Jason Pedicone, the co-founder and president of the Paideia Institute, has a Ph.D. in Classics from Princeton University. Jason manages the Institute's general operations in the United States and teaches in its European programs. Over the course of his education, he spent one year each as a visiting student in Rome at the University of Rome "La Sapienza," in Paris at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, and in Munich at Ludwig Maximilians University, where he held a Fulbright research fellowship in 2004-2005. His academic interests include Greek and Latin metrics, Homer, and Roman Lyric and Epic poetry. He also cultivates a dilettantish love of Modern Greek language and poetry, the local Roman dialect, and cooking.
Eric Hewett, co-founder and executive director of the Paideia Institute, graduated from Rice University with a B.A. in Linguistics in 1996. He spent the next seven years living and traveling in Western Europe, working as a teacher, tour guide, and translator. He speaks French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Basque and is a published translator of Basque poetry. In 2004 Eric moved to Rome, where he has earned an M.A. in Patristic Sciences from the Augustinianum Pontifical Institute and a joint Ph.D. in Medieval Philosophy from the University of Salerno and Patristic Sciences from the Augustinianum. Eric directs the European operations of the Institute, serves as the Institute's treasurer and administrates Living Latin in Rome. In his spare time, he enjoys reading history, brushing up his Sanskrit, and meaningful conversations over good French food.
Donna Zuckerberg is the founding editor of Eidolon. She received her Ph.D. in Classics from Princeton University in 2014 for her dissertation on ancient Greek tragedy and comedy. Her writing has appeared in academic journals and in online publications such as Jezebel and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She served as the Paideia Institute's Director of Communications until 2013, and now teaches for Telepaideia and Stanford Continuing Studies.
Msgr. Daniel Gallagher, a priest of the Diocese of Gaylord, holds degrees from the University of Michigan (B.S. and M.A.), the Catholic University of America (M.A. in Philosophy), and the Pontifical Gregorian University (S.T.L.). From 1995 to 2000, he studied Latin under the expert instruction of Fr. Reginald Foster, O.C.D., whom he succeeded in the Office of Latin Letters at the Vatican Secretariat of State in 2009. Prior to this current assignment, he served as Assistant Professor of Latin and Philosophy at Sacred Heart Major Seminary. While working as a papal Latinist, Msgr. Gallagher is also pursuing a doctorate in philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University with a dissertation entitled The Justification of the Axiom Unreceived Act is Unlimited in Thomistic Metaphysics.
Michael Fontaine is associate professor of Classics and director of graduate studies at Cornell University. He has a Ph.D. from Brown University and has written widely on ancient Roman Comedy, specifically Plautus. His first book, Funny Words in Plautine Comedy was released by Oxford University Press in 2009. As a graduate student Michael spent a year in Rome on a Rotary Scholarship studying Latin with Fr. Reginald Foster.
Gina Soter holds B.A. degrees in Classics and Comparative Literature from the University of Washington and the M.A. and Ph.D. in Classical Studies from the University of Michigan, where she holds a joint appointment in the Department of Classical Studies and the Residential College, a living-learning community housed within the university. She created and teaches a three-semester intensive Latin pathway that culminates in a fully staged, public production in Latin of a Roman comedy. Her dissertation was on Greek tragedy and she continues to enjoy teaching Greek courses, but her major investment lately, has been in Latin pedagogy with particular attention to exploring reciprocal connections between past and present. She has worked on excavations at Pompeii and regularly brings students to Italy for Roma Viva!, a university-suponsored study course in in Rome and environs.