Our Staff
Joshua Gibbs
Co-Founder & Director
Senior Fellow | Humanities
Joshua Gibbs has been in the classical Christian orbit since 1994, when his family moved to attend Logos School in Moscow, ID. He met Paula (née Marston) in 1996 while both were competing on the Logos Mock Trial team and they married ten years later. They have two daughters, both of whom have seven names.
Joshua has taught classic literature for nineteen years and he is the author of a number of books, including Love What Lasts and Something They Will Not Forget, a handbook for teachers about the use of classroom catechisms. He is also the creator of the Proverbial podcast and a prolific blogger, having authored more than six hundred articles for the CiRCE Institute between 2014 and 2024. In 2020, he created Gibbs Classical, an online classroom where he teaches classic literature. He proudly keeps in touch with many former students.
Joshua co-founded The Classical Teaching Institute with Wade Ortego in spring 2024 and serves as its director and as a teaching fellow.
Wade Ortego
Co-Founder & Ambrose Head of Schools
Wade Ortego began leading classical Christian schools in 2008 in Texas. After leading schools in Kansas and North Idaho, he and his family settled in Boise at The Ambrose School. His great passion is to assist families in the education of their children toward a Biblical worldview that acknowledges Christ as the author and perfecter of all things true, good, and beautiful. He is committed to the classical Christian model of education and loves building a strong school culture. Having seen the ups and downs, successes and failures in Christian school administration, he wants to help others avoid mistakes and thrive by building schools and teaching students to pursue wisdom and cultivate a virtuous life centered on Christ.
In addition to his role as the Head of Schools, he serves as a consultant for boards and school leaders, is a member of The Fellowship of St. James, and serves on the board of Concordia Academy in Wichita, Kansas.
Wade and Rachel were married in 1997 and have three boys, two of whom graduated from Ambrose and one in the class of 2033.
Ken Hosier
Senior Fellow | Science
Ken Hosier has always had an interest in the inner workings of God’s creation. Whether it was isolating specific proteins in fish or separating compounds on a mass spec, initially Ken thought he was to pursue a career in the laboratory. However, it didn’t take long for him to feel the call to teach the next generation of scientists. After working as a chemist for five years, Ken left the lab to pursue a career in education. After that decision was made, a close friend recruited him to teach at The Ambrose School.
Starting with a few microscopes, a skeletal model, and a donated collection of stuffed birds, Ken spent the next 19 years building and cultivating the science program at The Ambrose School. He has taught a variety of science and math courses during his tenure and served as a coach, athletic director, and purveyor of Dad jokes. And, like many others, is continually trying to figure out how to teach science classically.
Ken met his wife, Jen, at the University of Idaho and they married in the year 2000, which makes it easy to track their anniversary. Ken and Jen have a son and daughter who attend The Ambrose School.
Dr. Bill Miller
Senior Fellow | Class Trips
Dr. Bill Miller's career has encompassed a wide variety of experiences, including campus ministry, lecturing at the university level, and teaching at K-12 schools. He received an engineering degree from Brown University, an M.A. in Politics, and a Ph.D. at the University of Dallas's Great Books Program. After graduate school, the Miller family lived in the Czech Republic for eight years, where Bill was a lecturer at two universities. Upon returning to the States, Bill entered the field of K-12 education with a desire to impart the kind of education that he received—an education that included many meaningful conversations with the great thinkers of Western civilization, fellow students, professors, and the Truth of the Scriptures—to other young men and women.
Bill has led The Ambrose School’s senior trip since joining the school in 2019, including the difficult COVID period, which included varying itineraries and last-minute changes. Bill and his wife Lisa (an experienced tour manager) have also led a number of student mission trips and study abroad experiences in various parts of Europe and Central Asia, and he looks forward to sharing his expertise with teachers and administrators who wish to start or improve their student trips abroad.
Bill and Lisa have been married for 25 years and have two sons, Caleb and Joshua.
Mandi Gerth
Senior Fellow | Classroom Culture
Mandi Gerth is a teacher, author, and classical education consultant who lives in Dallas, Texas. She holds a Master of Humanities degree from the University of Dallas with a classical education concentration. Mandi's first book, Thoroughness & Charm: Cultivating the Habits of a Classical Classroom, is available exclusively from CiRCE Press.
Mandi writes regularly on Substack and posts often to LinkedIn and Instagram. She also speaks at classical education conferences and travels to classical schools for teacher and parent training sessions, including retreats offered by The Classical Teaching Institute.
Will Killmer
Senior Fellow | Latin
Will has a wide array of interests, but a deliberately narrow regimen of teaching, namely all Latin all the time (except for a few Greek classes here and there). After graduating from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in Classics, Will earned two M.A.'s at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, then began to teach Latin at a classical Christian school in Peabody, MA. Thus he began the journey to improve his craft by examining the tradition of Latin learning and teaching over the past 2000 years, as well as researching how second languages are acquired. Nearly 13 years later, Will is happily settled in the world of teaching Latin in an active and communicative way that pushes students to inhabit the language and its literature.
Will enjoys the opportunities he has had to share what he's learned about Latin pedagogy and piloting students in the classroom at such events as the Society for Classical Learning's Conference, the American Council on Teaching Foreign Language's Convention, and the Foreign Language Association of Virginia's Fall Conference. He is also interested in the cognitive science of memory, the history of notebooks, memorizing Scripture, cooking outdoors, mixing cocktails, and accumulating houseplants. Will and his wife Jenn have been married for 13 years and live in Richmond, Virginia with their three red-headed daughters Amelia, Lucy, and Rosemary.