Our Scholars

Cindy Calder founded Calder Classics in 2012 while studying Greek and Latin at Columbia University.  She earned her B.A. from Dartmouth College and her M.A. in Classics from Columbia University.  She also spent several summers in the hallowed halls of CUNY’s Latin/Greek Institute, where the extremely intense but very rewarding course of study inspired her to share her passion for the Classics through her own high school and adult programs. Cindy founded Calder Classics on the belief that the study of the Classics, when complemented with a first-hand experience of art, history, literature, and modern culture, enriches younger students’ academic experience and encourages adults to re-engage in the joys of learning. At Calder Classics, mixing students of all ages in a shared learning environment has proven intellectually stimulating in wonderfully unexpected ways. Cindy taught Latin at Trinity School, the Brearley School, and Saint Joseph High School in New York City, and she has taught many courses for Calder Classics in-person and online. She has extensive tutoring experience in Latin and Greek. Cindy lives with her husband in Massachusetts and is the mother of four grown children.

Dr. Frances Bernstein earned her B.A. in Classics from the University of Chicago and her Ph.D. in Classics from Princeton University, where she completed a dissertation examining the relationship between physical boundaries, interpretive limits, and poetic power in Vergil’s Georgics and Aeneid. Frances currently teaches middle and upper school Latin and ancient Greek at Riverdale Country School and enjoys encouraging students to think critically about the Classics from beginning language classes through advanced reading courses on Euripides’ Medea or Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Outside of the classroom, Frances can be found running, playing piano, or perfecting her coffee-making routine.

Sarah Betensky currently attends Brown University. She has been studying Latin since sixth grade and added ancient Greek in high school. She is a Calder Classics Teaching Fellow and a founding member of the Calder Classics Junior Advisory Board.  Sarah has participated in two Calder Classics programs: a Latin literature course in Essex, Massachusetts called “Roman Voices,” and the online “Journeys to the Underworld” course. She also worked as an intern for Calder Classics, discovering and sharing the ways in which classical antiquity is still celebrated in our society. Sarah spent her junior summer working on an ancient Roman archaeological excavation in Spain. Her senior year of high school she completed an independent research project on the role of Classics in US history. Sarah shared the successful outcome of her independent study project with our students in a course she designed for Calder Classics in 2023. She loves to help students seek ways to create their own independent study projects. Outside of Classics, Sarah trains in, and teaches, taekwondo.

Ilaria Bichi Ruspoli was born and raised in Val d’Orcia, a World Heritage site located in Southern Tuscany, Italy. She descends from an ancient noble Sienese family related to pope Pius II Piccolomini, that has lived in the same castle since 1465.  Her family runs a historic farm. She studied Humanities in Montepulciano and graduated in Art History at the University of Studies in Siena (2002). She holds a PhD in Sienese sculpture of the XVIth century (2008). Her background is Medieval and Renaissance culture. She has been working as a cultural guide since 2002. She also teaches Italian as a foreign language and gives tours and lectures mainly focused on history and art, with a particular interest for ancient families, historic private houses, and gardens. She is vice-president for Tuscany of the “Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane” (Italian Historic Houses Association). She has published several articles and guidebooks about the Sienese art, like “The floor of the Siena Cathedral”, “The hospital of Santa Maria della Scala. A visitor’s guide”, “Underground Siena”, and a childrens’ book “Theo, Sophia, and the adventure in the Duomo of Siena”.

Emma Brandow graduated from Vanderbilt University with a major in Classical & Mediterranean Studies and a minor in Italian and Chinese followed by an M.A. in Education from Southern Methodist University. She grew up in Manhattan and attended Riverdale Country School and The Brearley School. Emma currently lives in Dallas, Texas where she teaches Latin at Great Hearts Irving. Emma has taught Latin at all levels from beginner to the AP level. She previously taught at TEAK Summer Program in Manhattan. She studied abroad in Siena during her junior year of college and is greatly looking forward to returning to Italy as a chaperone for Calder Classics.

