Angela Baker is the mother of seven children ages 16 years - 10 months. She and her husband Roger have home schooled their children for 10 years, the last 6 of which have been strongly influenced by the principles of Thomas Jefferson Education. She earned her 5 Pillar Certification from George Wythe College in 2002 and since then has continued to broaden her education making classics of all kinds a regular part of every day. Angela enjoys her work as the director/mentor of the 5 Pillar program at GWCAn abbreviation of George Wythe University (formerly George Wythe College), a private liberal arts college headquartered in Cedar City, Utah, which Dr. Oliver DeMille helped found, and where he formerly served as president. There are also plans underway for building a much larger campus in Monticello, Utah, and plans have also been announced for a remote campus in Alberta, Canada.. She also enjoys teaching and speaking in a variety of settings. However, what she enjoys most is the spontaneity, creativity, tenderness, fun, and chaos of living and learning with her children and husband. Whether it be reading a great book together, wrestling on the family room floor, walking, or late night talks—these are part of the joyful essence of her life and her personal mission to strengthen families.
Laura Bledsoe is a native of Las Vegas, Nevada. Introduced to home schooling over ten years ago, she is a champion for parental involvement in the education of children and youth, having homeschooled 4 of her 5 children.
With a bachelor’s degree in Statesmanship and working on her Master’s at George Wythe College, she has lectured internationally with the Face to Face with Greatness Seminar Series for the last four years. She is the owner of Quail Hollow Farm, the first CSA (Community Supported Agricultural) in all of Southern Nevada, providing real leadership for self-sustaining communities in the southwest.
With a vast array of interests and hobbies ranging from gardening to martial arts to mountain climbing, Laura is a delightful and informative speaker driven to lead out in the building of Statesmen. She resides in Overton, Nevada where she and her husband Monte, run a successful construction company.
Oliver DeMille is the founder and president of George Wythe College, and the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education. As a university student, Oliver went on a search for a truly great education—researching private and public universities, technical and religious schools, and corporate and international educational institutions. As a result, he took classes from a small Bible school where he worked closely with mentors and studied the Bible and the great classics in many fields. Eventually, although Coral Ridge Baptist University was not regionally accredited, he was so excited by the quality of his studies that he left a large, well-respected university to focus full time on his classical education. He earned the B.A. in Biblical Studies (May 1992), M.A. in Christian Political Science (December 1992), and Ph.D. in Religious Education (May 1994) at Coral Ridge Baptist University. He has written and spoken extensively about the traditional education system versus his intense mentored-classical experience with Coral Ridge and other non-traditional schools. After his Coral Ridge studies, he went back and completed the B.A. in International Relations with a minor in Aerospace Studies at Brigham Young University (August 1994). Oliver is a popular keynote speaker, writer and business consultant, and he is married to the former Rachel Pinegar. They have eight children.
Rachel DeMille and her husband Oliver are founders of Thomas Jefferson Education and the parents of eight children ranging from 17 down to 3, including a 7 year old with multiple disabilities and developmental delays. She has known the triumphs and challenges of motherhood and homeschooling and has a gift for empowering other parents, especially women, to “trust the process” and find joy in the journey.
Rachel Keppner is the wife of Russell and the home-schooling mother of ten amazing children, ranging in ages from fifteen down to the one who arrived last December. Because she was raised in a home where the classics were cherished, the ideology of A Thomas Jefferson Education was very easy for her to embrace. Upon finding TJEd friends in her own community, she co-founded the Arizona Liberli•ber (lī´bər) [Latin liber, a book, from the sense of bark, and this from stripping, separating. Hence liber, a book, and liber, free, are the same word. WBST.1828] 1. noun one of two population classes in ancient Greece and Rome, the other being the slave class, which had the abilities to read, write, and contract, thus being free. 2. adjective having been educated in the arts which maintain freedom, i.e. the liberal arts [Latin artes liberales]. Association of Families (www.azlaf.org), and recently resigned as its president. She and her husband together run a leadership education website for TJEd families in the United States and around the world at TJEd.org. Rachel enjoys reading great literature, speaking in public, socializing, singing, watching classic movies, and eating her husband's delicious culinary dishes.
Russell Keppner is the husband of Rachel and the father of ten energetic children, ages 15 to 7 months old. He is the pioneer in his family, having introduced his wife to home school, alternative medicine, and other “radical” notions early in their marriage. Being the first in his family to read about and embrace TJEd, he does his best to support his wife and children in their educational endeavors. An artist and computer programmer since his youth, he felt called to create a website for TJEd families, and launched TJEd.org in 2004. He is presently self-employed as a freelance consultant and web site developer, and has many entrepreneurial projects in various stages of completion. He is an aspiring amateur cook, and loves to share his ethnically-diverse concoctions with others.
