His Eminence, the Most Reverend Saba Isper Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
Scott Speier, M.D., Chairman — Dr. Speier attends St. Athanasius Church in Santa Barbara, CA.
V. Rev. Jon Braun, Board Member — Fr. Jon is attached to St. Athanasius Church in Santa Barbara, CA.
V. Rev. John David Finley, Vice Chairman — Fr. John is attached to St. Athanasius Church in Santa Barbara, CA and is the Chairman of the Antiochian Dept. of Missions & Evangelism.
Dn. Tom Braun, Board Member — Dn. Tom is attached to St. Barnabas Church in Costa Mesa, CA.
Fr. Adam Roberts, Board Member, Dean — Fr. Adam pastors St. Paul in Katy, TX and is the Content Creator of the Antiochian Dept. of Missions & Evangelism.
V. Rev. Gregory Rogers, Board Member — Fr. Gregory is the pastor of St. Catherine Church in Aiken, SC.
Fr. Matthew Snowden, Board Member, Principal — Fr. Matthew is the pastor of St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church, Jackson, TN
Kh. Kelleylynn Barberg, Board Member, Administrator — Kh. Kelleylynn attends St. George Antiochian Church in Niagara Falls, NY
FACULTY
Brian Ashland Brian is a member of St. Ignatius Orthodox Church in Madison, WI. At St. Athanasius, Brian teaches Biblical and Classical Greek with Fr. Michael Heningham and has a degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Kh. Kelleylynn Barberg, Administrator With a “degree of experience ” of 25 plus years (and counting) in homeschooling her “party of 5”; enjoying 30+ years of marriage to Fr Raphael Barberg. She focuses her endeavors in her family, parish community, and in giving back to the Orthodox-homeschool-community through St. Athanasius Academy. Kh. Kelleylynn holds an Associates degree in Business Administration and has managed large corporations to small businesses; is a freelance portrait photographer, as well as a Labor and Delivery coach.
Fr. William Bennett – Fr. William Bennett serves as Rector of St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church in Manhattan and Dean of the New York Deanery for the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese. He holds a Bachelor of Social Studies Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Theology from Christ the Saviour Seminary in Johnstown, PA. He and his Pani Ileana have three children and live in the city. He enjoys winemaking, baking, and playing with his children. You’ll find Fr. William teaching many subjects from Bible Stories for 4th/5th graders, Elementary American History, and 5th grade Language Arts.
Adrienne Bowling teaches along side her wonderful husband and six beautiful children. She has a Bachelor of Science in Education with a minor in Christian Counseling. Adrienne has been homeschooling for over 15 years and have been an online ESL teacher nearly 5 years. Her family became Orthodox in 2016 and are attended St. Symeon’s Orthodox Parish in Birmingham, Alabama. They were blessed to be able to travel to Russia and Serbia to experience Orthodox life there. Mrs. Bowling brings her talents to SAA in teaching just about everything: 4th and 5th grade Science, 4th grade Language Arts, 4th grade Social Studies, and History level courses in Middle School.
Father Patrick Cardine Fr. Patrick is pastor of St. Patrick Orthodox Church in Bealeton, Virginia and administrator of The Orthodox West. He offers his very own course creation: “Compelling Conversations” to the SAA High School community.
Nicole Fernandez is teaching 6th and 7th grade Math students. She holds a BA in English Lit, with minors in Math and Religion from Catholic University and an MS in Math and Statistics from Georgetown University. This is her 19th year as a Math teacher, including 5 years at the High School Level teaching Juniors and Seniors, 11 years at the University Level, and 2+ years teaching at Northern Virginia Community College Alexandria Campus. Mrs. Fernandez has taught Calculus to college freshmen, Business Statistics to Business Majors and a variety of Quantitative Methods courses to Communications Graduate Students.