Johanna Braff has been at The Dalton School since 2013 where she teaches Latin and Greek. After attending Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, she received her B.A. from Swarthmore College in Latin and Greek, and her M.A. from the University of Maryland in Classics. At Maryland, she was awarded a Teaching Assistantship and the Award for Teaching Excellence in 2008. She completed her M.A. with a thesis focusing on the role of gendered animal similes in Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Homer’s Odyssey. Johanna then began her Ph.D. in Classics at the City University of New York Graduate Center. She has taught Classics and Classics in Translation classes at Brooklyn College, Lehman College and Touro College. She spent a year teaching Latin at the Brearley School before coming to Dalton.  Johanna has taught ancient Greek for Calder Classics in Florence and in Thessaloniki where she loves soaking in all of the Greek culture and also picking up some modern Greek!

Billy Calder attended Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, where he developed a passion for theater, Shakespeare, and the classics from an early age. He continued to pursue these interests at Dartmouth College, majoring in Theater and founding an undergraduate Shakespeare company. After Dartmouth, Billy earned his M.F.A. in Acting from Harvard University and the American Repertory Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training.  Billy is an expert on all middle school, high school, and college entrance exams, as well as many of the College Board’s subject-specific AP exams. Billy also uses his advanced dramatic training to help students express their voices clearly in academic essays, personal statements, and college applications. His deep experience with ADHD, dyslexia, executive function challenges, and other specific learning disabilities, along with his compassion and empathy, make him a highly-effective academic coach.

Timothy Calder is an educator, entrepreneur, and traveler who has spent almost half his life living outside the US. At Dartmouth College, Timo majored in East Asian studies, a versatile concentration that allowed him to explore classes in many different subjects such as government, anthropology, history, literature, film, religion, language, and art history. After graduation, Timo pursued a Princeton in Asia fellowship, which sent him to teach ancient Asian history at a local secondary school in Singapore. Timo then spent 6 years in Beijing and 4 years in Hong Kong. With over 12 years of experience as an educator, Timo has worked with hundreds of students from Asia and the US as a classroom teacher, college consultant, academic tutor, and squash coach. When Timo is not teaching he is probably reading a sci-fi novel, playing squash, or walking Chelsea (his 3-legged rescue dog from Beijing).

Henry Cammerzell is currently a senior at Princeton University where he is pursuing a degree in linguistics. Henry is the recipient of the 2023 Stinnecke Prize, Princeton’s highest award to a student for Latin and Ancient Greek. Studying Latin since the fifth grade and Ancient Greek since high school, his studies focus on the evolution and mechanics of Indo-European and Semitic languages, and he plans on pursuing these interests further in a doctoral linguistics program. His senior thesis research analyzes the verbal system of Akkadian using novel theoretical approaches in morphosyntax. In his last two years of high school, Henry completed a Classics dual enrollment program at Princeton University. With Calder Classics, he participated in the 2016 Reading Latin + Art History program in Florence which inspired him to continue to pursue classical languages throughout high school and into college. For the 2023 season, Henry was a program chaperone and teaching assistant for the Florence and Rome sessions. While on campus, Henry works as an analyst, manager, and recruiter for Princeton’s football team and enjoys weightlifting. He also has interests in modern languages, speaking both French and Greek.

Sonnet Carter is a Brooklyn native. Her love for Classics was ignited in the Prep for Prep program, where she first studied Latin. She continued her study of Latin at Saint Anns School in Brooklyn, then fell in love with Ancient Greek in Calder Classic’s Thessaloniki program. As a student at Yale, Sonnet majored in Philosophy and Women’s, and continued her study of Classics. She is interested in using Classics as a lens to explore other disciplines such as philosophy, art, and linguistics — oftentimes, reading classical literature has served as inspiration for her artwork. Since graduation from Yale in 2024, she has been engaged in fundraising, grant-writing, and communications for Family Pictures Institute, as well as production coordination on related media projects, and assistance with archival organization, curation, and exhibition development. A former Calder Classics student, she returned in 2019 as the chaperone for the Tuscany program.

