Faculty

MARTIN COTHRAN

M.A., Christian Apologetics at the Simon Greenleaf University (now a part of Trinity University)
B.A., Philosophy and Economics at the University of California Santa Barbara

Martin Cothran is editor of The Classical Teacher magazine and author of Memoria Press’ Traditional Logic, Material Logic, Classical Rhetoric and Lingua Biblica.

Martin teaches Latin, Logic, and Rhetoric at Highlands Latin School in Louisville, Kentucky and is widely quoted on education and other public policy issues in Reuters News Service, USA Today, the New York Times, the Washington Post. The Lexington Herald-Leader called him “the master of the thirty-second sound bite,” and the Associated Press has described him as “articulate and relentless.” His expertise on education and public policy and made him the most frequent guest on Kentucky Educational Television’s “Kentucky Tonight,” a statewide weekly public affairs program.

Vigen Guroian

Ph.D, Theology at Drew University
B.A., History at the University of Virginia

Dr. Vigen Guroian has been Professor of Religious Studies in Orthodox Christianity at the University of Virginia and Senior Fellow at the Center on Law and Religion at Emory University. He is the author of several books, including Incarnate Love: Essays in Orthodox Ethics, Tending the Heart of Virtue, and Rallying the Really Human Things. His nearly two hundred published articles cover a range of subjects including marriage and family, children’s literature, ecology, gardening, Armenian history and medical ethics.

D.T. Sheffler

Ph.D., Philosophy at the University of Kentucky
M.A., Classics at the University of Kentucky
B.A., Philosophy and Classics at the University of Kentucky

Dan Sheffler has taught ancient, medieval, and modern philosophy at the University of Kentucky, Georgetown College, and Asbury College. His academic teaching experience includes philosophy of religion, history of ideas, ethics, political philosophy, and ancient languages.

JOSEPH PEARCE

Joseph Pearce is an English-born writer, sought after speaker, and Director of the Center for Faith and Culture at Aquinas College He is a co-editor of the St. Austin Review and editor-in-chief of Sapientia Press.

Joseph Pearce has authored biographies of literary figures, including The Quest for Shakespeare, Tolkien: Man and Myth, The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde, C. S. Lewis and The Catholic Church, Literary Converts, Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G.K. Chesterton, Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile and Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc. His books have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Italian, Korean, Mandarin, Croatian, and Polish.

Thaddeus kozinski

Ph.D., Philosophy, The Catholic University of America

M.A., Liberal Arts, St. John’s College

B.S., Mathematics and Theology, Villanova University

Dr. Thaddeus Kozinski teaches Political Philosophy at John Adams Academy and Great Books for Angelicum Academy. Previously he was Academic Dean and Associate Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Wyoming Catholic College. His latest books are Modernity as Apocalypse: Sacred Nihilism and the Counterfeits of Logos, and Words, Concepts, Reality: Aristotelian Logic for Teenagers.

CAROL REYNOLDS

Ph.D., Music at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
M.M., Music at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
B.A., Music at Hollins College

Carol Reynolds is a musicologist, pianist, organist and author. She specializes in Russian, East European, and German cultural history. Carol was a professor of music history for more than 20 years at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In addition to music, she is well versed in the history and fine arts of western Europe and Russia. Carol is a Smithsonian Journeys Expert and has led tours through Russia, the Baltic States, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Croatia. She is fluent in Russian and German, and while she lives in North Carolina, she maintains a second home in the Weimar region of Germany. Carol is author of “Discovering Music: 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History, and Culture,” an entertaining DVD-based self-study course for adult and high-school learners, and “Exploring America’s Musical Heritage through Arts, Literature, and History,” a DVD program shot coast-to-coast and featuring 38 artists and specialists.

FRANK RUSSELL

Ph.D, Classics at the University of California, Los Angeles

Dr. Frank Russell is Professor of History at Transylvania University, where he teaches history and classics. At Transylvania he has taught classical and medieval history, Greek, and Latin, as well as the school’s common core courses. He has also taught at the University of Mississippi and at Dartmouth College, and was an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Auckland. He is a popular and award-winning teacher who has taught courses as diverse as Greek religion, the history of espionage, and classical architecture. His scholarly work has focused on political and military intelligence in the ancient world, and he is currently working on an article on Rhodian surveillance systems in the southeastern Aegean.

