Faculty & Staff

• Bachelor's in Mathematics Education from Missouri State University
• Masters in Mathematics and Statistics from UMKC
• Teacher for 10 years in public school teaching Algebra 1, Geometry, Honors Geometry, Algebra 2, Trig/PreCalc, Calculus, Probability and Statistics
• Enjoys spending time with family, going to parks with daughters, co-leading daughters Girl Scouts Troop, and reading
• Began teaching in 2022-23 school year at St. Athanasius & St. Catherine's Academy.

• BA English with minor in History from Benedictine College
• Gregorian Fellow
• Social Media Coordinator at Wyandotte Crisis Pregnancy Center (2.5 years)
• Since 2019, English tutor on-line, primarily SAT Verbal and high & college writing with both American and international students
• Enjoys playing chess, studying German, reading and creative writing in spare time

• BA Religious Studies (Bard College)
• MA Classics (Loyola)
• PhD Classical Philology (U of Illinois)
• National Endowment of the Arts Summer Institute (twice)
• Advisory Committee of National Latin Exam (3 yr term)
• Fulbright Teacher's Exchange
• Led student trips to Greece, Italy and former Soviet Union
• Junior Classical League - 35 years with hundreds of competitions student awards and regional/state
• Homer's Society Essay contest - 2 week seminar in Athens

Specializes in humanities and literature. She joined the Academy staff in 2022, leading discussions on Western literary works and utilizing her background as a Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art docent.

She studied at the University of Kansas under John Senior in the Integrated Humanities Program and now holds a Master of Studies in Literature and Arts from Oxford University.

Steve is a professional judo, sambo and jujitsu coach residing in Kansas City, Missouri. He was born in 1952 and is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

He holds 8th dan (Hachidan) rank in judo and 7th dan rank in shingitai jujitsu. Steve is the author of over a dozen published books on the subject of judo, sambo and other Martial Arts.

Nicholas Mitchell graduated from Benedictine in 2016 and began teaching at St Athanasius and St Catherine’s in the fall of 2025.

Jared Schmitz is a Catholic artist, iconographer, and writer from Kansas City. He has been painting icons since 2019, when a fascination with Russian Orthodox imagery led him into the art of iconography. His expertise developed under the guidance of local Kansas City iconographers and a professor with decades of experience studying Russian Orthodoxy in the US and in Russia itself. He also creates illustrative paintings in a variety of media, and has been teaching acrylic painting as a paint-and-sip party host since 2024. When not making art, Jared teaches English composition at Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe and tutors writing at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park. One of his favorite hobbies is the game of chess, which he taught as a club instructor for one year from 2018-19. In his free time, he can be found cooking and reading long books.