She truly loves sharing the beauty of the subject. This comes as a surprise because she used to hate Math. As a high school freshman she would weep over Algebra 1, but God brought immense good from her difficulties. Nicole truly believes one of her strengths as a teacher is that she understands why people don’t understand Math. “I hope to share my knowledge with your children and work with them to efficiently master the key concepts of their grade level while learning that with God all things are possible.”
Fr. Paul Girgis Fr. Paul Girgis was born in Lebanon and immigrated to the United States as a young boy. He was raised as an Orthodox Christian in WA State, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a minor in Human Resources from Washington State University (WSU). After starting at Lockheed Martin, Fr. Paul spent the majority of his career at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and was married in 2011. He also owned his own Mixed Martial Arts gym in town.
Recalling the temporal nature of this world, “Where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal” (Mt. 6:19), Fr. Paul and his family left home in 2014 for St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) in Yonkers, New York. On December 11, 2016 he was ordained to the Holy Priesthood by His Grace Bishop +NICHOLAS (Diocese of Miami and the Southwest) at St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Earning his Master of Divinity (MDiv.), Fr. Paul graduated from St. Vladimir’s in May 2017 and has served as head priest of St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Naples, Florida since July 1, 2017. He currently lives in Naples with his wife Presbytera Dana (Thekla) and their five children.
Katherine Grace, Middle School Vice Principal. Katherine has been teaching in some way or another for 24 years. Her life’s path has been a bit of a meander through unrelated fields. She has studied music as an undergraduate and spent six months studying abroad in Saratov, Russia. After completing her degree in 2007, Katherine spent a few years studying theoretical linguistics at the graduate level. She has always loved learning, but even more than this, the love of teaching and seeing students come alive when they’re excited about something. Katherine has taught a variety of subjects in multiple formats, from one-on-one tutoring in music and Russian to full classes of grammar and writing for ESL students, and even teaching colleagues the basic details of required testing for medical devices and pharmaceuticals. She is a mother of five children ranging in age from 1 to 14 years, and has been homeschooling her oldest two sons for the last several years. Katherine is also the choir director for Sts. Peter and Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Salt Lake City, UT.
“I tend to find everything fascinating, and I am constantly seeking to learn that which is new to me or to improve on what I already know.” Some of the things she enjoys most include music, languages, plants (especially carnivorous ones), insects, spiders, bookbinding, knitting, cooking, baking, old books, collecting more books than she can possibly read, and restoring vintage fountain pens. Katherine loves reading and trying to read widely. More than anything, she enjoys spending time with her children and sharing their interests as much as possible. Katherine brings her plethora of knowledge to SAA in teaching high school level English and science courses. She is also SAA’s illustrious Elementary and Middle school Vice Principal.
Fr. John Hogg is the priest in charge at Holy Cross Antiochian Orthodox Church in Grand Rapids, MI. He and his wife are raising six glorious children. In 2012, Fr. John graduated with a Master’s in Divinity from St. Tikon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. When he isn’t busy with church life and raising littles, Fr. John offers his expertise in managing finances teaching Personal Finance in the Fall and Spring semesters.
Sh Shell Keim, Keim Time Learning, is the wife of Protodeacon David Keim of All Saints Orthodox Church in Raleigh, NC. She is the mother of 6 children all of which she homeschooled through 6th grade. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Gardner-Webb University and is a graduate of the CIRCE Institute’s three-year, intensive, classical teaching apprenticeship. Sh. Shell was director of Education at All Saints Orthodox Church for 15 years and produced their Sunday School Curriculum. She was approached by the Coptic Church in Chapel Hill, NC to assist in creating a school. When she began, there were 4 students and after five years of teaching Kindergarten and being acting Principal, there were 72 students K-7th grade.
