The CMEC Leadership Team

Amy Snell has been part of the Charlotte Mason movement for almost 20 years with her own five children, including two homeschool graduates, while also supporting other families around the world. Amy has a graduate degree in literature from the University of California-Irvine and taught in a variety of classroom environments until she discovered Charlotte Mason. She has shared Mason’s philosophy with others by speaking at national conferences and retreats, hosting book discussions and workshops for parents, running a Nature Study Club, facilitating Truth, Beauty, Goodness afternoons, and creating the Mason Academy. A co-founder of the Charlotte Mason Educational Center (2015), Amy now serves as president of the board and academic director. You can find her on Instagram @learninghowtolivecm.

Celeste Cruz lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and their eleven children. With a graduate degree in English and a background in European humanities and art history, she has taught literature and writing in a variety of settings. She has spent the past two decades studying Charlotte Mason's philosophy and letting it direct and inspire her work as a mother and home educator. Besides organizing a local Mason co-op and nature club, she shares the joys of home education at Joyous Lessons and @celeste_cruz and speaks at retreats and conferences nationwide. Celeste has worked with the CMEC since 2018 and now serves as executive director.

More of Our Team Members

Judy Clark has learned beside her four children since her oldest two were in 5th and 3rd grade. As they graduated, she was introduced to Amy Snell and Charlotte Mason while searching for a better way to homeschool her young twin girls and quickly embraced Mason's philosophy. Judy has an undergraduate degree in biology and a graduate degree in computer science, and she also helps her husband run their two comic book and game shops in the Philadelphia suburbs. She enjoys being a grandmother, reading, tea, and local adventures with friends. Judy assists the CMEC as a membership administrator and Form Leader.

Born and raised in Southern California, Tom Cox studied Latin and Greek at Hillsdale College in Michigan. After college, he went on an 18,000-mile road-trip exploring America, and, while touring the country with his barbershop quartet, was offered his current job at The Heights. Prone to misadventures, Tom has broken both of his ankles and doused a house fire with only a pair of frozen pants. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, Nicole, and six children. In the summer of 2019, he completed a Master's Degree in Liberal Arts at St. John's College in Annapolis. Being a Johnnie sharpened his pedagogy while expanding the tools he uses in the classroom, from seminars to oral exams. When he isn’t speaking or reading Greek and Latin, he enjoys reading (English), hiking, and spending time with family and friends. Besides being a CMEC dad, Tom consults for our curriculum and resources, particularly on the ancient world, and speaks for our community.

Erin Daly lives near Philadelphia, PA with her husband and two daughters. In 2012 she was introduced to Charlotte Mason and the work of the PNEU. Since then, she has studied Mason's life-changing ideas with a wonderful community of fellow homeschoolers. Erin and her family run the publishing company Riverbend Press, providing notebooks and artist prints to the Mason community. Erin is the Director of The Mason Academy, which provides weekly educational programs for homeschool students in grades K-12. She has degrees in economics and political science from Grove City College. Prior to staying home with her children, she worked as a Treasury and Finance Consultant.

Cassie Detwiler is a mother of four and lives in the Philadelphia area. Cassie was introduced to Mason's philosophy after graduating from Eastern University's Templeton Honors College where she studied philosophy, politics, and economics. She teaches at The Mason Academy outside Philadelphia. As director of communications, Cassie oversees our Instagram account, @the.cmec, our discussion board, La Pianta, and manages emails and events.

Dawn Duran lives in Maryland with her husband and their two sons. She has undergraduate degrees in physical education and physical therapy as well as a graduate degree in health sciences. Her pre-motherhood career choices were influenced by her experience as a Division I athlete, and she worked as a physical therapist full time prior to taking on her most prized roles of stay-at-home wife and homeschooling mother. Dawn feels blessed to have encountered the philosophy of Charlotte Mason prior to her children reaching school age and has been immersed in Mason’s methods for more than a decade. Dawn created Swedish Drill Revisited to assist homeschool families effectively embrace a forgotten form of physical education, and is the author of A Reasoned Patriotism: Critical Thinking and Civic Duty in an Age of Polarization. She also co-hosts The New Mason Jar podcast. Dawn assists the CMEC as support manager and contributes to our study guides.

Heather Ermine lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and nine children. After encountering Mason’s writings and philosophy at a local book club many years ago, she plunged wholeheartedly into applying those principles at home, school, and life. She has been homeschooling since her eldest, now an adult, was in kindergarten, and looks back with immense gratitude on the great privilege it has been to learn alongside her children for so many years. Heather holds a B.F.A. specializing in sculpture and graphic design from the University of Central Florida. In her leisure time, Heather enjoys reading, cooking, baking, taking rugged hikes, and working on artistic projects. Heather serves as our Kinderleben and Form 1 Leader.

Jocey Jekel lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, Levi, and their three little ones. Originally from Massachusetts, she attended the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University for her undergraduate degree (B.S. Biochemistry, with minors in Philosophy and Theology) as well as her graduate studies (M.A.T. in Classical Education). After two years of teaching and outdoor adventure in Jackson, WY, she spent four years as a teacher and administrator at a classical high school outside Philadelphia. Throughout her studies and her working experience in education, Charlotte Mason has become a treasured conversation partner. Jocey draws on her experience in the classroom and teaching a variety of subjects at the Mason Academy in her work with our Community Learning Support Group.

Camille Malucci is a homemaker and home educator in coastal Virginia using the Charlotte Mason method since the middle of her first son's first grade year. That same son is now in college while Camille continues to teach five more children at home. She earned a Bachelor's in Business Administration and worked as a Buyer and Planner in the fashion and home goods sectors, but was glad that when family life called, she was able to pursue lifelong learning beside her children. A lover of good books, homemaking, beautiful architecture, travel, and handicrafts, she found the Mason method was a natural fit and it continues to be a blessing to her and her family. These interests drive Camille’s contributions to our team.

Joanna Nice lives in New Jersey with her husband and six children. She wasn't even considering homeschooling when a friend invited her to a mothers' reading group of Mason's volumes. After two years of slowly pondering and seeing the beautiful example of CMEC families, she realized she wanted to live this way too and invited her oldest kids home from public school. Joanna graduated from Princeton University with a degree in molecular biology and has a background in pharmaceutical marketing and clinical trials. She assists with The Mason Academy in the Princeton area and serves as the Form Leader for Forms 2 & 3.

A lifelong bibliophile, Emily Sullivan is a graduate of the Great Books Program of Thomas Aquinas College. When she was a young mom, she began reading Mason in Amy Snell's reading group and felt certain she had found a true kindred spirit. The Sullivans currently reside in southwestern New Hampshire where a wild collection of animals, books and daughters are randomly strewn among a blue gambrel barn, the 1860s farmhouse, and various open fields and gardens. In addition to teaching her own girls, Emily also leads TBG afternoons and mentors college women at nearby Thomas Aquinas College. Before becoming a homeschooling Mom, Emily taught theology and philosophy at a classical high school outside of Manhattan and has written and lectured for a variety of catechetical non-profits. When she's not pre-reading for the upcoming term, she's happiest spending time over tea with old friends...like Aristotle and Aquinas. Emily uses her experience as one of our guide writers.

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