Our Upper School faculty consists of highly qualified teachers who specialize in their subjects, and who come with a great many years of teaching experience. Most hold advanced degrees, and all are practicing and faithful Catholics who believe in the mission of Maria Kaupas Academy. Their ultimate goal is to serve God and His Church through their teaching.
All teachers undergo substantial Safe Environment certification on both an initial and ongoing basis, and undergo FBI criminal background checks. Further information is available
here.
The Rev. Eric Bergman (Pastor, Principal, History) received his Master of Divinity in 1997 from Yale University and was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood the same year. Perceiving a call to be reconciled to the Catholic Church, he was ordained to the Catholic Priesthood under the
Pastoral Provision of Pope John Paul II in 2007, and has served as Pastor of the St. Thomas More congregation since that time. Under the terms of the Pastoral Provision, Fr. Bergman received permission from the Holy Father to be ordained to the Catholic Priesthood though already married; he and his wife Kristina have ten children.
Elena Brooks (Latin & German) was born and raised in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, where she grew up with two older siblings. She was Roman Catholic and attended a humanities-oriented school where the first language was Latin. Elena attended the “Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum” where she studied German literature, linguistics, medieval studies as well as the science of theater and film. She moved to the US in 2007 where she began to teach and tutor German. She has been a teacher at the German Language School of Morris County, NJ since 2014. Elena travels to Germany on a regular basis.
Mr. Paul Campbell (Music History / Music Theory / Choir) received his Bachelor's Degree in Sacred Music from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, and a Master's Degree in Choral Conducting from the Indiana University School of Music, Bloomington. He has overseen music ministries in some of the country's most notable flagship churches and has served as Music Director at St. Thomas More Parish since 2008. He and his wife Sandy have six children.
Dr. Carmina Chapp (Theology) earned her doctorate at Duquesne University and began her academic career at DeSales University. She then served as Academic Dean at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. With her husband, Larry, she started the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Farm in 2013. Dr. Chapp presently works from her farm for Saint Joseph’s College Online Theology Program.
Mrs. Kristen Ciaccia (Latin, Mathematics) graduated from Villanova University with a B.A. in Philosophy. Afterward, she served as the Program Director for Pennsylvanians for Human Life in Southeastern PA, for which she wrote grants, conducted speaker recruitment and training sessions, helped to refine the Respect Life Curriculum used in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's schools, and served as media spokeswoman. Mrs. Ciaccia has been homeschooling her seven children for sixteen years.
Mrs. Emily Donnelly (Science) earned a B.S. in Biomolecular Science from Clarkson University and an M.S. in Biomedical Science with a focus in Virology at the Wadsworth Center/Albany Medical College/State University at Albany in New York. She is currently working toward earning her Doctorate from the Loyola University Chicago Institute of Bioethics. She worked for three years as a researcher at the Wadsworth Center and was awarded the NIAID Bioterrorism and Emerging Infectious Disease National Research Service Award. She has taught general science, biology, and other elective courses at a public high school, and she homeschools her six children.
Mr. Mark Kelly (History & Theology) is a Teacher, Writer, and veteran, senior non-Commissioned Officer. He studied for an M. Div at Reformed Episcopal Seminary and earned an MA in Theology from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia. In over 30 years of military service (20 Active, 10 drilling Reservist) he has instructed civilians and military, both foreign and domestic, on five continents. Mr. Kelly remains a congenital autodidact and an active member of the Order of Malta.
Mrs. Jessica Nickel (Literature) earned a B.A. in English, M.A. in Teaching English, and M.A. in English from The State University of New York. She has taught at Vassar College, the University of Louisiana, SUNY-New Paltz, and Misericordia University. Along with teaching English in the MKA Upper School, she is also the Literature and Writing teacher in the Lower School and is a published literary scholar. Her greatest joy is in serving God and being the wife of Matthew and mother to Charles.
Mrs. Virginia Pinto Sosik (Art) is an award-winning artist, fine art educator, presenter, and art advocate holding fine art degrees from Marywood University. Her works and acquisitions are found in public and private collections around the world. She has more than thirty years of experience in fine art education, graphic design and fine art within Northeastern Pennsylvania. She taught for fifteen years at Marywood University in the School of Continuing Education, the Everhart Museum, the North Pocono Community Education program, and Penn Foster. In addition to her volunteer efforts in local art projects, Mrs. Sosik provides private and group fine art instruction, art portfolio development and consultation, and home school fine art instruction from her studio in Dunmore, PA.