Institute Staff

Jason Pedicone, the co-founder and President of the Paideia Institute, received his Ph.D. in Classics from Princeton University in 2013. Jason has taught courses in Latin, Greek, and the history of Classical Scholarship at the university level in the U.S. and Western Europe, and is an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College and Fordham University. Jason’s research and public speaking focus on public humanities and Latin and Greek pedagogy. Jason received a Fulbright Fellowship for research in Germany in 2004, and a Jacob Javits Fellowship in 2013 to support his graduate work.  In 2015, together with Paideia's co-founder, Eric Hewett, Jason was awarded the President’s Award by the Society for Classical Studies for outstanding achievements in promoting the study of Classics. He lives in Manhattan.

Gabriela is the Director of U.S. Operations at the Paideia Institute. Prior to joining Paideia, she worked in digital media at companies like Google and BuzzFeed. Gabriela studied Classics at Columbia and holds a Master's degree in Experimental Humanities from NYU, where her research focused on discard studies and contemporary public art. She sits on the board of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia Foundation, a New York-based international development NGO, and lives in New York City.

Gene currently manages the development of Paideia’s self-paced online Latin and Greek curricula. He is also the head teacher for Living Greek in Greece (High School). He holds an M.A. in Ancient Philology with an Emphasis in Teaching Ancient and Modern Languages from the Polis Institute in Jerusalem, and a B.A. in Classical Languages from the University of California, Berkeley. He has been involved with the Institute in several roles since 2012, when he first participated in Paideia’s courses in Europe, including Living Latin in Rome, Living Greek in Greece, and Living Latin in Paris. He was then one of Paideia’s first Rome Fellows, and eventually served as Assistant Director for European Operations, in which capacity he directed logistics for Paideia’s Travel Programs and Classical Tours.

Fernando completed a master's in Ancient Philology from the Polis Institute of Languages and Humanities and a master's in Classics from the Washington University in St. Louis. He also holds an M.A. degree in Literary Studies and a B.A. in Ancient Greek from the Federal University of Parana. Fernando has been teaching Greek since 2008, and his research interests are focused on the history of education, platonism, self-knowledge in antiquity, and second language acquisition.

Griffin is a graduate of Cornell University with a B.A. in Latin and the College Scholar Program, and wrote a thesis for the latter on the Old Saxon Heliand poem, a 6,000 line alliterative verse epic retelling of the New Testament. He additionally received minors in German, religious studies, and medieval studies, and some of his scholarly passions include Greek and Latin Patristics, Biblical Hebrew, and Anglo-Saxon England. During his time as a student, he helped run Cornell’s undergraduate society for medieval scholarship, played in performances of Ancient Greek tragedy, and participated in reading groups in Latin and Old Norse. He is an alumnus of the 2017 Living Greek in Greece program.

Mark Buchan, a former Professional Classicist, currently teaches in the Writing Program at Rutgers University. He received his BA in Classics from Cambridge University, his PhD from the University of Michigan, and has written a book or two on Homeric poetry. He can be found in his natural habitat, the jazz and piano bars of New York City.

Jonathan Meyer holds degrees from Calvin College, Yale University, and the University of Kentucky, where he took part in the active Latin program at the Institute for Latin Studies. He is primarily interested in Latin of the Renaissance to the modern period. He was a regular member at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece, and a fellow at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies in Innsbruck, Austria. He also studied under Reginald Foster. Since 2014 he has been an instructor for Living Latin in Rome and has taught occasional courses for Telepaideia. He is currently the primary instructor for Paideia's Rome fellowship. 

A native of Rome, Marco Romani Mistretta studied Classics at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and received a PhD in Classical Philology from Harvard University before joining the Paideia Institute. He currently directs the Institute's European branch and oversees all financial reporting, including income statements, balance sheets, and annual budgets. Besides being the author of several research publications, he has taught a number of courses on ancient languages, Greek and Roman literatures, and science in antiquity. He peer-reviews articles for Sage Business Cases and regularly lectures at Rome's Sapienza University.

Before Luca became the bookkeeper for the Italian branch of the Paideia Institute, he graduated with a degree in Business Studies and Foreign Languages (English, French and Spanish) in Rome. He held several jobs (sales assistant, warehouseman, secretary) before working in a tax service center and then at an accounting firm. In his free time he loves to go to the cinema, travel, take photos and, when the weather is nice, do some trekking.

After almost a decade of teaching languages, Jamel left the classroom to focus on writing curriculum. She developed materials for the Aequora program, served as a subject matter expert for the Institute's Summer Humanities Internship in 2017, and joined as a full time curriculum designer for 2018. Jamel holds degrees in Classics and Letters from the University of Oklahoma and an M.A. in Educational Technology & Leadership from George Washington University. Outside classics and linguistics, Jamel is particularly interested in Irish archaeology and literature. She currently lives in Valencia, Spain with her husband, young children, and feisty calico.