Sh. Shell loves teaching children and spent 10 years teaching the middle school Sunday School class at All Saints. Her true home is often in the preschool Sunday School room where she enjoys hands-on learning of all things in the Orthodox Church. “There is no child that we can’t learn something from! “
Sh. Shell’s vision of an Orthodox elementary curriculum (Keim Time Learning) that introduces reading, writing, and speaking to Orthodox Homeschool parents and children has been her total focus in her “retirement”. Sh. Shell spends a lot of time mentoring young homeschool families and encouraging them to embrace the wonder of learning with their children. When not helping everyone homeschool, she enjoys working in her yard, hanging out with her adult children over good food and amazing conversation. Her son in law calls her the “Julia Child of elementary school teachers”, that does not offend her. “Mistakes happen, you succeed, you fail, you laugh, you cry. Children don’t mind seeing you learn, they enjoy the opportunity to join the journey, let them.”
Khouriye Irene Khouri lives in Edmond Oklahoma and attends St. Elijah Antiochian Orthodox Church in Oklahoma City where she and her husband, V. Rev. Fr. Elias Khouri, serve as the Assistant Priest for nearly six years. Together they have raised three children and have been blessed with eight grandchildren. She received a bachelor’s degree in business administration/accounting from the University of Southern California and studied music, piano, choral singing and conducting from elementary school through her college years having had both public and private instruction. Khouriye audited a semester course on Church School Curriculum Writing while attending St. Vladimir’s Seminary under Dr. Constance Tarasar, then head of OCEC. She has served as a choir director and a church schoolteacher in various OCA, ROCOR, Greek and Antiochian parishes in excess of 20 years. Presently, she teaches the St. Elijah youth liturgical music and its relevance to the cycle of services in the Orthodox Church – her favorite curriculum of all those taught. Over time, Kh. Irene taught music and liturgical subjects at ladies group retreats, enquirers’ classes, and to youth. She enjoys sharing the riches of the Orthodox Church worship services and traditions to her grandchildren and looks forward to having the opportunity to also share our church’s treasures with your children during the 2024-2025 academic year at SAA. “May our time together be blessed and fruitful in the Lord.“
Fr. Andrew Kishler lives in Chicago, where he is the pastor of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church. He has a B.A. in Bible and Theology from Malone College (now University) in Canton, Ohio, and a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. Fr. also earned a certificate in youth ministry from the Antiochian House of Studies and spent two semesters at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological School in South Canaan, Pennsylvania. Fr. Andrew and his wife, Khouria Patty, have six children, four of whom are currently enrolled in the St. Athanasius Academy. Fr. Andrew is teaching 4th/5th Bible Stories and his third year teaching “Old Testament: Of Whom the World is Not Worthy”
Isabella Lash‘s love for performing first began after stepping onstage at the age of 8 and she is passionate about creating the same opportunity for students of all ages. She is a graduate of The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts and is a DC-based actress. A trained soprano, she has played roles in over 40 productions in Virginia, DC, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New York City. Isabella has worked as an instructor with Drama Kids International and Middleburg Academy, and directs summer theater camps for teens. Isabella is regularly involved with community theaters in the NOVA area as a director and acting coach, and maintains her own private acting studio, teaching in-person and online.
Presbytera Suzanne Lichtenstein holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, where she studied Music and Foreign Affairs. Post-college, she spent eleven years in the Suzuki Piano Basics training program for North American teachers, under the tutelage of master teachers Keiko Ogiwara Sensei and Keiko Kawamura Sensei from Dr. Suzuki’s Talent Education Institute of Matsumoto, Japan. She studied performance technique and interpretation of Haydn fortepiano sonatas for one year with James Sempeles. She studied voice technique and pedagogy privately with Joan Frey Boytim for four years, and voice pedagogy and choral conducting under the baton of Dr. Jason Vodicka for two years. She studied Byzantine Chant under Dr. Jessica Suchy-Pilalis and Gabriel Cremeens, and spent many years singing Russian Orthodox and Antiochian Orthodox church music in choirs in those jurisdictions. Her professional research topics include the neuroscience of learning and motivation, the history of musical notation, and the history of western music pedagogy. In addition to teaching for St. Athanasius Academy, Pres. Suzanne teaches private students in piano, singing, and songwriting in the Suzanne Lichtenstein Music School, which operates both in-person and online. She occasionally works as a choral conductor, professional singer, vocal coach for actors in musical theater, and music director for theater productions. She is a member of the National Association
of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), and a former advisor on Mary Gae George’s Artistry Alliance Advisory Board. In a different line of work, she freelances as an editor, technical writer, and desktop publisher. Pres. Suzanne and her husband, Fr. Mark Lichtenstein, homeschooled their four children for twenty-five years. Pres. Suzanne is experienced in online teaching, and focuses on group engagement and hands-on activities in her classes.
