Faculty Directory

One of our greatest strengths at St. Thomas More Academy is our ability to attract powerful and passionate teachers. The opportunity to work on the cutting edge of Catholic preparatory education draws a wide range of people into our school. In today’s educational climate public school teachers are contending with state-mandated tests. Even many independent schools are consumed with teaching to various tests. Quality teachers are attracted to St. Thomas More because they can mentor students in how to think collaboratively and assertively about matters of significance for Christians in the contemporary world. These faculty and staff profiles give a glimpse of our breadth and wealth of talent.

Deacon Brad Watkins
Headmaster

Deacon Brad Watkins is the Academy’s headmaster. He also teaches electives in theology, art and design. Deacon Watkins came to the Academy after many years of teaching on both the secondary and collegiate level and several years as the Administrative Secretary to the Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge, Bishop of the Diocese of Raleigh…

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Dr. Wesley Kirkpatrick
Dean of Studies

Wesley Kirkpatrick is St. Thomas More’s Dean of Studies. He also teaches electives in philosophy and contemporary history and facilitates the annual senior tutorial…

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Mrs. Ann Cureton
Registrar, Renweb Assistance, FACTS Tuition Payment, Student Records

Ann Cureton is the Academy’s registrar. “I came to St. Thomas More after five years away from the workforce as a stay-at-home mom…

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Mrs. Lan Bello
Instructor in Mathematics

Mrs. Bello was born and raised in Vietnam and came to America during her sixth grade year.  “I remember looking at my very first report card and seeing the only grade on it was an ‘A’ in math…

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Mr. Shaun Blanchard
Instructor in Humanities and Mathematics

Mr. Blanchard has Irish roots, but he professes a great love for the American south. “I grew up in North Carolina eating barbeque, going to football games, and visiting Civil War battlefields!”

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Mr. Randall Blessing
Instructor in Mathematics and Natural Sciences

Randall Blessing is instructor in science and mathematics. He sees both as forms of play and exploration…

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Ms. Nancy Bryant
Student Life Coordinator
Instructor in Humanities

Nancy Bryant is instructor in humanities. One of her favorite thoughts is St. Thomas More’s: “The whole fruit of their educational endeavors should consist in the testimony of God and a good conscience…

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Mrs. Kristy Chandler
Instructor in Humanities

Kristy Chandler is adjunct instructor in the humanities and teaches primarily in the Trivium. “As a linguist I am thrilled that St. Thomas More Academy devotes substantial time to the study of language…

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Mr. Joel Decker
Instructor in Humanities

Following years of rich work with youth in Ohio, Joel Decker came to North Carolina to attend Duke Divinity School with his wife in order to be better equipped for work in Catholic catechesis.

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Ms. Leigh Edwards
Instructor in Humanities

Leigh Edwards is instructor in the humanities. She teaches chiefly in philosophy and theology. “I am a native North Carolinian, the granddaughter of an eastern tobacco farmer and a mountain family.” These two influences of place and faith have shaped her intellectual interests…

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Ms. Christina Geradts
Instructor in Humanities

Ms. Geradts has a venerable view about the education of the young. “My father often shared his philosophy of education with my sisters and me, especially whenever we were celebrating an academic achievement in our family…

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Dr. Anjela Govan
Chair of Mathematics and Sciences

Dr. Anjela Govan was born and raised in Soviet Russia and immigrated to the United States with her family when she was in high school. “My parents always encouraged my pursuits in sciences, and my father imagined I’d become a great computer…

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Mr. Franz Klein
Instructor 

In 2009 Franz Klein enrolled in the “Great Books” Ph.D. program at the University of Dallas with the idea that he would someday teach at a small, Catholic liberal arts college. “But a few things made me realize that my calling was to teach on the prep school level,” he said. “It started when I was given the opportunity to coach cross country and track at a nearby Catholic school that had a strong commitment to human, spiritual, and intellectual formation.

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Mr. Patrick Kurz
Instructor in Humanities

Mr. Kurz first fell in love with literature in his youth while reading Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. “I found myself enthralled by the protagonist’s struggle for justice in a fallen world…

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Mr. Charles McCants
Instructor in Humanities

Charles McCants was born and raised in Raleigh, but went off to Virginia for greater formation in the Classics and Theology. During college he spent a number of weeks at Holy Cross Abbey, a Cistercian monastery in Northern Virginia.

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Mrs. Cassie McCullers
Service and Outreach Coordinator

Cassie McCullers is the Academy’s service and outreach coordinator and adjunct instructor in the natural sciences. “One of my own guiding principles comes from Joshua 24:15: ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord…’

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Dr. Jake Noland
Chair of Humanities

Jake Noland is St. Thomas More Academy’s Chair of Humanities. He was born and raised in Virginia, and as the son of a Methodist minister he lived all around the state. He began studying philosophy during his first semester at UVA and started teaching it as a graduate at Texas A&M. While in Texas he met his wife, Stormy, and they now have five wonderful children.

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Mr. David Pell
Instructor in Humanities

The classical world has captivated Mr. Pell from his early teens. “I began studying Latin as a freshman in high school, and I have come to favor authors who composed history, philosophy, and poetry…

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Mr. Kyle Pridgen
Instructor in Natural Sciences

Although nearly everyone in Kyle Pridgen’s extended family is an engineer, he went a different route: “I decided that my call was to chemistry after realizing how much fun it was to make something out of nothing!”

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Mr. Rod Ruiz
Instructor in Humanities

For Mr. Ruiz “history is not just something we learn in a book, but something within all of us…

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Dr. Richard Skirpan
Instructor in Fine Arts

“Soon after entering music school in college to study to be a composer, I realized that field would require lots of solitary effort…

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