Nicholas attended Living Latin in Rome with the Paideia Institute
the summer of 2019, and participated in Latin immersion program
Conventiculum Dickinsoniense the year before. He
graduated from Hillsdale College in 2020 where he received a B.A.
in Latin, and has since been teaching Latin at the middle and high
school levels at Highlands Latin School in Louisville, Kentucky.
Nicholas’ primary area of interest in classics include the poetry of
Homer, Vergil, and Ovid, as well as prose and verse composition.

Megan Buick is the Online Programs Manager at the Paideia Institute. She studied Classics in Latin at the University of Iowa and under Reginald Foster in Milwaukee and has a Masters degree from Boston college in Philosophy & Theology.

Sara graduated in 2018 from the University of Aosta Valley in Languages and Communication for Business and Tourism. In 2016 she spent one year in France, attending the University of Savoy Mont Blanc in Chambery, which allowed her to get a double major in French. In 2017 she did a 5-month internship in Valencia (Spain), working as a receptionist in a hostel. She also has experience working as a hostess for international events. Sara's passions include languages, travels, and sports. She currently lives in Civitavecchia, near Rome, even though her origins are tied to the mountains around the Aosta Valley.

Aminata Hughes has a B.A. in History with minors in Classical Civilization and Secondary Education from Saint Peter’s University. Her love of the classics was nurtured at The Brooklyn Latin School, where she earned a perfect paper on The National Latin Exam during her freshman year. As an undergraduate, she played Jocasta in Oedipus Rex as part of her university’s Greek Theater Project. Outside of the classics, she enjoys camping, Japanese comics and winning at trivia.

Maya graduated from CUNY Hunter College with her BA in
Art History, double minoring in Classics and Women and
Gender Studies. She has previously attended Living Latin in
Rome, Living Latin in Paris, and volunteered for Living Latin
in NYC 2023 & 2024. Additionally, she worked at the New
York Public Library for five years in the Art and Architecture
collection. Her love for Latin began with a desire to
translate the Classical and Medieval writing she was
studying in her art history classes and evolved into many
years of Latin study. She is particularly interested in the
Medieval Latin found in Late Gothic illuminated
manuscripts. Maya plans on obtaining her MA in library and
archive studies, continuing to work with both translated and
untranslated rare texts.

Vukašin Miljković holds a Master’s degree in Classical Philology from the University of Belgrade, Serbia. His interests are wide, including, but not limited to philology (Greek and Latin classical prose, historiography, rhetoric), linguistics (in particular historical linguistics and syntax), and didactic methods (ancient language teaching). A proponent of the active study methods of Latin and Ancient Greek, he spent a year at the Accademia Vivarium Novum where he consolidated his knowledge of spoken Latin and Ancient Greek, as well as at the University of Ioannina, Greece, where he attained high proficiency in Modern Greek as well. As an undergraduate, Vukašin also took part in an exchange program organized by the US Department of State which enabled him to spend a year at the University of Texas at Austin, continuing his studies of Ancient Greek and Latin, as well as getting acquainted with Sanskrit. His teaching experience includes high-school level and university level courses in Greek and Latin (in TA capacity), both in classroom and online, summer school intensive courses, as well as conventional language courses. Currently, he is also studying Classical Chinese and Biblical Hebrew.

Amanda earned a B.A. in Classics and History with a minor in Modern Greek Studies from San Francisco State University. She holds an M.A. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Arizona and wrote her master's thesis on Nabatean funerary practices, for which she earned an outstanding thesis award. While taking a hiatus from the world of Classics, she had the privilege of working as a Special Education teacher in Washington and Arizona public schools. Amanda's current interests include learning Modern Greek and reading New Testament Koine Greek. She lives in Phoenix with her husband, three rambunctious sons, and sleepy Bluetick Coonhound.

Maria received her B.A. in Archaeology from the University of Ioannina in Greece and an M.A. in Conservation of Cultural Heritage from the University of Siena. She knows the archaeological sites of Rome and Greece very well and has fifteen years of experience in teaching both Ancient and Modern Greek. She is a licensed tour leader and always in quest of new itineraries, suitable for the needs of every single request.

Shea graduated in 2020 from the University of California, Santa
Cruz with a double major in Literature and Creative Writing and
Classical Studies. She is currently studying at the University of
Denver to obtain a masters degree in Library and Information
Science. She is an alumna of 2019 the Living Latin in Rome
program.