Fr. Alex Mackoul lives in Myrtle Beach, SC and serves at St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church. He has spent many summers on staff at the Antiochian Village and now serves as the Camp Director of Camp St Thekla in Cleveland, SC.
Dr. Anne McClintic is a full-time music educator and vocalist based in Southern California, where she maintains a private studio of 20 piano and voice students. She held the position of choir director at St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles for six years, and continues to sing and direct for them on occasion. Anne received a BM in Vocal Music Education from Chapman University, and an MA and PhD in Historical Musicology from Claremont Graduate University. Her dissertation focused on Orthodox Church Music in North America.
While at Chapman she had the opportunity to study with choral great Dr. William Hall, and sang in numerous choral tours to the Pacific Northwest, Colorado, Miami, and Italy. She was the recipient of the prestigious director-chosen “Choral Award” at the annual Scholund Scholarship Concert held at Chapman. She also performed with the Pomona College Choir and the Pomona College Glee Club, with whom she toured Poland, London, and Germany. Anne currently performs regularly with the Pacific Chorale and the Meistersingers, both based in Orange County, California. Recent works include Mozart’s Requiem, Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil, Handel’s Messiah and Vaughn Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem. She can also be heard on the Grammy Award-winning recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel. Dr. Anne brings her extraordinary talents to the academy teaching Music Literacy and Music Appreciation for the Middle and High school levels.
Veronika Mcleod has been a studying artist with 20 years of experience and an iconographer for the last 8 years. She got her BFA from Art College in Russia and moved to Canada in 2009. As a homeschooling mother and iconographer it is natural for her to share knowledge and love for icon-painting with children. She is new to our SAA team, and will be offering a middle school and high school iconography painting course.
Rachel Miltner attends Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Nashville, TN with her husband and two children. She has a Masters in Education, a BA in Spanish and has been teaching and tutoring (k-8 and Spanish) for many years. While learning Spanish, Rachel took classes at the Universidad de Cadiz in Spain where she lived for a year. Rachel was homeschooled through 6th grade. She helps at St. Nicholas Camp in KY, church school, and scouting events. She is excited to teach another year here at St. Athanasius Academy!
Maria Murray grew up in Russia but has been raising her family in Virginia and attending a Carpatho-Rusyn parish there for 18 years. Maria has a bachelor’s degree in Business and a masters in Applied Orthodox Theology. She has served as the cantor, worked on akathist translations from Russian to English, and founded an Orthodox hybrid school in Virginia, where she has taught Bible, Russian, Math, Science, and Latin over the last seven years. Maria’s husband (Ruairi Seamus) is a seminarian at Christ the Saviour Seminary and together they have four children and two grandchildren. Maria will be teaching SAA middle school Science 7 and 8/9 for the first time during the 2024-2025 academic year.
