Melissa Blazs
New Testament Survey
Melissa Blazs received her Bachelor of Science degree from Liberty University majoring in Elementary Education, where she was awarded Student Teacher of the Year. She homeschooled her three children, with her last child graduating from PEP in 2021. For over 30 years, Melissa has enjoyed teaching students, whether it be in a classroom or youth group, children’s ministries or homeschool co-op. In addition, she worked as a Children’s Minister and as the Artistic Administrator of the Jacksonville Children’s Chorus. Her greatest joy in teaching is pointing her students to Jesus. Seeing those “light bulb” moments in their lives…priceless! Missions also play a big part in Melissa’s life. Shortly after moving to Jacksonville, she and her husband received a call from the Lord to serve in Asia for one year. The time spent there opened doors for multiple trips back to share the Good News. They have also served on mission teams to Tortola, Chad, and Central Asia. Melissa has been married to her wonderful husband of 39 years, blessed with three adult children, a great son-in-law, and two incredible grandsons.
Connie Boone
Biology
Connie Boone has a Bachelor of Science in medical technology from the University of Missouri and worked as a nationally certified medical technologist in hospital laboratories in Missouri, Arizona, and North Carolina. She married and moved to Florida where she put aside her career to be at home with their three children. Connie was certified as a Florida teacher and earned a Master of Education from the University of North Florida. She also was awarded National Certification while teaching science in public and Christian schools. She is looking forward to sharing the wonder of God’s creation with PEP students and helping them discover God’s place for them in His world. She is active at Eastside Community Church and volunteers at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. Connie has shared her life with her amazing husband for 49 years. She enjoys time with her two grandsons, especially in the garden.
Allen Cagle
Biblical Worldview I, Biblical Worldview IV
Allen Cagle has served as the Senior Pastor at Sunrise Community Church in Atlantic Beach, FL since 2013. He has a BA in Biblical Studies from the University of Mobile and an M.Div. from The Masters Seminary (Los Angeles, CA). He received his Doctorate of Ministry in Applied Theology from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Allen served in associate pastor positions in Los Angeles, CA and Mobile, AL before moving to Jacksonville in January 2013 to serve at Sunrise Community Church. He began teaching at PEP in 2013 and loves sharing his passion for God’s Word and a biblical worldview with teens. Allen and his wife Mindy have three children — Kate, Jacob, and Karis.
Jody Champagne
Introduction to Composition (Core A), Introduction to Literary Analysis (Core B)
Jody Champagne received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Florida with a major in music performance and a minor in history. Since then, she has taught in group and private settings, owned a wedding music company, and now plays violin and viola at many weddings and events each year. Most recently, she taught 6th and 7th grade history at First Baptist Academy before resuming the task of homeschooling her own children. Jody and her husband David (a PEP BWV2 Tutor) have two students at PEP, as well as two homeschooled elementary students. She loves to teach and has a special place in her heart for middle school students. Jody is very excited to join the Core A team and looks forward to sharing her life-long love of reading with the students.
Sara Chappell
Pre-Calculus
Sara Chappell received a Bach. of Music Performance in cello from Lawrence University (Wisconsin) and a Master of Music from the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, New York). She has performed professionally in several orchestras and has taught instrumental music for many years. She also has a passion for math and science and, as a youth, received recognition in the Michigan Math Prize Competition. Sara and her husband Chris homeschooled their four children, with their youngest graduating from PEP in 2017. For the past thirteen years, Sara has taught high school math classes in the Jacksonville homeschool community. She enjoys imparting to students a greater knowledge of the glory of God expressed in His order and beauty in creation.
Amber Connell
American History, World History, Government & Economics, Pre-Algebra, English Grammar, Launch Career Clarity
Amber Connell has a B.S. in Psychology and Child and Adolescent Development from Liberty University. She is passionate about the education of students and has spent the last 18 years teaching students of all ages, from preschool to high school. Amber holds a Florida Professional Teaching Certificate and has taught in public, private, and homeschool educational settings. She loves being a part of PEP as both a tutor and the mother of two PEP students.
