classes for homeschoolers.

Peter Vande Brake grew up in Georgia and Tennessee but attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI where he majored in philosophy and was a 4-time All-American decathlete. He went to seminary at Union Seminary in Richmond, Virginia and then did his doctoral work at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids obtaining a Ph.D. in systematic theology in 2000. He completed the Van Lunen Fellows Program for Executive Leadership in July of 2009. He taught, coached, and administrated at North Hills Classical Academy from 1996-2010 and served as the headmaster there beginning in 1998. He is a leadership consultant for the CiRCE Institute and is working in the Mentorship Program at The Potter’s House School in Grand Rapids, MI. He is married and has two daughters.

Dr. Paula Flint has worked in the field of education for 40 years. Her formal education includes a B.A. in elementary education and English from the University of Northern Colorado, a M.Ed. in special education (emotional/behavioral disorders and counseling) from Rhode Island College, and a Ph.D. in special education from the University of North Texas where she also taught in the Special Education Department. Dr. Flint has additional training in the Great Books discussion method, classical/Christian education and administration, Waldorf school techniques, Charlotte Mason educational training at the Ambleside Schools International, and training in numerous special education techniques and interventions. She has taught students in special education with emotional/behavioral disorders, ADHD, learning disabilities, and dyslexia. She has also worked in private practice as an educational diagnostician, dyslexia remediation specialist, and behavior specialist. Dr. Flint is the founder and head-of-school at the Flint Academy in Arlington, Texas which follows the Charlotte Mason educational philosophy, serves PK – 12th grade, and includes students with learning differences such as Autism/Asperger’s, dyslexia, and ADHD.