Master Teacher

Melissa Barnes

EdS, University of Michigan
MA, University of Michigan
BA, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Melissa Barnes earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in English education, literacy education, and curriculum development. These culminated from a lifelong love of reading, writing, and teaching that began on the first day of first grade when she came home and announced that she wanted to be a teacher.

Melissa has taught in a variety of public school settings, ranging from traditional high schools and a junior high school to a night school program at an alternative high school. She has taught grades 6-12 and enjoyed them all for different reasons. She has also been a homeschool mom for thirteen years. In addition to teaching, Melissa enjoys serving as a freelance writer and editor for the Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV) and has written for local newspapers in years past.

Melissa lives in Chesapeake, Virginia with her family.  In her occasional spare time, you can find Melissa reading books, playing games or watching movies with her family, or enjoying coffee with a friend.

 She has been teaching with the Academy since 2016.

Classroom Teacher

Brittellen Luciano

MA, University of Massachusetts at Lowell
BA, University of Massachusetts at Lowell

Brittellen Luciano earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in criminal justice from the University of Massachusetts. While working at her graduate internship, she began teaching youth within the Department of Juvenile Justice and fell in love with teaching. Soon after, she began teaching high school English in Massachusetts before she and her husband felt called to move to Pensacola, Florida.

Brittellen continued her teaching career in Florida, working with at-risk youth and in ESE and regular education classrooms. She believes that all students have a voice and the ability to be great readers and writers. She sets high expectations for her students and enjoys guiding them in the process of meeting and exceeding both their course goals and their own personal goals. She loves being able to read and teach both the classics and the modern literature that she loved as a student.

Throughout her life, Brittellen has always had a love of reading. As a child, she could always be found with her nose in a book or writing her own stories. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends, watching her kids play sports, curling up with a good book and a cup of coffee, baking, and going to the beach. She and her husband have four children, and she feels blessed to be able to stay home to raise and teach them while tutoring students and providing English classes and workshops for the homeschool community.

Brittellen has been teaching with the Academy since 2017.

Classroom Teacher

Linda Davidson

MA, Lancaster University (UK)
BA, San Francisco State University

Linda Davidson has been a teacher for the past seventeen years. She has taught in both brick-and-mortar public schools and online. Her passion is to teach the love of great literature to her students and to help them develop into strong writers. Linda hopes to one day read classic novels that were written by her favorite authors—her students. In the meantime, she has a particular fondness for British literature, including the marvelously moody Jane Eyre and the eerie Wuthering Heights. Linda’s favorite book of all time is the Bible, for its precepts and encouragement, as well as for its literary merit.

Linda loves to write for all purposes. She has written a full-length novel, several songs, and many short stories. She currently writes history and science pieces for educational websites. She is proud to homeschool her two children and enjoys watching them learn every day. In her very limited free time, Linda enjoys reading, watching movies from the 1930s and 1940s, listening to worship music, and playing the piano.

Linda has been teaching with the Academy since 2017.

Classroom Teacher

Monica Bowman

BS, University of Minnesota

Monica Bowman earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota. She completed a significant portion of her coursework at the Christian-Albrecht University in Germany as a Rotary Scholar. Reading, discussing, and analyzing Jane Eyre in German is an experience she has never forgotten.

Monica worked in communications and marketing, both for smaller agribusinesses and for enormous multinational corporations, and she discovered that being able to write clearly and effectively is a skill with value far beyond the classroom. Whatever students pursue after high school or college, Monica believes that the hard work they put into becoming excellent communicators during their school years will produce fruit throughout their lives.

While homeschooling her three children and teaching other homeschooled students in a virtual co-op, Monica delights in helping them process everything they learn through a biblical worldview. She considers the ability to discern scriptural truth from the cacophony of worldliness to be a prime goal of a Christian education.

In her free time, Monica enjoys hiking and camping with her family, leading inductive Bible studies, visiting art museums, and cultivating her latest self-taught hobby, painting with acrylics.

Monica has been teaching with the Academy since 2017.

Classroom Teacher

Julia Rich

MEd, University of Vermont
BA, Quinnipiac University

Julia Rich graduated with a BA in English from Quinnipiac University. With a passion for reading and writing, she soon began her path to teaching by receiving her master’s in education from the University of Vermont.

Julia has taught various English classes for students in grades 8–11, including American Studies, which she co-taught with a history teacher. She really enjoys working with students on their comprehension and writing skills through different types of literature, leading discussions that help students make connections to themselves and the world around them. She believes that reading creates great writers and enjoys helping her students find their confidence and voice through various authors and themes.

Julia took some time away from teaching to start a family. She can often be found cooking, going to the beach, or taking hikes with her husband and three children. She enjoys reading short stories by Ernest Hemingway, and her favorite book is Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.

Julia has been teaching with the Academy since 2017.

Classroom Teacher

Charmayne Rush

MEd, Liberty University
BA, Old Dominion University

Charmayne Rush earned her BA in English education at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. A firm believer that the skills learned in ninth grade English are essential to later success, Charmayne was blessed to teach ninth grade English for a local Virginia public school. During her time as a classroom teacher, Charmayne found great joy in guiding young writers to discover that they are gifted with unique voices and perspectives to share with the world. In addition to teaching, Charmayne co-founded a school mentoring program, enlisting the support of her church family and local business owners to share practical skills and inspiration with students in preparation for life after high school.

After she and her husband welcomed their first child, Charmayne decided to stay at home while completing her MEd in teaching and learning (English Cognate) through Liberty University’s online program. Charmayne’s coursework with Liberty taught her to revisit and expand her approach to academic writing and literary analysis through the lens of a Christian worldview. Her time as an online student also opened her eyes to the particular challenges and rewards of virtual learning, and she is excited to use her experience to create a rich and fulfilling virtual educational environment for her Academy students.

Charmayne has been teaching with the Academy since 2017.