Board Member Biographies
Board of Directors
Gregory van Duyse
Chairman, Publicity Director
Gregory and his wife Evelyn have been home schooling their five children (10, 8, 7, 2 years old and a new baby!) for the past five years in Montreal Canada. They have been inspired by the Lord to educate them and consider it a blessing. Gregory is an entrepreneur and loves to be engaged in building the Kingdom. The 2004 LDSEHE conference inspired him to help make the conference accessible to as many saints as possible. He feels it is a pleasure to work beside so many good people who strive to building the kingdom of God one child at a time. Gregory has contributed in exceptional ways towards developing the vision, clarifying the mission, and ordering the organizational framework of LDSEHE. His leadership and support of the executive board is extremely valuable and appreciated.
Sue Brandt
Vice Chairman
Sue Brandt joined the church in 1974 and was married in the Washington, D.C. temple in 1975. She and her husband John have six children, with 4 married in the temple so far and 10 grandchildren (1 more on the way). All of their sons have served missions -- their youngest is serving a mission right now. They homeschooled for twelve years. Sue and her husband John are grateful for the privilege to homeschool because they know that decision impacted their family in many positive ways -- most importantly, spiritually. They know that incorporating the gospel in curriculum as part of family life is the key to optimal development -- spiritual, intellectual, and every other way. They also appreciate the many ideas and support they have received from members of this organization.
Brian Gallew
Director
Brian is the father of four, a graduate and employee of Carnegie Mellon University, and is married to the most fabulous woman ever. Brian has served as the LDSEHE treasurer and is now sharing his insight and experience with the organization as a member of the Board of Directors. Over the years, Brian and his wife have given much practical support to the conference, from keeping accurate financial records to working toward the establishment of LDSEHE as an official non-profit organization. Brian and his family currently live in Qatar.
Theresa Handy
Director
Influenced by Reed Benson at BYU, Theresa and her husband David decided to homeschool even before the first of their four children were born. Feeling a need for a local LDS support group, they formed the first statewide LDS homeschooling organization in Oregon and held annual conferences. They relocated to North Carolina in 2003. The Handy family's homeschooling adventure continues, with grandparents joining their household, health struggles, running a family book publishing business, and much more! LDSEHE is grateful for Theresa’s knowledge, experience and willingness to serve.
John Frary
Director
John and Cheri are the parents of ten children and have home schooled for over 18 years. They have been married for 32 years. John works as a Security consultant/contractor in Information Assurance. He has spent over 25 years in retail businesses and possess extensive customer service skills. He was a training manager for many years training hundreds of managers, in operations, HR, P&L responsibilities. He served a mission to France in the early 70's. He met Cheri at BYU and they finished their Baccalaureate degrees at the university. John has been active in Boy Scouts for over thirty years. He and Cheri have been active in numerous church callings, and are waiting patiently to spoil their grandchildren.
John Reeder
Treasurer
John and his beautiful wife, Christena, began their homeschooling journey at the beginning of the 2006 school year. As newcomers to this fast-paced and exciting world, they were glad to find an organization dedicated to helping those with similar values. They were so impressed with what they gleaned from their first homeschooling conference they felt they wanted to lend their assistance in whatever way they could to help this association grow. They have three wonderful children who are/will benefit from the conferences -- and one who is very anxious to begin participating in the Youth Conferences.
Executive Board
Misty Foxley
President
Misty has been working tirelessly in one capacity or another in organizing this conference and setting up its volunteer leadership staff for the past four years. She has a continuing admiration for parents who choose to bring their children home and lovingly devote their time and energy to their development and education. Misty’s desire is to help support the increasing number of LDS homeschoolers through this conference and other aspects of LDSEHE. She and her husband, Derek, live in Virginia, have 6 children and have been homeschooling for over 15 years. Their oldest son recently returned from a mission and their oldest daughter attends George Wythe College. They consider their experiences in homeschooling as some of the most fulfilling and greatest experiences of their family life.