Dr. Eric Casey earned his B.A. from Haverford College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Classical Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. He was a Professor of Classics at Sweet Briar College for 15 years where he was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award twice and had a teaching and research focus on Greek cultural history and Latin literature and poetics. He has published on strategies of commemoration in ancient Greek funerary inscriptions and the threshold between the living and the dead, as well as on the Great Library at Alexandria, connections between ancient Greek mystery cults and the Freemasons, among other fascinating topics. Dr. Casey is also the recipient of the American Philological Association’s award for Excellence in Teaching at the College Level, and the Classical Association of Virginia’s Teacher of the Year Award. He currently teaches Latin and Greek at The Trinity School in New York City and served as one of the official graders for the AP Latin Exam for over 10 years. Dr. Casey teaches several online courses for Calder Classics and has co-led multiple trips to Greece and Italy.

Dr. Collomia Charles holds a Ph.D. in Classics from Boston University. As a professor of Latin and Greek in the Classics Department at Barnard College and Columbia University, she also taught courses in the Comparative Literature and English departments. At CUNY’s Latin/Greek Institute, she has taught both the Basic and Advanced Program in Latin and Greek. Collomia now teaches at Collegiate School in New York City. Calder Classics has been lucky enough to have Collomia share her deep knowledge with our students as a teacher in both our Rome and Thessaloniki programs, for which she has also served as our Curriculum Consultant.

Foteini Chasikou studied for her Ph.D. at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Language and Culture, where she received an M.A. in Technology and Language Education, and a B.A. in Greek Philology specializing in Classical Language and Literature: Ancient Greek and Latin.  She has served as a Lecturer of Greek Language and Culture in Beijing Foreign Studies University and Professor of Ancient Greek Language in Peking University. Foteini has taught ancient Greek during the summer in Calder Classics’ online programs.

Jasmine Clarke graduated from Bard College where she studied Photography under Stephen Shore and Gilles Peress. She is currently a masters student at Yale School of Art. Her work has been chosen for many group shows and can be seen at https://jasmine-clarke.com .  Jasmine recently taught Photography classes at Bard where she has also been a Visiting Artist-in-Residence. She has many photography credits to her name associated with articles in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and New York Magazine. Jasmine was the photographer in Greece for our Reading Greek program, and she is a designer for Calder Classics marketing materials.

Dr. Crispin Corrado is a classical archaeologist specializing in Roman art, who received her Ph.D. from Brown University, her M.A. in Art History, and B.A. in Classics from the University of Chicago. Professor Corrado (“Crispin”) has fieldwork experience at Pompeii and has worked in a curatorial capacity in the departments of ancient art at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Vatican Museums. She assisted these institutions in the creation and implementation of exhibitions of ancient art, co-authored catalogs, wrote articles, and presented guest lectures. Crispin’s major research interests include Roman wall painting, sculpture, and domestic architecture. She currently teaches at several American universities in Rome and is the founder and an acting officer of the Rome Society of the Archaeological Institute of America. She has lived in Rome for over fifteen years and is our resident Ancient History teacher and guide. She co-led our 2023 Reading Latin + Ancient History spring program in Rome and our Learning to Read Latin summer program in Rome and the Bay of Naples.

Annie Costa graduated from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a concentration in fiction writing. After working in fashion merchandising for many years, she left the start-up world for the classroom and received her M.A.T. from the Relay Graduate School of Education. Annie taught at KIPP NYC College Prep in the Bronx before relocating to New Hampshire, where she is the English Department Coordinator at Hanover High School and teaches English, composition, and rhetoric. Inspired by the Writers in Paris study abroad program she completed at N.Y.U., Annie has led writing-focused student trips to Florence, Italy, for several years.

Aulden Foltz graduated as a Classics major from Stanford studying Ancient Greek. Over the summers, she has worked at several archaeological field sites, including tracking the path of Hannibal over the Alps and studying Pre-Incan society at Peru’s Chavín de Huantar. Aulden was a student in our Pompeii and Tuscany programs, and she returned as a chaperone with Calder Classics in Florence. Outside of Classics, Aulden also studies biology. She has worked in several types of labs, in addition to spending a winter in the field studying the social behavior of spider monkeys in Panama. She values her varied academic background and loves to find ways to connect Classics with other disciplines.