Adriana Croft
Saxon 8/7, Spanish I, II & III
Adriana Croft has a B.A. in Business Management from Warner Southern University. She is a mother of five and a wife to her husband of 23 years. Two of her children have graduated through PEP, and the younger three children will attend PEP this year. Adriana has 16 years of teaching experience in homeschooling, homeschooling co-ops, and classical public school settings. She grew up in a Spanish-speaking home and learned English as her second language. Adriana has taught Spanish, Latin, Photography, Math, Writing, Science, Reasoning, and Debate. She enjoys photography, traveling, and cooking/baking.
Jill Dragiff
Ancient History, Medieval to Early Modern History, Modern History, Pre-Algebra, American Sign Language I & II, Yearbook
Mrs. Dragiff has taught in private Christian schools for 15 years in Jacksonville after homeschooling her own six children throughout most of their school years. She has an undergraduate BA degree in Theatre/Dance from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and earned her MA in Humanities with a focus on History and Philosophy from California State University. She is a lifelong student of the Holocaust and has participated in conferences in Israel and the U.S. in order to deepen her understanding of this important event in history. Mrs. Dragiff came to know Christ through a private school outreach ministry as a 13-year-old, and found that being a Christian brought her the love, belonging, and certainty that she was seeking in life. One of her greatest joys is seeing her family continue to come to Christ themselves and she is very grateful to be involved in Christian education, because helping young people understand Truth and teaching through a Biblical worldview is her greatest privilege. Happily married for 40 years, she and her husband Matthew are blessed to be grandparents of two young children who live nearby. Travel and Art History are her special passions outside of family and teaching.
Alan Fraser
Drawing
Alan Fraser was born and raised in Panama City, FL and moved to Jacksonville in 1994 after studying in the Studio Arts program at FSU, while also running a successful graphic design freelancing business. Jacksonville brought new challenges as he learned a new way to use his love for art and design in the field of video production. After 8 years at north Florida’s premier digital postproduction house, and just a couple of years newly married, he started his own video production, design, and animation company, named CreationStudios. God has blessed Alan and his wife, Pam, with 2 beautiful, talented daughters, both of whom are current PEP students. He has over 20 years’ worth of business experience ranging from 3D animation, full video production, 2D digital and cell animation, to corporate and family photography. Mr. Fraser is excited to share his lifelong love of drawing with the students at PEP.
Dabney Holland
Algebra I, English Grammar, Geography, Latin I & II, Logic
Dabney received her B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Memphis and worked in the field of microbiology for several years before discovering that her real passion lay in teaching. For over 40 years now she has had the privilege of tutoring privately and teaching in Christian schools. She joined PEP as a tutor in the year 2011. Her greatest joy in teaching comes from helping students discover how all knowledge points us back to our Creator, the Author and Finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. She is the proud mom of 6 children adopted from Mexico and Moldova, 2 of whom attended PEP while homeschooling. Dabney and her photographer husband, Jeff, can frequently be found on outdoor adventures delighting in the beauty of God's creation while kayaking or hiking.
Becky Hollis
Old Testament Survey
Becky has been happily married to her husband Robert for over 30 years now. Together they have homeschooled all four of their children. The older two boys graduated years ago and are now off and married. The younger two children, a son and daughter, are both in college here in Jax. Becky is a member of Christian Family Chapel and she serves the Lord as a certified ACBC biblical counselor through the HOPE Center. She loves all aspects of the study of science because all of creation points to our exceedingly wonderful Creator and Savior!
Laurie Joiner
Geometry, Algebra II, Calculus
Laurie has a BA in Mathematics Education from the University of North Florida. She has been teaching high school as well as tutoring and evaluating home school students for most of her adult life. She has been with PEP almost from its inception and enjoys being in partnership with parents to help her students chase their dreams. She has the experience and passion to make difficult subjects easier to digest, and she loves seeing her students progress and push themselves harder than they believed they were able. While not everyone will love math, the study of it points us to an ordered universe and a divine creator. Too many students choose their path based on avoiding the subject, but she wants her students fully equipped to pursue any course of study they desire. She has also enjoyed playing the piano for worship services at her church for many years.
