Staff & Faculty
Jack Hummel | Co-Founder, Head of School, 5-7 Teacher
Jack, a Lansing native, has a B.S. in Economics with a minor in Math from Hillsdale College. Jack has previously worked at the Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency, Cornerstone Schools in Detroit, and Auto-owners Insurance. Jack and his wife, Caroline, have been working to open Cedar since the end of 2016. They have three children with a fourth due on the first day of school.
Stefan Hull | 5-7 Humanities Teacher
Stefan has a B.A. in psychology from the University of Michigan. She has previously worked as a foster care social worker and a publication designer for a non-profit public policy firm. She was a homeschooling mom for seven years, increasingly influenced by a classical philosophy of education. She and her husband, Joshua, have five children.
Amber Knapp | 5-7 Math & Logic Teacher
Amber has a B.A. in Secondary Education Mathematics/English from Spring Arbor University and a M.Ed. from Marygrove College. She is currently working towards a Masters Certificate in Mathematics. Amber has previously taught secondary mathematics for a public high school, a few community colleges, and several online academies along with homeschooling. She and her husband, Jesse, have four children.
Amelia Stieren | 3-4 Teacher
Maria Berggren | 1-2 Teacher
Maria has a B.A. in English with a minor in Spanish from Hillsdale College, where she was a participant in the Teacher Apprenticeship Program. She and her husband, Vins, live in Lansing.
Sydney Ackerman | Kindergarten & PE Teacher, Marketing
Sydney has a B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Early Childhood Education from Hillsdale College, where she played softball and fell in love with classical education. In her free time, she loves to read, write; and play tennis, guitar, and card games with her husband Christopher.
Kyria Beals | Art Teacher
Kyria has a B.A. in Arts, with a concentration in painting, from Spring Arbor University. She has previously worked at the University gallery and has taught in TA, daycare, and co-op settings, as well as in the 1-2 classroom in our opening year. She and her husband, Charlie, are expecting their first child this summer.
Christin Peng | Music Teacher
Christin has a B.A. and M.A. in Music from Pensacola Christian College, where she received her B.A. and M.A. in Music. She has previously worked at an after-school piano program of Trinity Episcopal Day School in Baton Rouge, LA. Since providentially stumbling upon classical education, she has had the joy of homeschooling her children for the past 10 years and tutoring for Classical Conversations in Lansing. She and her husband, Timothy, have three children.
Gwen Hummel | 1-2 History, Substitute Teacher
Gwen began a 25-year career of homeschooling in 1990 when her oldest son was ready for school. Throughout those years she has taught in co-ops, Sunday schools, and a Karenni Kids Club for refugee kids in Lansing. She loves studying the Word, teaching, discipling young people, gardening, canning, swimming, being outdoors and hanging with the grandchildren. Gwen is currently teaching 2nd Grade Phonics and 1st & 2nd Grade Theology, History, and Geography. Gwen and her husband, Scott, have four grown children and 12 beautiful grandchildren.
Caroline Hummel | Co-Founder, Advancement
Caroline has a B.A. in Politics from Hillsdale College in the Honors Program. Caroline has previously worked in grantwriting and education policy at the American Legislative Exchange Council on their Education Task Force and in sales at a start-up Detroit e-commerce school supply company. She is mom to three children.
Emily Zuiderveen | Facilities
Emily has a B.A. in Communications from Grand Valley State University. She has previously worked as a secretary at DeWitt Middle School and the director of a day care center before staying home full time and homeschooling. Emily and her husband, Shane, have five children.
Interested in joining our team?
Governing Board of Directors
Josh Hull | Chairman
Joshua Hull has a B.S. in Secondary Education from the University of Michigan. He is currently a Senior Developer for Kunz, Leigh and Associates in Okemos, MI.
Anna Liebing
Anna has deep roots in the classical Christian school movement. She graduated high school from Mars Hill Academy in her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio and then went on to Hillsdale College, where she majored in History and English. Returning to Mars Hill Academy, she taught in a variety of grammar school grades for three years before returning to school to earn her Master's in British Literature from the University of Edinburgh ('15). She is now a rhetoric teacher at Veritas Academy in Savannah, Georgia.
Timothy Peng
Timothy graduated from Pensacola Christian College with a B.A. in Pastoral Ministries, and from Calvin Theological Seminary with a M.T.S in Historical Theology. He served six years as pastor of the English congregation in the Chinese church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, before serving as the Senior Pastor at Lansing Chinese Christian Church in 2010. Timothy enjoys spending time with his family, listening to classical music, and reading books on history or philosophy.
Emma Setterington
Emma has B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biosystems Engineering from the University of Arizona and Michigan State University. She has previously worked as a research scientist for a large diagnostics company and for a start-up company. She and her husband, Nick, have four children.
David Shane
David, originally from the Cincinnati area, has a B.S. in Physics from Truman State University in Kirksville, MO, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Physics from Washington University in St. Louis. He now teaches Physics and Integrated Science (the latter especially for Education majors), and is also faculty chair of the Physical Science program, at Lansing Community College. He was named the 2020 College Science Teacher of the Year by the Michigan Science Teachers Association. He recently finished a term on the executive board of the Michigan section of the American Association of Physics Teachers. David is married to Rebecca Shane, a diagnostic research scientist at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams in East Lansing.
Alex Johnson
Alex has a B.S. in Entomology from Michigan State University. He has past experience working in field and laboratory research in Michigan and California. He now works in the financial services industry developing software and researching process improvements in IT Operations. He and his wife, Chetta, have four children.