Dana Wood
Vice President
Dana and her husband, Spencer, have been homeschooling their 10 children since 1987. As a military family, they have lived all over the country, including 9 years in Alaska. Besides homeschooling, Dana enjoys reading, sewing, gardening, knitting and quilting. As LDSEHE Vice President, Dana is primarily responsible for the extraordinary success of our youth education conference over the past two years. She is also becoming an oft-requested and trusted speaker. She and her family reside in New Jersey.
Katie Wilson
Secretary
Katie and her husband, Dave, live in Virginia. They have four children –three boys (ages 13, 11 and 7) and a girl (age 4). They have been homeschooling for eight years. Dave and Katie love the freedom and flexibility that homeschooling provides and feel blessed that they have been able to follow this path on their family's journey. The Wilson family enjoys music, being silly, and reading, reading, reading! Katie has found great strength in attending the LDSEHE conferences, and appreciates being able to learn and be inspired by other LDS homeschoolers. She has served as the LDSEHE Secretary since 2006.
Brenda Heiselt
Web Team
Brenda and her husband, Matthan, have one daughter who is 2 years old. Brenda graduated from BYU in 2003, and then worked as a private tutor for local school districts prior to becoming a mom. Even though she doesn’t “officially” homeschool yet, Brenda attended the 2007 home education conference and was uplifted and touched by the Spirit. She felt like the message was exactly what she needed to hear. Responding to that feeling led her and Matthan to become involved in volunteering for LDSEHE. Over the past year, they have spent countless hours developing and implementing our new website and adding to the overall quality of the LDSEHE organization. The Heiselt family resides in Virginia.
Board Assistants
John and Laura Lewis
Executive Board Assistants
John and Laura live in North Carolina and are the parents of 7 children, 4 of whom have left home and are living productive, married lives! Dissatisfied with their public school experience, they began homechooling their younger 3 children in 2007. After attending last year’s conference, they were impressed by what they experienced and wanted to lend their support to LDSEHE by volunteering. Their many hours of work on the behalf of the conference have been a great help to the Executive Board!
Lori Garrett
Assistant to the Treasurer
David Handy
Web Team Leader (Programming)
David and Theresa (a member of LDSEHE’s Board of Directors) decided to homeschool even before the first of their four children were born. As part of their homeschool journey, they established the first statewide LDS homeschooling support group in Oregon. After they relocated to North Carolina in 2003, the Handy family became involved in helping further the mission of LDSEHE. This past year, David volunteered to lend his expertise (he’s the owner of Handy Software) to help bring LDSEHE up-to-date, computer-wise. As an integral member of the web-team, David has spent hundreds of hours upgrading our membership database and contributing in many countless ways to the efficiency of the website.
Matthan Heiselt
Web Team (Design)
Matthan grew up in Ohio, went on a mission in Englad, and graduated college at BYU. He is married to Brenda Heiselt and they have a wonderful 2 year old daughter. Matthan currently works for a small ad agency as a web and graphic designer.
Conference Planning Committee
Melissa Orton
Conference Planning Committee - Speaker Contact
Melissa grew up in a small town in Idaho—growing potatoes and moving water lines! She is the oldest of 6 children, and the only girl. Her parents started homeschooling when she was a junior in high school. By taking home study courses from BYU, she was able to graduate from high school early and begin college. This helped her realize how much time is really wasted in public school, and convinced her that she wanted to homeschool her own children some day! Melissa and Matt have three daughters, ages 11, 8 and 4. They have been homeschooling for 7 years.
Denise Ward
Conference Planning Committee - Panel Presentations
Denise and Craig Ward have been married for 26 years, and have 12 children (seven girls and five boys), ages 3-25. They also have two grandchildren, with more on the way. Denise has been homeschooling 11 years. She started homeschooling when her oldest child reached high school. One day she had finally had enough of the “rat race” and pulled all of her children out of public school in the middle of a year. To date, Denise has four homeschool graduates (attending BYU, BYU-I and SVU, and one on a mission), and eight still in homeschool. Because of the ages of her children, Denise is currently teaching pre-school through the 12th grade. She has also had four babies during her homeschooling years, and understands how hard it is to teach multiple grades, and handle babies at the same time! Through it all, Denise has learned that organization is a blessing, not a chore.