PAUL SALAMANCA

J.D., Boston College Law School
B.A., History, Dartmouth College

Professor Salamanca served as a law clerk to Judge David H. Souter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and subsequently clerked for Justice Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. He practiced law with the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York and was a visiting assistant professor of law at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans before joining the faculty at the University of Kentucky College of Law. He served with the United States Department of Justice. He writes for many law review journals in the areas of separation of powers, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and privacy.

Jerry Salyer

M.A., Great Books from St John’s College
B.A., Aeronautics from Miami University

Jerry Salyer holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautics from Miami University and a Master of Arts from the Great Books Program of St. John’s College, Annapolis. A veteran of the US Navy, Mr. Salyer has navigated ships, deployed to the Persian Gulf, and served as an assistant security officer at the American naval base in Naples, Italy. He works as a classical educator and writer in Louisville, KY.

tracy lee simmons

M.A., Classics, Oxford University

Tracy Lee Simmons is a writer and journalist who has written widely for the New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Sun, The Weekly Standard, The New Criterion, Crisis, and the Sewanee Review along with other newspapers and magazines, including the Classical Teacher magazine. He served as associate editor for National Review under William F. Buckley Jr. and is the author of Climbing Parnassus, a bestselling case for classical education in America that won a Choice Award for ‘Outstanding Academic Title’ in 2002. He holds a master’s degree in Classics from Oxford and was the founding director of the Dow Program in American Journalism at Hillsdale College. He was the recipient of the 2005 Paideia Prize award given by the CiRCE Institute for lifetime contribution to classical education.

Thomas Cothran

J.D., Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law
B.A., Philosophy at the University of Kentucky

Thomas Cothran has written on philosophical and theological topics, especially on classical theism, Aristotelian philosophy of mind, and philosophical method. These articles include “The Apologetics of Transcendance” (First Things), “The Sophistic Method?: Dialectic and Eristic in Legal Pedagogy” (Kentucky Law Journal: ), “Nietzsche and Neo-Scholasticism: The Dangers and Promise of Natural Law” (Anamnesis Journal), and “And This All Men Call God“.

Leta Sundet

Ph.D., English Literature at University of Dallas
M.A., Theology and Letters at New Saint Andrews College
B.A., Liberal Arts at New Saint Andrews College

Leta Sundet received her Ph.D. in English Literature in the Institute for Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas. Her dissertation research explored narrative surprise in the work of Jane Austen, Isak Dinesen, and Flannery O’Connor. She received both her BA in Liberal Arts and her MA in Theology and Letters from New Saint Andrews College, and also received an MA in English Literature from the University of Dallas.

BEAU WESTON

Ph.D., Sociology, Yale University
M.A.R., Ethics, Yale Divinity School
M.Phil., Sociology, Yale University
M.A., Sociology, Yale University
B.A., Swarthmore College

Dr. Weston is Van Winkle Professor of Sociology at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky where he has taught since 1990. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and winner of the Branson Prize in Sociology. He is a two-time winner of the Kirk Award for Excellence in Teaching at Centre College. He has written numerous books and articles on the family, religion, and sociology and on issues related specifically to the Presbyterian Church.

JAY WILE

Ph.D., Nuclear Chemistry at the University of Rochester
B.S., Chemistry at the University of Rochester

Dr. Wile has taught at Ball State University and Anderson University. He has won several awards for excellence in teaching and has published more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed scientific literature, mostly based on the research he did for the National Science Foundation. He is best known for founding Apologia Educational Ministries and for his popular science textbooks published by Apologia and his ward-winning “Exploring Creation With…” series of junior high and high school science textbooks and as well as his elementary science series that teaches science in the context of history.

Lesley-Anne Williams

Ph.D., Medieval Studies, Medieval Institue, University of Notre Dame
M.A., Medieval Studies, University of Notre Dame
M.Phil., Theology and Religious Studies, University of Cambridge
University Scholars B.A. (Honors), Baylor University

Lesley-Anne Dyer Williams is a medieval scholar and lover of the liberal arts and classical education. Her research focuses on the history of Medieval Platonism, with a special interest in the twelfth century and the development of the Quadrivium. She is the Founding Director for the LeTourneau University Liberal Arts Guild and served for seven years as an Associate Professor of Literature and Latin at LeTourneau University. She has taught Great Books in a variety of institutions, including the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the Center for Core Texts and Ideas at the University of Texas at Austin, and the University Scholars program at Baylor University.