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
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.com.
Andrea Lipinski
Andrea Lipinski is the Vice President of Training and Consulting for the CiRCE Institute, where she also serves as a Head Mentor in their teacher training program, the Rocky Mountain Apprenticeship. A homeschooling mother of two sons, she has graduated her oldest son who attends the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY. Her younger son has one more year at home. She and her family live in the Pacific Northwest where they grow fruit, ski Mt. Baker, and paddle the lakes. She is a co-author of A CiRCE Guide to Reading.
Contact Andrea Lipinski at andrea@circeinstitute.com.
Brandon LeBlanc
Brandon is CIRCE's VP of Integrated Resources, managing the team of Directors for the CIRCE Press, Curriculum, and Digital Media divisions. He also hosts Quiddity and Overdue Classics on The CIRCE Podcast Network and leads our fundraising. Brandon is a two-time graduate of the University of Texas with a BA in History and a Masters of Business Administration as well as a graduate of the CIRCE Apprenticeship. Brandon’s better half is Kobi LeBlanc and they are homeschool parents with one graduate and two in the home stretch. They live in Katy, TX.
Contact Brandon LeBlanc at brandon@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.com.
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.