Greg Jones
Biblical Worldview II & III
Greg Jones received his Masters of Divinity from the Expositors Seminary (Jacksonville), his Masters of Science degree from the University of Bristol (UK) in International Relations, and his Bachelors of Arts degree from the University of Warwick (UK) majoring in History. Greg was born and raised in Wales and moved his family to the United States in 2008. Shortly thereafter, he started what was to become an international healthcare technology consulting company, which he sold in 2017 in order to attend seminary. Since graduating in 2021, he has used his time to lead the MLJ Trust (the ministry dedicated to the promulgation of the sermons of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones www.mljtrust.org) and to preach and teach at church. Greg and his wife Tammy homeschool their nine children, including one who graduated from PEP in 2023 and three who are currently enrolled in PEP for the 2023-24 academic year.
Katrina Larson
Rhetoric & Composition/Literary Analysis I & II
Katrina Larson has a BA in Literature and an MA in Communication Development. She has taught many levels of students from elementary to college level in homeschool, public and classical Christian schools. As a military spouse, she has lived and traveled all over the world with her husband of 26 years and her two children, now ages 16 and 18. Mrs. Larson is passionate about classical Christian education and engaging in life-long learning from a Biblical perspective with her students. Her favorite subjects are literature, history and writing. She loves living in St. Augustine and giving historic tours. In her free time she enjoys water sports, reading, hiking, creative writing, acting and spending time with family.
Melissa Miller
Chemistry, Anatomy & Physiology
Melissa earned her B.S. in Biochemistry and her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she met her husband, Ray. Trading the snow for the sun, they moved to St. Augustine in 2004 where Melissa performed her postdoctoral research at the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience- University of Florida. After serving as a stay-at-home Mom to two boys for several years, Melissa joined PEP as a tutor in 2018. She enjoys sharing her love of science with students from a biblical perspective. When not otherwise occupied, Melissa enjoys reading and gardening.
Bob Moore
Conceptual Physics, Earth Science
Dr. Bob Moore is retired from GuideWell/Florida Blue, where he worked from 2002-2020. He has a Ph.D. in Experimental Physics from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Florida Institute of Technology. During his professional career, he has taught graduate-level engineering classes at the University of Florida and University of South Florida and has delivered extensive training classes in computer and information technology. Bob and his wife Theresa have two grown sons. He began tutoring with PEP during the 2017-18 school year.
Debra Osborne
Grammar
Debra Osborne has a B.S. in English with a minor in Secondary Education from the University of Southern Mississippi. She has taught at both the high school and elementary school levels. For the past five years, she has chosen to be a homeschool mom to her two PEP daughters, Gracen and Samantha, and is very excited to now be a PEP tutor. Debra has been married for over twenty years to her husband, Michael. She and her family are active members of Fruit Cove Baptist Church and are involved with Fruit Cove missions—locally, nationally, and globally. In her spare time, Debra enjoys reading a good mystery novel (Agatha Christie is #1), baking chocolate chip cookies (Southern Living’s Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are the best!), and traveling to and hiking in the mountains (for the mountains are always calling).
Alicia Zilinskis
Composition & American Literature (Core C), Composition & Ancient Literature (Core D), Life Science
Alicia Zilinskis received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Hofstra University, New York with a major in Psychology and minor in Elementary Education. She continued her education at Dowling College, New York receiving her Master’s Degree in Literacy and Special Education. Alicia’s passion for teaching started as a dance instructor in New York. She then taught Literature and History at a public school in New York. Her family moved to Florida eight years ago. In Florida, she taught 5th grade at a local Christian Co-Op. Alicia volunteers as a dance coach for a Nocatee school. Alicia’s daughter will be joining PEP for 8th grade, which will allow her daughter to also focus on a preprofessional ballet program. Alicia is so excited to be joining the PEP family and to share her love for literature, history, learning and the Christian faith.