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Verathon Academy Advisors
We're a group of educators, entrepreneurs, pastors and investors partnering with parents to design the ultimate education and formation experience for all of our children.
Alex Portino
Mr. Keith Nix - Richmond, VA
Keith Nix has served as the Head of School at Veritas in Richmond, Virginia since 2010 and serves on the Board of Academic Advisors at the Classical Learning Test. He is the Vice Chairman of the Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS) and was the prior Chairman of the Society for Classical Learning. He has served on the Board of the Virginia Council for Private Education since 2013. Prior to moving to Veritas in 2010, Keith was a board member, and then later Head of School at The Westminster School in Birmingham, Alabama from 2004 - 2010. He is a founding Arête Fellow and has facilitated the Arete Fellowship gatherings since 2009.
Alex Portino
Deborah J.A. Miller, Ed.D. - Vancouver, WA
Deborah J.A. Miller comes to Verathon equipped with 35 years of teaching, administration and leadership roles in private Christian education. This includes serving as high school principal and assistant superintendent at King’s Way Christian School, as Head of School at Westside Christian High School and as co-founder serving multiple leadership roles at Vancouver Christian High School. She has also served as the Northwest Regional Director for the Association of Christian Schools International, where she oversaw ACSI schools in a five-state region. Previously, Deborah founded and led the undergraduate and graduate teacher education programs at Multnomah Bible College. She holds a B.S. in Social Studies Education, a Master’s in Education, and a Doctorate in Education from George Fox University.
John Filingo
Mr. Brian Sullivan - Minneapolis, MN
Mr. Brian Sullivan has served as Principal and Head of School for Maranatha Christian Academy (MCA) for 31 years. Maranatha has been recognized regionally and nationally as a school of innovation focusing on design-thinking, courageous change-making, exploration, and community building. The school was most recently cited by the International Christian Accrediting Agency at Cognitia, formerly advanced as a “Flagship School.” Mr. Sullivan serves on the board of the Minnesota Independent School Forum, was the Oral Roberts University Educational Fellowship Administrator of the year and was recognized in Minnesota as an outstanding educator in 2019.
John Filingo
Pastor John Mark Comer - Portland, OR
John Mark is the former pastor for teaching and vision at Bridgetown Church in Portland, OR. He recently launched a non-profit called Practicing the Way to create resources for discipleship and formation in local churches in post-Christian contexts. He is the co-host of “This Cultural Moment” a podcast about following Jesus in a post Christian world. He is the author of Live No Lies, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, My Name is Hope, Loveology, Garden City, and God has a Name. John Mark is dedicated to practicing and teaching the way of Jesus. His life ambition is to be with Jesus, become like Him, and do what He did - and help others do the same.
John Filingo
Clare Kozushko - Newberg, OR
Clare Kozushko is a practicing Professionally Certified Educational Therapist, directing the Thrive Learning Center in Newberg, Oregon. She also directs Firm Foundations, Sherwood, a school dedicated to providing joyful learning for students of all abilities. Previously she spent 17 years teaching at Veritas School, a classical Christian school in Newberg, OR. Clare is passionate about bringing cognitive enhancement to every student in the classroom. She is trained in Brain Integration Therapy, Processing and Cognitive Enhancement, Phonographix, and she holds a master’s level certificate in Dyslexia Education from Southeastern University.
John Filingo
Janice Patterson - San Francisco, CA
Jan is the founder of Lead Out Education which trains and supports parents in homeschooling their children. Jan began her work with children by earning a Master’s degree in Speech and Language Pathology and working in the public schools. She later embraced homeschooling for her children at a time when it was not fashionable and became an advocate for homeschooling, founding parent support groups, teaching parents and speaking on behalf of the movement.
John Filingo
Jimmy Bisenius - Portland, OR
Jimmy Bisenius Founded Verathon Academy out of a desire to re-imagine and improve the education experience for His children and children everywhere. Prior to Verathon Academy, Jimmy spent his career in private and public investing, including 8 years helping deploy hundreds of millions of dollars as part of an investment partnership advising Fairfax Africa, now Helios Fairfax Partners. This work included over $50m allocated to private education platforms building schools in multiple countries. Separately, His extended family has organized and operated pod schools as part of a homeschooling co-op for more than a decade. Verathon Academy seeks to combine the best of professional private education with the personalization and flexibility of Homeschooling pods.
John Filingo
Richard Okello - Johannesburg, S. Africa
Richard is a Co-Founder and Partner at Sango Capital. Prior to co-founding Sango, Richard, was a Principal at Makena Capital, a large private endowment, where he was responsible for allocating over $15 billion into more than 300 funds and direct investments. Prior to working at Makena, Richard was a Partner at Bridgewater Associates, a US$150 billion global hedge fund. Richard was educated in Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States, receiving an MBA Hons. from Pace University and a BA (Honors Program) Economics & Public Policy from Swarthmore College. He sits on several fund advisory boards, portfolio company boards as well as the boards of the African Leadership Foundation and Human Horizons Foundation.
John Filingo
Bryan Pereboom - Portland, OR
Bryan serves as legal council and is part of the management team at Black Rock Coffee Company, which owns and operates more than 100 stores across the western half of the US. Formerly, Bryan helped create efficient investment structures for entrepreneurs, developers and investors from the West Coast of the US to the frontier markets of Africa and Asia.