Fr. Nicholas Newman, born in Zurich, Switzerland, Fr. Nicholas spent his youth in New England. His father is a priest in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, currently at Holy Trinity in Concord, NH, and his mother has been teaching Classics at the University of New Hampshire. After high school, where he met his wife to be, Fr. Nicholas studied Classics at the University of New Hampshire. Pursuing graduate studies at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he was blessed to be able to complete his doctoral studies with a dissertation that focuses on the Divine Liturgy of St. Gregory the Theologian. Since completing his Ph.D., Fr. Nicholas has been teaching Greek, Latin, literature, and history to anyone who will listen, from elementary age to college students. Most recently, he served as the headmaster at Veritas Classical Academy in Marietta, Ohio. The Church has always been an important part of his life. On Friday, May 05th, by the Grace of God and by the laying on of hands by His Grace Bishop Thomas, Deacon Nicholas was ordained to the Holy Priesthood. He is blessed with three wonderful children, and an incredible wife, Kh. Kassiani, who is tolerant of his book buying habit.
Matushka Monica Olsen has been teaching for over 20 years. She started by coaching a high school Speech, Debate, and Drama team: helping them write and perform thousands of speeches, as well as write and produce their own full-length play: Dickins vs Disney. Her students also have written and performed numerous smaller skits and bigger projects, like adaptations of Antigone and The Tempest. In her English classes, she has taken particular pleasure in sharing great literature aloud with her students.
In addition to writing fiction for her own children, she has written for the St. Nicholas Navigator and Kosmeo online magazine. Matushka Monica has been collaborating with clergy and other mothers since 2007 to create and teach curriculum for Sunday School, a Diocesan Parish Life Conference Program, and Vacation Church School. Visit www.monicalolsen.com to find out more about her fiction.
Anna Pardhe and her family reside in Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband and two daughters. Anna’s son is currently employed and residing in New York City.
She holds a teaching certificate and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pune University, India. Anna has nine years of teaching experience before relocating to the United States in 2002. She has homeschooled all her children until they started attending Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University. Overall, Anna’s homeschool journey lasted between 2003 and 2023.
During this journey, she participated in various homeschool cooperative groups, led the First Lego League Robotics Championships, served as an advisor to the Eta Sigma Alpha Homeschool Honor Society Phoenix chapter, and the local 4-H group. Currently, she and her husband are on the board of the Covenant Home School Resource Center-an organization that helps equip the next generation of parents to homeschool their children.
They all converted to the Orthodox faith in 2012 and have been attending the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral since, where she is part of various church ministries, including the Philoptochos. Anna is returning to teach her second year with SAA instructing students in Math 8.
Fr. Adam Roberts, Dean is the Dean of St. Athanasius Academy & College. He is also the full-time Content Creator for the Antiochian Dept. of Missions and Evangelism. In 2017, Fr. Adam graduated from the Antiochian House of Studies with the St. Stephen’s Certificate. In 2020, Fr. Adam received his Masters of Theology in Pastoral Counseling. He has also been the host of several live shows and podcasts, the author of several books, the director of several documentaries, and the founding director of Camp St. Thekla. Fr. Adam currently resides just outside Houston, TX with his wife and children and is attached to St. Paul’s Antiochian Orthodox Church in Katy, TX.
Julia Sheridan lives in Louisiana where she tutors college students in chemistry at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She is currently studying Traditional Physics at ULL but spends the hours between classes in the chemistry building helping students understand chemical nomenclature and balance chemical equations. She attends Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church, and when she isn’t at the university or at church, and she loves reading and running. Julia was also a SAA student!
Dallas Shipp is a teacher of natural philosophy and history, and lives in the Deep South. He collects Penguin Classics, explores battlefields, and bakes cakes. He is an ordained reader and has two girls with five names apiece. Mr. Shipp brings his teaching wisdom in World History or our high school SAA students.
Fr. Matthew Snowden, Principal is the Principal of St. Athanasius Academy. He has a degree in Art from Murray State University, and a Master of Divinity from St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 2011, served as assistant pastor at St. George Orthodox Cathedral, Wichita, KS., and has been the pastor of St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church, Jackson, TN., a mission parish of the AOCA, since 2015. Fr. Matthew was homeschooled from third grade through high school. He and his wife, Khouria Hannah, currently homeschool their four children, and Khouria is the Executive Director of Madison County CASA and has spent all her professional career in the non-profit world. Fr. Matthew has spent many summers as camp priest at both Camp St. Raphael and Camp St. Thekla. He was ordained to the holy deaconate during camp session at Antiochian Village. Before his conversion to the Orthodox Church, he served as youth director at a Lutheran church.