Lizzie Fox is a graduate of Williams College, where she majored in Comparative Literature with a focus on Latin. She is currently in grad school at the University of Arkansas where she is studying creative writing, translation, and medieval Latin. Lizzie also works as an actor, writer, Latin translator, and teacher. She has lived in India, where she taught Shakespeare to high schoolers, France, where she studied at the Institut International D’Études Françaises in Strasbourg, and the Philippines, where she worked as a journalist and women’s health activist. Lizzie is currently at work on translations of the Latin plays The Octavia and Dulcitius.

Zoe Fox has her B.A. in Classical Languages from Bryn Mawr College, her M.A. in Classics from UCLA, and is currently working on her Ph.D. in Classics through the University of Birmingham. She focuses on the ways in which ancient and modern leaders use the city of Rome as a political tool. During the academic year, Zoe teaches History and Classics in Los Angeles. Zoe also volunteers as a docent at the Getty Villa. She spent 6 months living in Rome while in college at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies and has spent many summers as an archaeologist excavating around the city at the Gabii Project, the Sant’Omobono Project, and the Signum Vortumni Project in the Forum Romanum. Zoe has taught several online classes for Calder Classics and is the co-leader of our Reading Latin + Roman Imperial History travel programs.

Sarah Grover earned her B.A. in Comparative Literature from Brown University and her M.A. in Classics from NYU, where she focused on Latin and Greek literature. She has been teaching Latin, Ancient Greek, and Spanish at Riverdale Country School since 2007 and has led both middle and high school students on trips to Greece, Italy, Spain, France, and Peru. She loves the study of modern languages and enjoys speaking Italian. Sarah has led many Calder Classics programs in Rome in the summers and over spring break and has developed several online Reading Latin courses. She has also taught Greek in Thessaloniki for Calder Classics. Sarah is the co-leader of our Spring Break 2026 Reading Latin program in Rome.

Zari Havercome is a graduate of Brandeis University, with a double major in Health and International Global Studies. She is a member of the E-board for the Women of Color Alliance. With a foundation in ancient languages from her Latin class at Saint Joseph’s, Zari went on to study Italian in college and plans to become fluent. Zari has been a student in our programs in Florence and Pompeii and returned as a chaperone with Calder Classics in Florence. She was the first recipient of the Calder Classics “Scholarship for the Study of Classics in the Wild.”

Victoria Hodges is a Ph.D. candidate at Rutgers University where she is currently working on her dissertation on dance, choreography, aesthetics, and the senses in ancient narrative. During her time as a doctoral fellow, she has held two external research and academic fellowships at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and has participated in the excavations at Ancient Corinth, Pompei, and Stobi, North Macedonia. Before coming to Rutgers, she earned her M.A. in Classics at San Francisco State and her B.A. in Anthropology and Archaeology at Texas A&M University. Since earning her M.A., Victoria has taught courses in Greek, Latin, and gender and sexuality in Greece and Rome, and has given lectures at various archaeological sites throughout Greece on ancient civilization. She currently splits her time between Athens and Oxford and is excited to take up her first year of teaching for Calder Classics on beautiful Samothraki.

Felicia Kang is Chair of the History Department at Spence School, and former Chair of the History Department at Saint Ann’s School where she taught history for over twenty years. She teaches a wide range of topics including a middle school course on Ancient History in which her students delve into a reading of Homer. At the high school level, she teaches American History as well as electives on the Cold War, Modern East Asia, and a political theory course, Democracy and Dictatorship, in which her students closely read the works of many Greek philosophers and dramatists such as Plato, Aristotle, and Sophocles. Felicia received her B.A. in political science from Barnard College and her MSc in International History from the London School of Economics.  Both her undergraduate and master’s theses focused on collective political thought and its influences on communism. This will be Felicia’s third year teaching for Calder Classics, and she is looking forward to bringing the words of ancient theorists alive while on-site in Greece!

Clare Kearns is a Ph.D. candidate in Classics at Brown University. Her research primarily focuses on gender and sexuality in the Roman Empire, but she also often works on instances of Classical reception in feminist and anti-colonial contexts. Prior to Brown, she received a B.A. in Classics and Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. Outside of Classics, she enjoys hiking, reading contemporary fiction, and taking care of her dog, Olive.

