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Staff and Board

Staff

We're a motley crew, we admit, and we're spread out across the country, but we're dedicated to Christian classical education and work hard to see it flourish. Don't hesitate to let us know if there's any way we can help you do the same.

Andrew
 Kern

President & CEO
Andrew Kern
Bio & Contact

Dr. Matthew
 Bianco

COO
Matthew Bianco
Bio & Contact

Andrea
 Lipinski

Vice President of Training Development
Andrea Lipinski
Bio & Contact

Graeme
 Pitman

Creative Director
Graeme Pitman
Bio & Contact

Alex
 Kern

Financial Controller
Alex Kern
Bio & Contact

Matt
 Kern

Director of Events and Sales
Matt Kern
Bio & Contact

Patricia
 Bianco

Headmistress and Director of Online Training
Patty Bianco
Bio & Contact

Buck
 Holler

Director of Consulting
Buck Holler
Bio & Contact

Alec
 Bianco

Director of Marketing
2022_circe_staff-20
Bio & Contact

Katerina
 Hamilton

Director of Resource Development
Katerina Kern
Bio & Contact

Jonathan
 Councell

Director of School Development
2021_APS-7
Bio & Contact

Kirstie
 Ruffatto

Marketing and Promotions Specialist; Teacher
Kirstie Ruffatto
Bio & Contact

Karen
 Kern

Program Specialist for Training and Resource Development
Karen Kern
Bio & Contact

Camille
 Hunt

Program Specialist for Training and Resource Development
2022_circe_staff-19 copyb
Bio & Contact

Jared
 Hudson

Logistics Specialist
2022_circe_staff-21
Bio & Contact

Andrew
 Bianco

Webmaster & Customer Service Representative
2022_circe_staff-22
Bio & Contact

Board of Directors​

Martin Cothran

Andrew Pudewa

Joe Calkins

Tyson Rallens

Board Chair

Nena Harris

Doug Reynolds

Amy Liu

Let's Connect

Let's Connect

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Andrew Kern

At the moment of writing, Andrew Kern has seven grand-children. More trivially, having founded the CiRCE Institute after co-authoring Classical Education: The Movement Sweeping America (with Dr. Gene Edward Veith), he has been compelled to serve as its president. Andrew also bears primary culpability for The Lost Tools of Writing, a classical rhetoric and writing resource. Since establishing CiRCE to serve classical educators through research and consulting while developing and providing integrated resources, Andrew has trained and apprenticed innumerable home and school teachers, heads of school, and school boards. He has also defined, defended, practiced, and supported classical education at many conferences, conventions, and book retreats. Andrew helped start Providence Academy in Green Bay, WI in 1993, Foundations Academy (now Ambrose School) in Boise, ID in 1996, The Great Ideas Academy in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2001, and Regents School of the Carolinas in 2006, and the CiRCE Apprenticeship around the same time. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina, and their five more or less classically educated and more or less home educated children and ever more grandchildren live in various places, ranging from Uganda to Georgia, depending on when you ask.

Contact Andrew Kern at akern@circeinstitute.org.

Dr. Matthew Bianco

Dr. Matthew Bianco is the Chief Operations Officer for the CiRCE Institute, where he also serves as a head mentor in the CiRCE apprenticeship program. A homeschooling father of three, he has graduated all three of his children, the eldest of whom graduated from St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD. His second graduated from Belmont Abbey College in Charlotte, NC, where his youngest still attends their great books honors college. He is married to his altogether lovely high school sweetheart, Patricia. Dr. Matt Bianco has a PhD in Humanities from Faulkner University’s Great Books Honors College. He is the author of Letters to My Sons: A Humane Vision for Human Relationships.

Contact Matthew Bianco at mattbianco@circeinstitute.org.

Andrea Lipinski

Andrea Lipinski is the Vice President of Training for the CiRCE Institute, where she also serves as a Head Mentor in their teacher training program, the Rocky Mountain Apprenticeship. She graduated both sons from The Lipinski Boys School. Her older son attended the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY and now is in flight school with the U. S. Navy. Her younger son lives at home exploring work and outdoor experiences. Her home is in the Pacific Northwest growing fruit, backpacking the mountains, and sailing the Salish Sea. She is a co-author of A CiRCE Guide to Reading.

Contact Andrea Lipinski at andrea@circeinstitute.org.

Graeme Pitman

Graeme is always thinking about the look and feel of our advertising and products. He’s our Captain of Aesthetics, if you will. A photographer by training (Rocky Mountain School of Photography), Graeme loves the books of CS Lewis, Dostoevsky, and Wallace Stegner; would swim eight hours a day if he could; and pulls for his woebegone Toronto Maple Leafs. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and three children.

Contact Graeme Pitman at graeme@circeinstitute.org.

Alex Kern

Though she hails from Australia, Alex Kern now lives in Concord NC with her cousin and her two nieces. She obtained a B.A. in Theology from Belmont Abbey College, has been working for the CiRCE Institute since 2014, and is now a CIRCE apprentice. You will often find her rock climbing, knitting, or discussing the carnivore diet and conspiracy theories with other Concord locals.

Contact Alex Kern at alex@circeinstitute.org.