Kh. Corey Telschow is an Air Force Intelligence officer (10 years) turned mom and teacher. Graduate of Texas A&M University (BA), George Washington University (MA), Leicester University (MA) and soon will graduate from the Antiochian House of Studies with MA in Applied Orthodox Theology. Kh. Corey is married to Fr. Mark Telschow and currently live in West Texas. She is the mother of three amazing grown-ups (all Aggies), active in Civil Air Patrol and BSA. She taught FTC robotics and many other classes at Midland Classical Academy (since 2006), and loves to take student groups to Rome and Athens whenever possible. Khouria loves to read (especially Tolkien), be outdoors, build and program robots, and LOVES, LOVES, LOVES SCHOOL and being a life-long learner. She brings her enthusiasm to SAA in holding a weekly Book Club for students who LOVE to read as much as she does!
Nicholas Thorp graduated from the Great Books program at St. John’s College Annapolis in 2020, reading everything from the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle to Leibniz’s works inventing calculus and Einstein’s writings on relativity. He taught for two years at a Classical Christian school run out of a Coptic church. During that time, he also studied classical painting and drawing technique under internationally recognized portrait artists Louis Carr and Alex Venezia. When he’s not teaching or painting, he enjoys playing croquet, studying Ancient Greek, playing the banjo, and reading books on whatever subject he’s interested in that month. He and his wife live in his home state of North Carolina.
Maria Tsiaklides-Chalhoub is pleased to be teaching French through St. Athanasius Academy. She was born and raised in a Greek immigrant family in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. Greek was her first language growing up, and she did not learn English until she started attending public school. She started learning Spanish around the same time she started learning English, due to her mother being a high school Spanish teacher. Thus, Maria’s love of languages was born. She has always loved reading and writing, so English literature and writing became a major hobby as she grew older. She studied four years of French in high school, and after graduating high school, was asked by her former French teacher to help tutor French students. Maria graduated from the University of Missouri-St. Louis with a B.A. in English in 2020, and earned her Master’s in Secondary Secondary Education in 2023. She also holds a K-12 Spanish teaching certification for the state of Missouri. Though she currently teaches middle school Spanish, classes she has taught include elementary French, elementary Spanish, middle school Spanish, high school Spanish, and high school creative writing. In 2021, she married her Lebanese-American husband, Ibrahim. They have two cats and attend Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in St. Louis, the parish where Maria was baptized and raised. Maria enjoys traveling to Greece with her husband to visit her family and make pilgrimages to the many holy monasteries there. She also loves reading, being with her family in Missouri, and being with her pet cats.
Nymphodora Ward has a bachelor’s in mathematics education from California State University, Chico with a personal focus on Universal Design for Learning and Project or Problem based learning. She also has a great love and experience with several forms of art including sewing. She entered the Orthodox Church in 2015 and is the mother of two young daughters.
Mka. Natalia Wooten earned her B.A. with honors in Secondary English Education from Oral Roberts University in 2002 and married her husband, David, shortly thereafter. Upon graduation from college, she began teaching middle school in Fort Worth, Texas. She then began work on her Master’s Degree in Library Science at Texas Woman’s University, which she earned in 2007. Her husband, David, was ordained to the Orthodox priesthood in the OCA in 2012 and since that time, Natalia has found jobs teaching in the various cities where her husband has served, including at Miami Dade College, Paideia Classical Academy, several online schools, and Founders Classical Academy of Schertz, TX. She has homeschooled their four wonderful children for many years and currently resides in San Antonio, Texas where she enjoys spending time outdoors with her family (at least 3 seasons of the year) and eating lots of Tex-Mex food! She will be teaching 7th and 8th grade Language Arts and Latin classes this year.