Michelle Carbee
Conference Planning Committee - Refreshments, Activities
Michelle and her husband Todd have been homeschooling their two boys, Chase (17) and Bryce (15) since they were born. This year they have added homeschooling their niece, Brooke, age 11, to their routine as she came to live with them in September. Michelle has been active in homeschooling by organizing and running group activities and classes for the past 8+ years. She has taught a class for LDSEHE’s annual conference in the past. This is her first year of working with the Conference Committee.
Marty Huie
Conference Planning Committee - Registration Assistant
Marty and her husband Mark live in Virginia. They have four children - two girls (ages 14 and 9) and two boys (ages 12 and 8). Home schooling, for eight plus years, has become a way of life for them. They love the opportunity they have each day to be an intricate part of building their children’s “character houses”. Their love for the outdoors motivated their recent move to the country where they play at being farmers. Marty has been attending the annual LDSEHE conferences since 2002. She views the conferences as an invaluable support, as she has receive knowledge, inspiration, support, and encouragement from an LDS perspective. This year, she joined the team and is serving on the 2008 LDSEHE Conference Committee.
HJ Van Dam
Conference Planning Committee - Vendor Contact
H.J. Van Dam is married to a great, supportive husband, Dan, and has three children, ages 8, 5 and 2. The Van Dams have been homeschooling for three years. They first considered homeschooling when they lived in Utah, during their schooling. However, when they moved to Virginia, they felt certain that they would put their children in public school. However, as the time approached, H.J. and Dan kept getting the feeling that homeschooling was the path they were supposed to take. After much prayer and fasting, they knew homeschooling was the right answer for their family. H.J. was motivated to volunteer for LDSEHE by attending the annual conference during her first year of homeschooling. She and Dan learned many things at that conference, and most importantly, felt inspired to continue homeschooling, even through the hard times. She desires to help make future conferences great so that other families can be inspired as well.
Youth Conference Planning Committee
Cecelia Ward
Youth Conference Planning Committee - Talent Show
Cecelia (age 17) is the fifth of twelve children, and currently the oldest kid at home. She loves to draw and write, and is currently writing her second novel. She plays the piano, sings, and has dabbled with the violin. She is her mom's right-hand woman, and teaches creative writing and English to three of her younger siblings in 7th and 8th grades.
Sarah Brimhall
Youth Conference Planning Committee - Talent Showcase
Sarah is 16 years old, and has been attending the LDSEHE Youth Home Education Conference for the past 4 years. She has lived all over the USA, and has even lived in Mexico. For the past 4 years, she has lived in Virginia. She has played the piano for half of her life, and has recently taken up guitar and voice. Sarah loves almost any kind of music, especially musical theater. Art is what Sarah admires, particularly impressionist and modern art. She is quite computer savvy and am fascinated with graphic design. Last year, Sarah helped design the LDSEHE Youth Conference logo and t-shirt, and also designed the t-shirt for this year’s conference. Her true passion is reading, and she feels incomplete without a book under her arm!
Katie Wood
Youth Conference Planning Committee - Family Dance
Katie Wood is the 6th of 10 in her family. She has 1 sister and 8 brothers. Katie was born in West Virginia, but moved when she was two to Alaska, where she spent the next 9 years in Kenai and Juneau. She misses the hiking and fishing and canoeing her and her family did there as well as the photo safaris she would do with her photographer dad. Katie is a very crafty or should that be artsy person. She loves art, photography, jewelry making, knitting, crochet, sewing and quilting. She also likes to write and is in the middle of a very long novel. Katie has been a member of the Alloway Young Thespians and has just finished performances of “The Taming of the Shrew”. Katie plays the harp and lives in Carneys Point, New Jersey.
Makenna Lewis
Youth Conference Planning Committee - Youth Games/Snacks
Makenna is 16 years old and the youngest girl, out of 7 in her family, but currently the oldest at home. This is her first year at being home schooled, and being very organized helps her be successful at it. She loves athletics, and dance, and being with her 6 nieces and nephews. Her Young Women's program at church has only 8 girls total, so she is used to being in the middle of getting things done. One highlight of her last year was flying in a 1942 open cockpit bi-plane...over the ocean!