Lizzy Kildahl graduated from Williams College in 2014 with a major in History and a focus on the Middle East. While at Williams she took every opportunity to study Spanish and Portuguese on campus and abroad, becoming proficient in both, and developing a love of learning languages and traveling the world. After graduation, she taught English for a year in Northern Thailand. Lizzy is currently in her tenth year at the School for Ethics and Global Leadership, a semester school in Washington D.C., where she teaches U.S. History, Comparative Government and Politics. She is Dean of Faculty Emeritus.  Among other things, Lizzy’s U.S. History class focuses on understanding American political leadership through primary source analysis, including seminal political speeches. Lizzy was a chaperone for Calder Classics in 2015, 2023, and 2024, and she is returning in 2025 as a co-teacher of the “Power of Rhetoric” class in Tusculum and as a chaperone in Florence.

Maddie Mauro is currently a medical student at Stanford Medical School and received her B.A. from Harvard College, where she jointly studied Classics and regenerative biology. Deeply passionate about the interdisciplinary impact of the Classics, Maddie enjoys any opportunity to think, discuss, or teach about it, and so was thrilled to co-teach our Classics in U.S. History course in the summer of 2023. Maddie has worked as an educator in both Latin translation and biology for students in middle school, high school, and college. She is an alum of Calder Classics.

Hugh McElroy, B.A., Georgetown University, M.St. University of Oxford, teaches Latin at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC.  Hugh fell into teaching after three years of touring and recording in a punk band. He thought it would be a one-year job but, 20 years later, he is still excited about developing his teaching practice. An avid gardener, cook, and traveler, Hugh is happiest eating vegetables harvested from the volcanic soil of Campania after a day scrambling over archaeological sites. He and his husband Kevin live with two cats, Clare and Francis, who were adopted after a trip to Assisi in 2017. Hugh co-led our 2023 Reading Latin + Roman Imperial History program in Rome with Zoe Fox and our 2024 Reading Latin + Roman History program in Rome with Crispin Corrado.

Athina Mitsi holds a B.A. in Classical Philology from University of Athens and an M.A. in Greek language and Literature (ancient and modern) from University of Cyprus. She is a passionate tutor of Greek (modern & ancient) and Latin.  Her mother tongue is Greek and she has extensive experience in teaching children and adults in both Greek and Latin. Her teaching method is enjoyable and effective, introducing the amazing worlds of etymology, mythology and Greek history, and the richness of Greek literature, starting from Homer through the Byzantine world to modern Greek writers and poets. Athina has curricula for all ages and can adjust her approach, with patience and a smiling face, to fit students’ needs and pace of learning.

Kat Misko earned her B.A. in English with a minor in Film and Spanish from Boston College and earned her M.F.A. in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. As a three-time Emmy Award-winning (nine-time nominee) writer, producer and director for major networks such as NBC, ABC, and USA, she has extensive experience in telling compelling stories for the screen. She teaches an interdisciplinary writing and film course at Marymount Manhattan College, which focuses on the art of adaptation and how to utilize classic narrative tools in media. She has taught writing, reading, and literature to underserved NYC youth, served as a reader for One Story magazine, and is currently at work on her first novel. In her spare time, she does art and design work with her husband. She has lived abroad in France and Spain, studying at Parsons Paris and La Universidad Autónoma, and has attended prestigious writing workshops, such as the Tin House and Sirenland Writers Conferences. A mother of two young kids, she lives in New York.

Dr. Sarah Nix earned her B.A. in both Classics and History from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, and from there returned to Chiang Mai, Thailand, where she had spent a college semester, to teach at Chiang Mai University. She moved back to the U.S. to earn her Ph.D. in Classical Languages and Literature from Brown University, graduating in 2005. Dr. Nix taught in the Classics Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, before shifting to secondary education, taking a position at Miss Hall’s School in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, where she currently teaches Latin and Greek. For ten summers, she also taught courses on the ancient city of Rome in both undergraduate and pre-college programs in Rome. In 2023 Dr. Nix co-led our Learning to Read Latin program in Rome and the Bay of Naples.

