David Diener, PhD
Executive Director
David Diener has been an Alcuin Fellow since 2012 and provides leadership in philosophy and upper school humanities curriculum and pedagogy. He is the author of Plato: The Great Philosopher-Educator and numerous journal publications. David is the Head of School at Hillsdale Academy, Michigan, and professor of education at Hillsdale College, and speaks frequently at conferences around the country. David holds a dual PhD in philosophy and philosophy of education from Indiana University.
Christopher Perrin, PhD
Alcuin Fellowship President
Christopher is the Publisher and CEO with Classical Academic Press, a former Head of School and former Vice-President with the Society for Classical Learning. With several other inaugural fellows, he helped found the Alcuin Fellowship in 2008. He is the author of several books on classical education and a frequent speaker and faculty trainer. He was a history major and classics minor and earned a PhD in apologetics from Westminster Theological Seminary.
Kevin Clark, DLA
Alcuin Fellowship Vice President
Kevin was an inaugural Alcuin Fellow, and provides leadership in the recovery of liberal arts tradition, with expertise in literature, rhetoric, theology and philosophy. He is the former Academic Dean at the Geneva School of Orlando and the co-author of the Liberal Arts Tradition and has degrees in music, philosophy, and a MDiv from Reformed Theological Seminary. He has his Doctor of Liberal Arts from Georgetown University and is the founder of the Ecclesial Schools Initiative. He speaks frequently curriculum and pedagogy around the country.
Angel Parham, PhD
National Fellow
Angel served for two years as a visiting Alcuin Fellow and joined the national board in April 2023. She is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia and the cofounder and executive director of Nyansa Classical Community that provides curricula and programming to invite students into the great conversation and to cultivates their moral imaginations with truth, goodness, and beauty. She is the author of American Routes: Racial Palimpsests and the Transformation of Race (Oxford, 2017) and coauthor of The Black Intellectual Tradition: Reading Freedom in Classical Literature (2022).
Brian Williams, PhD
National Fellow
Dr. Brian A. Williams is Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and the Templeton Honors College. He is an Assistant Professor of Ethics & Liberal Studies. Before coming to Eastern, he was Lecturer in Theology and Christian Ethics at the University of Oxford and Director of “Oxford Conversations,” a collection of curated video interviews with leading Christian academics and scholars at Oxford. Earlier in his teaching career, he taught upper school humanities at the Cair Paravel School in Kansas.
Andrew Smith, MA
Mid-Atlantic Director
Andrew Smith has been a teacher and administrator in Christian classical schools for 15 years. He currently serves as Academic Dean at Veritas School in Richmond, VA and prior to that was part of schools in Orlando and Memphis. Along with providing upper school administrative leadership, Andrew’s academic work has focused primarily on Rhetoric, both in curriculum development and in teacher training. Andrew holds a B.A. in History, an M.Div. and an M.A. in Philosophy. He and his wife, Keri, have four children, spanning in age from 17 to 6.
Grant Horner, PhD
Alcuin West Director
Grant joined the Fellowship early on, and was the first college professor to join. Grant has published several books and has expertise in literature, film, language and rhetoric. He also has expertise in Socratic pedagogy. Grant helped establish the upper school at Trinity Classical Academy in Los Angeles while also teaching full time at the Masters College; he also started and operates the summer Italy program at Master's College. Grant holds a PhD in literature from Claremont Graduate University.
Ravi Jain, MDiv
National Fellow
Ravi Jain was one of the inaugural Alcuin Fellows, and leads the fellowship in our research of math and science curricula and pedagogy. He is the former the math and science chair at the Geneva School of Orlando and the co-author of the Liberal Arts Tradition. Ravi earned degrees in Greek and math and holds an MDiv from Reformed Theological Seminary, and a graduate certificate in math from Central Florida University. He speaks frequently on math and science around the country and is pursuing his DPhil in the theology of math at the University of Oxford.
Bill Stutzman, MA
National Fellow
Bill joined the Fellowship early on when he was Grammar School Principal at the Ambrose School. Bill currently serves as the Head of School at the Cor Deo Academy in Washington State. An accomplished guitarist and songwriter, Bill provides leadership in music as well as both lower school and upper school curriculum and pedagogy. Bill earned an MA in English from the University of Wisconsin.
Josh Gibbs, BA
National Fellow
Josh joined the Fellowship in 2016 as an Associate Fellow and is now a National Fellow. He provides leadership in great book education and upper school humanities curriculum and pedagogy. Josh is a frequent writer, publishing film reviews with FilmFisher.com and regular articles with the Circe Institute blog. Josh serves as an upper school humanities educator at the Veritas School in Richmond, Virginia. He earned his BA in English literature from the University of Idaho.
Robyn Burlew, MEd
National Fellow
Robyn joined the Fellowship in 2016. Robyn serves as the Upper School Head at the Veritas School in Richmond, Virginia. Robyn has been teaching providing administrative leadership to classical schools for over fifteen years, and provides expertise in both lower school and upper school curriculum and pedagogy. Robyn is trained in math and science and earned her MEd in educational leadership from Covenant College.
Phillip Donnelly, PhD
Alcuin Texas Director
Phillip joined the Fellowship in 2016. Phillip is the Director of the Great Texts Program at Baylor University, where he also serves as a professor of literature. Phillip has published numerous books and articles and is working on a series of books on the liberal arts and has recently published The Lost Seeds of Learning: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric as Life-Giving Arts. Phillip has presented at the Alcuin Retreat, and is a frequent speaker at the SCL annual conference. Phillip earned his MA and PhD in English literature from the University of Ottowa.
Chris Hall, MEd
National Fellow
Christopher joined the Fellowship as an Associate Alcuin Fellow in 2016. Christopher has formerly served as the Lower School Academic Dean at the Covenant School in Charlottesville, Virginia. He now leads the online education site AlwaysLearning.com and teaches regular at Scholé Academy. He recently published Common Arts Education: Renewing the Classical Tradition of Training the Hands, Head, and Heart. Chris provides leadership in philosophy and lower school curriculum and pedagogy. Chris earned a degree in philosophy from Gettysburg College and MAT in education from Towson State University in Maryland.
Jesse Hake, MA
Secretary
Jesse was one of the inaugural fellows who joined the Fellowship in 2008. Jesse provides leadership in the application of classical education in urban settings, and in history and theology. He also has expertise in upper school curriculum and pedagogy. Jesse formerly served as the Academic Dean at Logos Academy in York, Pennsylvania for seven years. He is currently the Director of ClassicalU.com, an online teacher-training site for classical educators. Jesse earned a MA in history from St. Andrews University, Scotland.