Chase Carbee
Youth Conference Planning Committee - T-shirts
Chase Carbee has been homeschooled all of his life. He is a Junior/Senior this year and has recently earned his Eagle Rank in the Boy Scouts of America. He plans on finishing his studies and working for a year to earn money for his mission. He loves music and plays both the piano and the guitar. He has a knack for electronics and enjoys trouble shooting and fixing game systems, especially x-boxes, as well as working on the computer. He plans on serving in the military as an officer after his college studies. This is his first year serving on the youth committee.
Kaylee Huie
Youth Conference Planning Committee - Youth Registration
Kaylee Huie (14) currently lives in Virginia with her family. She is the first of first of 4 children, a freshman in high school, and has been home schooled since first grade. Her passion in life is horses. She is involved in 4-H in which she shows her horse Megas Black Magic. Her other passion is music. She teaches piano lessons and has been playing for eight years. She attends seminary where she strengthens her testimony. She is a member of the Youth Committee for the 2008 LDSEHE Youth Home Education Conference.
Andrew Wood
Youth Conference Planning Committee - Youth Registration
Andrew Wood is the 5th of 10 children in his family and the 4th boy out of 8. He was born in Texas and has lived in many states since then, but he would have to say that living in Alaska was his favorite. He misses the great outdoors and believe it or not the snow. Andrew is an outstanding pianist and vocalist and enjoys music of all kinds. He snowboards, hikes, does repelling, and loves snow camping. His first love is business and he plans on owning his own business (or businesses) in the future. He spends his time studying WWII, reading about debate and logic, playing with his youngest brother or hanging out with his older brothers. He has been a member of the Alloway Shakespeare Young Thespians and has just finished his second play “The Taming of the Shrew”. He can’t decide between attending SVU for music studies or Kettering University in Michigan for an auto engineering and business degree. Andrew is LDSEHE’s publicity intern for this year as well as the chairman of the Youth Committee. Andrew lives in Carneys Point, New Jersey.
Advisors to the Board of Directors
Dan Hunter
Advisor
Dan Hunter and his wife Janice have been married for 28 years, and have five children, ranging in age from 19 to 27. They have homeschooled for 15 years. They currently have three married children, one child attending college, and four grandchildren. Currently, Dan has written nine history books which are used in private schools and homeschools across the nation. He is the owner of Living History, Archive Publishers and Wholesome Books. Dan has tremendous experience in the homeschooling community: as a homeschool father, conference speaker and LDS vendor. LDSEHE is grateful to Dan for his willing service and wise counsel, as an Advisor to the Board of Directors.
Dr. Glenn Kimber
Advisor
Dr. Kimber is the founder of many private schools in the West (Kimber Academies, formerly known as The Benjamin Franklin Academy private schools). Brother Kimber also travels throughout the U.S. presenting training conferences to those interested in religious private education. He and his wife have authored 77 textbooks covering the subjects of History, Science, Math, Language Arts, and Religion. All these textbooks are based on LDS principles and emphasize community service, and a love of learning for students of all ages.
Brother Kimber has also led over 30 tours to Israel during the past several years. Currently, Brother Kimber holds the position of President of American Founders Academy, and Vice President of American Founders University, both based in Provo, Utah. As a LDSEHE Board Advisor, Dr. Kimber generously shares his many years of experience and extensive knowledge about the LDS homeschooling community.
Jolene Irving
Advisor
Jolene Irving has been homeschooling since 1995. Born and raised in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, Jolene and her husband, Dave, settled to raise their six children in Houston, Texas. The oldest three have graduated and are married; the younger three are still at home. Jolene is the founder of CTR Beacons of Light, a large and successful Texas support group. She knows that in many places, homeschoolers feel alone and are struggling, but when we feel of one another’s strengths, it helps keep us going. Realizing the need for LDS homeschoolers to feel connected and share information, Jolene founded the National LDS Homeschool Association, and currently serves as the director. This position allows her to share unique insights with LDSEHE as a Board Advisor.