Faculty and Speakers

Robert Holschuh Simmons earned his Ph.D. in Classics at the University of Iowa, following a BA in Classics and English at St. John’s University (MN) and an MAT in English from Minnesota State University (Mankato). He taught English for three years at Omaha (NE) North High School, taught eighteen different courses over eight years of teaching at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and has taught nearly sixty different courses over twelve years at Monmouth College (IL), where he is Professor. He has won awards at Monmouth for excellence in advising, service, and scholarship; from the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS) for teaching excellence, collaborative research, and career achievement; from the American Classical League for innovative pedagogy; and from CAMWS, the Society for Classical Studies, and Eta Sigma Phi for outreach excellence. His participation in this institute extends from the hands-on work he does in classes like Sports in Greece and Rome, which have extended into biennial Classics Day festivals at Monmouth, each of which includes more than fifty events and stations at which visitors can engage in such activities as a range of ancient Olympic events, Roman-style stone-carving and mosaic creation, and ancient-style grain-grinding. He is also the author of Demagogues, Friendship, and Power in Classical Athens: Leaders as Friends in Aristophanes, Euripides, and Xenophon, is the president emeritus of the Illinois Classical Conference, and is CAMWS vice-president for the Lake Michigan Region. This is his third NEH-granted project, following this same institute in 2024 and one on displacement and migration of ancient peoples in 2024-25.

As co-director, Bob will be primarily coordinating the efforts of the many contributors on Monmouth's campus, and will be the main teacher of ancient Olympic athletic events and other matters connected directly to the Games.

Nathalie Roy studied classics at Louisiana State University and archaeology at the American Academy in Rome and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. She currently teaches Latin, Roman Technology, and Myth Makers at Glasgow Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In 2021, the Louisiana Department of Education named her its State Teacher of the Year for her innovative efforts to merge STEM and classics, an experience that took her to the White House where she met President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. Students in her classes reproduce the products, processes, and stories of ancient Roman and Greek everyday life through experimental archaeology, hands-on history labs, and STEM challenges. Recent projects have included hands-on history lessons such as building a Roman road through their school's campus to learn about ancient engineering and the everyday lives of soldiers and designing and constructing their own Roman leather shoes to learn about the lives of ancient Romans living on the northern borders of the Empire.

In the spring of 2024, National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions named Nathalie one of its Grosvenor Teacher Fellows; through this program, she has developed student-led activities related to archaeology outreach and an archaeology-based class called Hands-On History. Nathalie is the recipient of multiple awards related to classics pedagogy and service, including the American Classical League's Merita Award in 2022 and the Society of Classical Studies' award for Excellence in Teaching at the K-12 Level in 2020.

A National Board Certified teacher, Nathalie loves to show teachers how important it is for students to experience aspects of ancient life through hands-on experimentation. You can access free lessons on her Website. As co-director, Nathalie will be coordinating and teaching the hands-on history projects during the afternoon segments of the institute. She will also be running the project Website and Google Classroom and assisting participants in developing their own lessons.

Michael Posey currently teaches Latin at Mountain Brook Junior High School in Mountain Brook, AL, but he has taught World and Classical Languages in several secondary schools throughout the US.  In his teaching tenure, he has been recognized five times as a National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) grant recipient.  Most recently, Posey was selected for the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms (2021), a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.  He considers himself a lifetime learner!

Professionally, Posey serves as a Writing and Steering Committee member on the National Latin Exam and is Chair of the Pegasus National Mythology Exam. He has been a featured presenter at several local, regional, and national professional conferences on utilizing online formative assessments and incorporating current educational technology in the world language classroom.  Posey has traveled extensively in the Americas and Europe and is most passionate about introducing students to meaningful global opportunities and world-connected learning.

Micheal will direct the research efforts of participants as our K-12 Liaison. In addition to serving on the application committee, Micheal will help to advertise this K-12 learning opportunity through relevant national and regional organizations for Classics/Latin.  Also, as the K-12 Liaison, Micheal will work collaboratively with participants in their research efforts and preparation of final presentations.

Catherine Daun teaches Latin at Cicero Preparatory Academy in Scottsdale, Arizona, where she also serves as languages department chair and senior thesis coordinator. Catherine has participated in three different institutes through the National Endowment for the Humanities, twice as a participant and once as a consultant. She also recently presented at the 2025 American Classical League Institute.

She will assist with all hands-on events and will live in the dorm with participants as an on-call resource.

