Teaching Staff
Elementary k-2
MRS. ROXANE GALLAHER – coming soon
Language Arts, History, Art, and Science
MRS. AVELINA ACCAD graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from San Francisco State University. Her switch from the medical field to education began when she and her husband answered God’s call to educate their two children at home. Her training and study in the classical education pedagogy is on-going and includes tutoring and teaching students, directing a homeschool community, and self-directed studies and instructions through Circe Institute and ClassicalU.
Middle School
History and Language Arts
MRS. MARISSA NICHOLS received her bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of San Francisco. She completed her teaching credential coursework at Santa Clara University. She has an unfinished master’s degree in moral theology at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology at U.C. Berkeley. She’s taught multiple subjects at the middle school level at various institutions since 2005. She has been homeschooling since 2013.
Math
MRS. HIROMI KAINE – coming soon
MRS. CHRISTINA KUO – coming soon
Logic and Classical Studies
MR. JOSEPH CARUSO – coming soon
Music
MS. OLIVIA WILDANGER has tutored music at Mater Ecclesiae Academy since 2019. She brings to her students 10 years of experience in choral music training and piano. She is a frequent soprano in the Immaculate Heart of Mary Oratory Latin Mass Choir and has also served as cantor during the weekday Masses at Our Lady of Peace Parish. Miss Wildanger has twice auditioned and been selected to participate in the American Choral Directors Western Division Honor Choir, in Pasadena in 2018 and in Salt Lake City in 2020. In 2018 and 2019, she also participated in San Jose State University’s music intensive, “Summer in the City,” as a soprano. In addition to serving as music tutor, she also gives private lessons in piano. Miss Wildanger founded and lead the Regina Pacis Homeschool A Capella Group in 2018-2019. She is a member of EUREKA! Alpha Epsilon Chapter of Eta Sigma Alpha Honor Society and plans to pursue further studies in music education after high school. Miss Wildanger is also an accomplished calligrapher and watercolorist.
Greek and Religion
FR. SEBASTIAN A. CARNAZZO, PhD is a priest in the Melkite Catholic Church of America and pastor of St. Elias Melkite Parish in San Jose, CA (steliasmelkite.org). Along with his pastoral duties, he is also an adjunct lecturer in Biblical Studies and Catechetics for a number of institutions. He received his BS in Animal Science with a concentration in veterinary medicine from Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo, CA, his MA in Theology with a concentration in Sacred Scripture from the Christendom Graduate School of Theology, Alexandria, VA, and his PhD in Biblical Studies from the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. His dissertation was published under the title Seeing Blood and Water: A Narrative-critical Study of John 19:34 (2012). He is also the author of many articles and the contributor to a number of multi-author works, most recently the Great Adventure Bible of Ascension Press.
Administrative Staff
Executive Director
RICHARD DE LORIMIER graduated from San Diego State University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences with distinction in English. He soon began teaching in the field of Special Education in 2002, obtaining two teaching credentials in this field throughout the next few years from California State University at Monterey Bay. Mr. de Lorimier subsequently graduated from San Jose State University in 2008 with a Master of Arts degree in Education with an emphasis on Supervision and Administration, at which time he simultaneously earned his administrative credential.
Throughout his teaching career, Mr. de Lorimier served from 2005 to 2007 as a Catholic educator, fulfilling the roles of Second Grade core, 1-8 Spanish, and 1-8 PE teacher at Canyon Heights Academy in Campbell, CA. Roles as catechism teacher and Catholic Director of Religious Education at the Ord Military Community Chapel, in addition to the completion of coursework through the Marian Catechist program by Fr. John Hardon, SJ, augmented Mr. de Lorimier’s catechetical background. His continued education in the field of classical education included training through the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education.
The majority of Mr. de Lorimier’s teaching career consisted of his role as an elementary resource teacher, in which role he developed proficiency with intensive instructional strategies for the instruction of Language Arts and Math in Grades K through 6.
In addition to his role among the administrative staff of Mater Ecclesiae Academy, Mr. de Lorimier currently works as a Special Education Algebra Teacher at Santa Clara High School. He remains active as a catechism teacher at his parish, Five Wounds Church in San Jose, CA, as well as a member of the Dominican Laity.
DIRECTOR
MARIE DE LORIMIER WILMER has a long, rich background in the realm of Catholic education, having served as an elementary school teacher in France and California for many years, bracketing her time working as a Product Marketing Manager in the world of computer technology.
In addition to her ongoing work as a grade-school educator, Mrs. Wilmer has been involved with the Archdiocese of San Francisco on a number of projects, and currently serves on the boards of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education and Wyoming Catholic College.
DIRECTOR
MICHEL ACCAD is husband to Avelina and father to Salim and Lucy, both students at Mater Ecclesiae Academy. He is a physician in solo practice in San Francisco with a part-time faculty appointment at UCSF-San Francisco General Hospital. He is also an author and teaches natural philosophy in the tradition of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas for Pontifex University. Dr. Accad and his family are parishioners at St. Elias Melkite Church in Los Gatos.
DIRECTOR
AVELINA ACCAD
DIRECTOR
FERNANDA DE LORIMIER
DIRECTOR
TEDMUND CHAN