Rebecca Newson is a professional tour guide with over a decade of experience working with a wide range of clients, from families and private travelers to schools, universities, and institutional groups. She studied Classics and Archaeology at undergraduate level and holds a Master’s degree in World Heritage Conservation, with training focused on the protection, interpretation, and long-term management of cultural heritage sites. Her academic background includes study at the British School at Athens, and she has worked on archaeological excavations at Ostia Antica as a finds specialist. This experience shapes an approach that examines how objects and sites are used to reconstruct the past. Based permanently in Rome, Rebecca guides at a wide range of sites across the city, from major archaeological monuments to churches, museums, and lesser-known corners of the city. She aims to make Rome readable and engaging, helping visitors understand how ancient history and modern life intersect in the urban landscape. When not working, she can be found travelling to experience other cultures, hiking Italy’s stunning landscape and honing her palate at one of its many wineries!

Dr. Linda Nolan is an art and architectural historian and educator who has taught for over a decade at study abroad programs in Rome, including Dartmouth College’s Art History program. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Art History from USC and her B.A. in Fine Arts and Art History from Lake Forest College.  Linda’s teaching is lively and discussion-based. She encourages students to explore how art and architecture respond to social and political change, from ancient architecture to modern museum displays of ancient art. Before moving to Rome, Linda worked as a Gallery Teacher at the J. Paul Getty Museum and as an assistant to artist Raymond Pettibon.  She later served as Project Manager for the Los Angeles-based artist Sandy Rodriguez. She also helped found the Rome Society of the Archaeological Institute of America. Linda has received fellowships from several prestigious foundations in support of her research and excavations at Pompeii and in the Roman Forum. She has published and presented at conferences on topics ranging from ephemeral devotional practices and female patronage to the politics of gift exchange. Her current book project, Tangible Devotion, explores the material traces of spiritual life in early modern Roman churches.

Alyssa Northrop received her B.A. in English and Creative Writing at Williams College and her M.F.A. in fiction writing at Brooklyn College. She has taught English on a Princeton in Asia Fellowship and undergraduate composition and literature courses at Brooklyn College. Alyssa is a life-long student of the Classics, having studied Latin and Greek in high school at Saint Ann’s and modern adaptations of classical literature at Williams. She has fiction and non-fiction pieces published in the Colorado Review, the South Carolina Review, and Epiphany Magazine, and she is working on her first novel. When Alyssa is not writing, she works as a writing and humanities tutor for kids of all ages. Here is her website. 

Alyssa spent a summer chaperoning for Calder Classics in 2014 and returned in 2017 and 2019 to teach a Creative Writing Workshop in Florence and online in 2020 and 2021. She led our Creative Writing Workshop in Florence in 2023 and she will co-teach Reading Latin + Creative Writing in Florence in 2024. Alyssa is the first recipient of the Calder Classics Scholar-in-Residence award.

Caitlin Petty is a Ph.D. candidate in Art History at Washington University. She earned her M.A. from Syracuse University where she was a Fellow in the Florence Graduate Program in Renaissance Art. Having presented her Capstone Project at SU’s annual Graduate Symposium in Florence, Caitlin was a teaching assistant for Art History courses at SU’s Florence Campus while continuing to pursue her research interests in the intersection of art and anatomy. Her interest in the history of art was greatly influenced by her undergraduate studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where Caitlin studied Art History, Studio Art, and European Studies in Antiquity and availed herself of many study abroad programs. Caitlin is passionate about experiential learning and truly enjoys working with students onsite. In July of 2019, Caitlin shared her love of Florence with the Greek students at Calder Classics, lecturing on Michelangelo and Neoplatonism. Caitlin joined Calder Classics in our online programming in 2020-22 where she shared her passion for the history of art and the rich treasures of Florence in particular. She co-led our 2023 Reading Latin + Art History program in Florence and our Journeys to the Underworld course in the Tuscan countryside and is returning in 2024 to co-teach our Reading Latin + Creative Writing program.

Tobias Philip first kindled his love for Classics at Bard High School Early College in NYC. He continued to study Classics at Swarthmore College, where he earned a B.A. in Greek and Latin with High Honors, winning the Gil Rose Prize for top graduating Classics student. He has completed his M.A. and is a doctoral candidate at Rutgers University, where he is writing a dissertation on Tertullian and the Greek and Roman philosophical tradition of criticizing spectacles. After completing a Fulbright scholarship in Heidelberg during the 2024-2025 academic year, he began teaching Latin at St. Bernard’s School in NYC. Tobias has also taught Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy and the intensive Introduction to Ancient Greek summer program for Calder Classics.