Matt Kern

Matthew Kern is the Director of events and the customer service and sales coordinator.  If you are wondering why he is not, or ever was, a CiRCE Apprentice (like most of us at CiRCE) it is because he also works as a mental health therapist and runs his own private practice in his spare time. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a BA in History and MA in Clinical Mental Health.  He lives in Concord, NC with his wife, Renee, and two daughters, Selah and Zuriah.

Contact Matthew Kern at matthew@circeinstitute.org.

Patricia Bianco

Patty Bianco is the Online Training Manager for the CiRCE Institute. She is a homeschooling mother of three, well, was as all three of her children have graduated and gone off to college. She now helps others educate their children and students. She graduated from Buck Holler’s Master Teacher Apprenticeship group through CiRCE. She is married to Matt Bianco. Her favorite book is Pride and Prejudice and she prefers the BBC production of it, even though her husband prefers the Keira Knightley version (she forgives him for that). She prefers tea to coffee (though she enjoys a good latte). 

Contact Patty Bianco at patty@circeinstitute.org.

Buck Holler

Buck Holler is a former horse trainer and rodeo cowboy from Red Bluff, CA. Retiring from the rodeo circuit, Buck headed to New England to study theology and languages at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 2001. Since then he has worked in three schools as an educator and moved to raise a family on a farm in eastern NC. Buck first joined The CiRCE Institute as an apprentice in 2007, became a head mentor of an East Coast Apprenticeship in 2017, began the Latin Apprenticeship in 2019, and now serves in Concord, NC as CiRCE’s director of consulting.

Contact Buck Holler at buck@circeinstitute.org.

Alec Bianco

Alec Bianco is the Director of Curriculum, and helps provide schools with the Lost Tools of Writing, as well as helps CiRCE develop new curricula projects. He received his Bachelor’s from St. John’s College, MD, where he studied the Great Books. He is currently pursuing a Master’s in Theology, is happily married, and considers mathematics and music a significant part of a good education.

Contact Alec Bianco at alec@circeinstitute.org.

Katerina Hamilton

Katerina Hamilton has sought to make Classical Education accessible globally through teaching, consulting, writing, and speaking. She studied Fine Art, Art History, and Classics at UNC-Charlotte and the Liberal Arts at Oxford University, where she earned a Masters in Literature and the Arts. After teaching for five years in Uganda, she recently returned to the US and is an Adjunct Professor at Belmont Abbey Honors College and a Consultant and Researcher for the Circe Institute. She particularly enjoys researching Medieval notions of Beauty and Memory, the 7 Liberal Arts, Cosmology, and Mariology.

Contact Katerina Hamilton at katerina@circeinstitute.org.

Jonathan Councell

Jonathan Councell serves as the Director of School Development for the CiRCE Institute. He is a graduate of the CiRCE Master Teacher Apprenticeship Program, has experience as a CiRCE consultant and Head Mentor, and has taught in classical schools since 2012 in both teaching and leadership roles. He currently lives in Beaufort, South Carolina with his wife Laura, three children, and a variety of domestic and semi-domestic creatures.

Contact Jonathan Councell at jonathan@circeinstitute.org.

Kirstie Ruffatto

Kirstie Ruffatto is an artist, illustrator, and classical educator. She obtained a BA in Studio Art from the Queens University of Charlotte with a focus in intaglio printmaking. Her most recent illustrations include CiRCE’s 30 Poems to Memorize (Before Its Too Late). She moves back and forth between her art class at Covenant Classical School and her desk at the CiRCE office, where she can be seen posting to CiRCE’s social media and discussing her love of Homer and all things lovely and beautiful.

Contact Kirstie Ruffatto at kirstie@circeinstitute.org.

Karen Kern

With years of experience as a third-grade teacher, Head of Grammar School, homeschooling mother of five, and school board member, Karen Kern has much to offer as a speaker and CiRCE consultant.  Mrs. Kern has particular expertise in classroom practice, grammar school faculty development, and the moral imagination.  She lives in Concord, North Carolina with her husband, Andrew, surrounded as often as possible by their children and grandchildren. 

Contact Karen Kern at karen@circeinstitute.org.

Camille Hunt

Camille Hunt is the mother of six grown children and grandmother of eight. She works for the CiRCE Institute and loves The Lost Tools of Writing, teaching all the levels in online classes, intensives, webinars, workshops, and YouTube videos in addition to her work in curriculum development. Camille has also taught Humane Letters, logic, economics, and government.  She enjoys spending time on her children, travel, reading, music, conversations that deepen understanding, and writing notes to herself on little pieces of paper. 

Contact Camille Hunt at camille@circeinstitute.org.

Jared Hudson

Jared Hudson is the logistical specialist at the CiRCE.

As the “5 tool player” in the office, he handles everything from A-Z and always welcomes new challenges and opportunities.

His passion for travel and his lifelong pursuit of knowledge have lead him on many adventures. When he isn’t on the road or in the air, Jared spends his time watching sports (Go Gators), playing golf, and hanging out with his cat, Perseus. 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Contact Jared Hudson at jared@circeinstitute.org.

Andrew Bianco

Andrew Bianco is a web developer and IT specialist for the Circe Institute. He graduated from Belmont Abbey College with a BA in History and completed a coding bootcamp with UNC Charlotte. He loves baseball and is a big fan of the New York Yankees. You can see the work he has done everyday through the Circe website from building the pages to setting up the products for the customers. 

Contact Andrew Bianco at andrew@circeinstitute.org.