Brad Savage teaches Latin and is chair of Classics at Flint Hill School in Oakton, Virginia. He spent 8 years in Chicago teaching Latin and English to students ranging in age from 3 to 18 and taught middle school for one year at the Tempe Preparatory Academy. Brad holds a Master of Arts in Classics from the University of Washington and earned degrees from the Ohio State University in Classics and Political Science. He is ABD at UCLA. In 2016, Brad won a Goldman Sachs Fellowship for summer study at the American Academy in Rome, and he has attended three National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminars. Brad serves on the Outreach Committee of the National Latin Exam and was elected as Information Chair for the Excellence Through Classics committee of the American Classical League.

He will assist with all hands-on events and will live in the dorm with participants as an on-call resource.

Nava Cohen, currently a doctoral student in comparative literature and Classics at Northwestern University, spent over twenty years teaching Latin to students in all grades of elementary school in public and private settings in the Chicagoland area. Nava plays numerous roles within the national and local classics communities, serving as the chair of the American Classical League's Exploratory Latin Exam, as Illinois state legate for the Society for Classical Studies, as Engagement Chair of the Illinois Classical Conference, and on the planning committee of the ICC/NLU Latin Pedagogy Workshop, among assorted other roles, both formal and informal. Her research interests include the pedagogy of reading Latin and Greek, the reception of ancient literature in contemporary adolescent fiction, and the ethics of reading ancient text, specifically how we integrate modern understandings of justice and equity with an implicit respect for text and author. In June 2023, Nava was honored with the American Classical League Merens Award, recognizing sustained and distinguished service to Classics.

Nava will help advertise this K-12 learning opportunity through relevant state and local organizations for Classics/Latin and will serve on the application committee.

Danielle Steen Fatkin, Ph.D., is Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Associate Professor of History at Knox College. Her area of scholarly focus is ancient religion, on which she has published several articles, and on which she has taught “Greek and Roman Religions” (an intermediate-level class) and “Ancient Mediterranean Religions” (an advanced undergraduate research seminar). She will teach about the religious context of the Games and everyday life in Olympia. Danielle’s childhood obsession with all-things Roman led her to study Latin, Roman history, and Roman archaeology. One of her college professors suggested that she try excavating at Caesarea Maritima, a site on the coast of Israel. Ever since, she’s spent as much time as possible learning about the Roman empire and the people that constituted it. Whether exploring the Roman Forum, investigating Byzantine houses in Jordan, reconstructing the beliefs of Herod the Great, or retracing the routes of community parades through ancient cities, Danielle’s research has long focused on the religious practices that held together ancient Mediterranean communities. Danielle will help institute members understand the role of religion in the Olympics and everyday Greek life.

Eric Engstrom, Ph.D., is an associate professor of biology, co-director of the Educational Farm and Educational Garden at Monmouth College, and a lifelong Classics enthusiast. His research interests focus upon both plant evolutionary development and bacteriophage biology, and his teaching interests encompass plant biology, genetics, and sustainable agriculture. He will teach us about ancient cultivation of grain and legumes, and about ancient beekeeping.

Jake Morton, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of classics at Carleton College. As a former professional butcher, Jake has experimented with many ancient food technologies. He will teach us about ancient Greek butchering for sacrifice.

Mr. J. Richard “Rick” Sayre retired from Monmouth College in 2018 after 20 years as library director of Hewes Library. He received his BA in History from Phillips University, in Enid, Oklahoma, and his Masters in Library Science from the University of Oklahoma. Prior to Monmouth College, Sayre served as a librarian at the Oklahoma College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at Indiana University Libraries in Bloomington, Indiana, and another 16 years as library director of his alma mater, Phillips University. He lives in Galesburg with his wife, Mary Phillips, who is also retired, most recently as the curator of Monmouth College’s Art Collections. In retirement, Sayre devotes much of his time as a volunteer on the Board of the Carl Sandburg Historic Site Association in Galesburg, as the association’s Treasurer, Webmaster & Museum Store manager.

Rick will be discussing the fascinating saga of Monmouth College's storied "Canopus Stone," one of three plaster casts made in 1871 of the trilingual stele discovered in Tanis, Egypt in 1866 and hailed by scholars as second in importance to the Rosetta Stone in the translation of hieroglyphics.

Craig Vivian, Ph.D., is a retired professor of educational studies and current co-director of the Educational Farm and Educational Garden at Monmouth College. He has been the Monmouth College beekeeper for more than a decade and will talk about beekeeping.

Janis Wunderlich, MFA, is an internationally renowned figurative ceramic artist. Her ceramic sculptures are on display in museums around the world, including Yingge Museum in Taipei, Taiwan and American Museum of Ceramic Art in CA. While known for her highly detailed storytelling forms, Wunderlich, who holds a BFA from Brigham Young University and MFA from The Ohio State University, has research interests in ancient ceramic art and tracing human innovation through ceramic materials and processes. She is an associate professor of art at Monmouth College in Illinois. Janis will be leading hands-on activities and demonstrations of ceramic materials and techniques that hearken back to ancient ceramic practices.