Shea hopes to unite her passions of archival studies,
Latin, writing, and teaching by promoting access to Latin
scholarship in underfunded high schools bringing visibility to the
language and Roman history through her writing.

Patrick Cullinan is a graduate of Fordham University (2024),
where he majored in Classical Languages and minored in
Economics. His senior thesis analyzed ancient moral
strictures on usury (particularly those of the Church
Fathers) and argued that the case against charging interest
on loans is just as strong in the modern economy. He hopes
to continue his study of the Church Fathers and the context
in which they wrote in the future.

Born and raised in Athens, Nikoletta earned a BA in Classics from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UOA) and holds an MSt from the University of Oxford in Classical Languages and Literature. Her main research interests involve Ancient Greek Drama and Philosophy, and the reception of ancient literature in modern culture. In general, she is deeply interested in the history and archaeology of ancient cultures. She has worked as a school teacher of Ancient and Modern Greek Language and Literature, and she has tutored foreign undergraduate students in Ancient Greek and Latin. Apart from Classics, driven by her curiosity about the functions of the brain and human behavior, she earned an MSc in social Neuroscience and social Pedagogy from UOA. She is passionate about theatre and music, which she enjoys both as a member of the audience and as a vocalist.

Melissa was born and raised in Rome. She graduated from accounting school and started her career immediately thereafter. Melissa has worked as a sales promoter, accounting administrative assistant and sales representative in the luxury hospitality. She has participated in international trade shows promoting the excellence of Italian hospitality to the world’s most important buyers. In her free time, Melissa enjoys traveling and discovering new cultures.

Lainey graduated from the University of Notre Dame in
2021 with a BA in Classics and Anthropology, with the
respective concentrations of Latin and Archaeology. She
has been teaching Latin at a college preparatory school in
Indianapolis for the past three years. She is most interested
in the art and literature produced during the late
Republican period to early Imperial Rome and how the art
and literature, in turn, produced an empire.

Emilia Colandrea was born and raised in Rome, showing since childhood a great passion for art, literature and history. She graduated in 2019 in Foreign Languages and Informatics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. In 2017 she spent six months in Spain studying at the University of Seville, while in October 2022 she completed a Master's Degree in Tourism Strategy, Cultural Heritage and Made in Italy, with a thesis focused on the International Protection of Cultural Heritage. She deeply believes in the power of art and humanities to improve people's lives. Her greatest passion is traveling to discover new cultures and to acquire new perspectives, while in her free time she loves writing, reading, cooking and going to theaters, museums and archeological sites.

Adam arrived to Rome from Australia in October. During his time there, he held roles at Football Australia and the Australian Tax Office whilst also working in Community Development at a local Football Club for 11 years. Adam graduated his Bachelor's Degree with a Double Major in Business Administration (Finance and Management) and Arts (Italian).

Kaitlyn Cashdollar graduated from Knox College in 2023
with a B.A. in Classical Languages and a minor in
Archaeology. In 2023-2024 she was awarded a fellowship
position at Anatolia College in Thessaloniki, Greece where
she helped plan and organize events and student activities.
Her academic interests include lyric poetry, epigraphy, and
classical reception, with a passion for on-site and hands-on
learning. In her free time, Kaitlyn enjoys engaging her
friends in classics-related hobbies, including an Ancient
Roman themed role-playing game.

Sophia received her B.A. in 2024 from Boston University
with a double major in Classical Civilization and
Archaeology. Her minor in the Core Curriculum focused on
influential global literature and sparked her interest in the
epics of Homer and Virgil, as well as Ancient Greek and
Roman philosophy and sociopolitical history. After reading
the Iliad in Ancient Greek Sophia decided to learn Latin to
re-read Virgil, Ovid, Seneca, and other Roman authors with
deeper understanding.

David Hewett is Paideia’s Outreach Manager for Classical Tours, as well as instructor in Telepaideia. He has an M.A. in Classics (2009) from the University of Virginia and began a dissertation there on Seneca’s Epistulae Morales, before starting his position at Paideia. He has been a Regular Member of the American School for Classical Studies at Athens (2011-12), a student at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome (Spring 2005), and holds a B.A. in Classical Studies from Dickinson College (2006). In addition to this formal education, he studied with Reginald Foster in Rome (2006-07). He lives in Philadelphia.

Allegra is the institute's Marketing Manager, as well as an alumna of Paideia's Living Greek in Greece and Summer Humanities Internship programs. In 2021 she earned her B.A. in Art History from Barnard College, where she wrote a thesis investigating the museum store as an apparatus of cultural capital and commodity fetishism. An occasional tutor of Ancient Greek history and literature, she is passionate about art and aesthetics from the Classical to the contemporary.