Board
JOE CALKINS is Chair of the CiRCE Board.
He received his bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech where he focused his research on robotics and measurement uncertainty. He is one of the founders of New River Kinematics where he serves as the President of the company as well as one of the principal software developers of the SpatialAnalyzer metrology platform. Joe lives in Williamsburg, VA with his wife and three children. It is in Williamsburg that he first encountered Classical Education at Providence Classical School (PCS). Joe is currently chairman of the school board that is currently working to add the Rhetoric school for PCS. Joe became acquainted with CiRCE when Andrew came for teacher/board training several years ago. Joe currently serves on the board at CiRCE and is trying to keep up with all the talk of classical literature from which engineers are typically sheltered.
GREG ROE is the treasurer of the CiRCE Board.
He lives with his wife Julann in Tampa, where they home school their three children, Sydney, Luke, and Rebecca; and where they attend St. Mary’s Episcopal Church. Greg grew up in Tampa, graduated from the University of South Florida with Accounting and Finance degrees, and has worked in the insurance industry for the past twenty-seven years. He currently serves as board chair where he provides oversight and direction for the CiRCE Institute. Greg believes that the public and private education system in our country are broken and that we need to return to our theological roots, remembering that God is the creator of all things and that through the study of the historical (classical) writers we can come to know God and how best to serve Him.
STEVE ELLIOTT heads the CiRCE Institute’s President Support and Evaluation Committee.
He has been serving in education as a teacher and administrator since 1990 in such various locales as Maryland, Louisiana, and North Carolina. He also writes, speaks, consults, and generally annoys others who are trying to work with him in the classical Christian arena. He resides in Reidsville, NC, is married and the father of four young men. Steve heads the CiRCE Institute’s President Support & Evaluation Committee and serves as the Board’s secretary. He is excited to see Circe pushing for the right conversations about the truly important ideas. One of his top goals for Circe is to see Andrew Kern milk a cow.
MARTIN COTHRAN is the author of Traditional Logic, Books I and II, as well as Aristotle’s Rhetoric: A Traditional Course in Speaking and Writing, both published by Memoria Press. He is also logic and rhetoric instructor at Highlands Latin School in Louisville, Kentucky and is Master Teacher at Mars Hill, Lexington. In addition to being editor-in-chief of Classical Teacher magazine, he serves as senior policy analyst for The Family Foundation of Kentucky, where he directs legislative and media relations. He holds a B.A. in economics and philosophy from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an M.A. degree in Christian Apologetics from the Simon Greenleaf School (Now a part of Trinity University). He lives with his wife and four children in Danville, Kentucky.
SILVANO FERAZZO lives in Weddington, North Carolina (a Charlotte suburb), and is Business Development Manager for Green Turtle Americas, Ltd., a company focused on providing engineered wastewater solutions for commercial and industrial clients. As a CiRCE board member, Silvano advises the organization on marketing, promotion, and communication issues, and assists in business planning. He says he serves on the CiRCE board because, “As a parent committed to homeschooling our three children, I recognize the need for a clear approach to classical education based on conservative Christian principles. The CiRCE Institute has the vision to provide the philosophy and the tools to regain what has been lost in education, and to regain excellence.” Further, he says, he “would like to help CiRCE to equip our next generations to strive for that excellence, to love learning, and to not settle for the lukewarm education that prevails today.”
DR. PETER VANDE BRAKE grew up in the south in Georgia and Tennessee but attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI where he was a 4-time All-American decathlete. He went to seminary at Union Seminary in Richmond, Virginia and then did his doctoral work at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids obtaining a Ph.D. in systematic theology in 2000. He was ordained as a Minister of the Word and Sacrament in the PCUSA in 2001. He completed the Van Lunen Fellows Program for Executive Leadership in July of 2009. He taught, coached, and administrated at North Hills Classical Academy from 1996-2010 and served as the headmaster there beginning in 1998. He is a leadership consultant for the CiRCE Institute. He is married and has two daughters.