Lana Robinson-Sum is a Latin teacher at St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco. She earned her B.A. in Classics at Brown University and a M.A.T. in Latin and Classical Humanities at Boston University. Lana also studied abroad at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, where she loved the experience of reading Latin in a place teeming with Roman heritage. Wanting to pursue her passions in international travel and education, she then spent a year teaching English in rural Thailand as a Fulbright grantee. Lana has led numerous Latin-themed field trips as the moderator of her school’s Junior Classical League, as well as longer school trips to New Hampshire and New Orleans. Lana has taught Latin in our Avignon program where she has enjoyed practicing her French in the summer while tracing the footprints of Julius Caesar in Gaul.

Emma Schneider earned her B.A. in Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies from Penn State in 2018 and her M.A. in Classical Languages and Literature from Texas Tech University in 2021. She researches the benefits of incorporating comprehensive input into ancient language pedagogy as well as the didactic characteristics of ancient comedy. Emma has been teaching and tutoring Latin and Ancient Greek for six years at all grade and age levels and teaches Latin at STEMCivics in New Jersey. Outside of school and academics, she is an avid baker and self-proclaimed over-protective dog mom. In the summer Emma teaches Latin online courses for Calder Classics.

Dr. Jeffrey Ulrich earned his Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania where he taught Latin and Greek, as well as Greek and Roman Mythology and Critical Writing.  At the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, he was an instructor in both the Basic and Upper-Level Latin courses. Before entering Penn’s graduate program, Jeff earned his B.A. at Rutgers, with a double major in Classics and Mathematics, then taught mathematics at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, NY for two years. He is currently a Professor of Classics at Rutgers University and has also taught at Wellesley College and at Haverford College. Jeff has taught Greek in the Calder Classics program in Thessaloniki and has led the Greek sections of our programs in Tuscany.

Dr. Antonia Young has a BA in Classics from Wellesley College, having graduated summa cum laude, and earned her MA and PhD at University of California, Berkeley in History of Art. In college she attended the ICCS and College Year in Athens, and subsequently returned to Rome to research while in graduate school. She has extensive experience teaching subjects such as Latin, Classical Civilization, Greek Mythology, and Art History for 10 years at the college level and another 10 years teaching high schoolers. She is currently an Upper School Latin teacher at Kent Place School, a PreK-Grade 12 independent school for girls in New Jersey.

Jeff Wright’s mission is making Homer’s epics accessible (and FUN) for audiences who are not necessarily educated in the Classics.  Following 20 years of teaching the humanities, Jeff launched his career as a 21st century Homeric Bard. Over 10,000 teenagers had their first introduction to Achilles, Helen, Odysseus, and the Trojan Horse through Jeff’s shows.  Trojan War: The Podcast and Odyssey: The Podcast brought Homer’s epic stories to adult listeners, with a growing 1.3mm downloads in 191 nations. In 2020 the Society for Classical Studies awarded Odyssey: The Podcast its Forum Prize as the year’s “best public-facing essay, book, poem, article, podcast, film, or other piece.”  Jeff’s live shows include on-stage performance storytelling – “Blame it on Zeus’s Thunderbolt” – intimate salon gatherings, and raucous affairs in bars and clubs. Jeff’s leadership lectures- “Leadership Lessons from a Bronze Age War” – fuse the fun of Homer’s tales with the contemporary insights of Behavioral Economics and Leadership Theory.  In “On Being a 21st Century Homeric Bard” Jeff recounts his personal journey in “singing Homer” to 21st century audiences. Beginning with the comically disastrous first time he attempted to teach the Iliad, Jeff then explores the real challenge of navigating contemporary audiences through the Scylla and Charybdis of Bronze Age epic.  When not geeking out on Greek epic, Jeff’s passions include wilderness canoe tripping, playing in the kitchen, and hanging out in the gym.  Jeff co-led our 2023 Homeric Storytelling + Creative Writing course.