Faculty

Dr. George A. Harne joined the faculty in 2008 and was elected President in 2011, after two years of service as Academic Dean. During his tenure, he has taught courses in Music, Latin, and the Philosophy and Humanities sequence.

Dr. Harne’s area of expertise is the history of music, the subject of his graduate studies at the University of Washington and Princeton University. His scholarly interests include the intersection of musical and philosophical thought in the Middle Ages, twentieth-century music, and music in antiquity. He has published scholarly articles on medieval music and popular essays on Catholic education, most recently “Finding God on the Quad:  Benedict XVI’s Vision for Catholic Higher Education” in the National Catholic Register. Thanks to a transformative experience studying the great books at St. John’s College, Dr. Harne is also passionate about the tradition of liberal arts education and the importance of music to such an education.

Dr. Harne and his wife Debbie entered the Catholic Church on the Feast of Christ the King in 2006 and have been blessed with five children—four daughters and one son. Their home serves as a regular gathering place for students, especially for meetings of the Confraternity of Saint Joseph and the Sodality of Mary.

After studying the great books as an undergraduate and earning a graduate degree at Boston College, John Klucinec returned to his alma mater and assisted in the development of the College’s courses in physics and astronomy. He has spent over twenty years teaching courses in the sciences, mathematics, non-western studies, and the Philosophy and Humanities sequence. He currently resides in Warner, New Hampshire with his wife Joan and their seven children.

Mr. Klucinec began his career by teaching in conjunction with founding academic dean George Stanciu. After Dr. Stanciu’s departure, he assumed full responsibility for the Geometry and Science sequence. In this sequence, Mr. Klucinec introduces students to the sciences in the spirit of the liberal arts, with an especially strong commitment to the Socratic method.

Dr. Peter Sampo received his bachelor’s degree in political science at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. His master’s and Ph.D. were obtained at the University of Notre Dame. He has taught at St. Anselm College, where he founded the Department of Political Science; St. Francis College, where he was academic dean; Cardinal Newman College; Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, which he co-founded; and at Magdalen College, now Northeast Catholic College. He co-founded Magdalen College, where he also served as charter president and faculty member, as an attempt to renew Catholic higher education. There he designed a summer program for high school students that has served as a model for similar programs at other colleges.

Dr. Sampo has published on St. Thomas More and Niccolò Machiavelli. His scholarly interests are religion and politics, international relations, political theory, and liberal education’s continuity and relevance. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Governor’s Council of New Hampshire Award, the New England Board of Higher Education Award, the Russel Kirk Paideia Prize presented by CiRCE, and the Notre Dame Exemplary Alumnus Award. He has given numerous speeches across the country on the topic of Catholic higher education.

Dr. Robert M. Augros received a B.A. from St. Mary’s College in California. He earned a Ph.L. and Ph.D. from Laval University in Quebec, Canada. His doctoral dissertation was titled “Hume and the Existence of Substance”. He has taught courses in Ethics, Humanities, Euclidian Geometry, Scientific World Views and Philosophy of Education. Most recently he taught at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. He has published widely including two books The New Story of Science and The New Biology: Discovering the Wisdom of Nature.

Mr. Karl Cooper received a B.A. in History from Tufts University summa cum laude, after having been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year. Receiving a Danforth Fellowship upon graduation from Tufts, he earned an M.Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, a Th.M. in New Testament and Early Christianity from Harvard Divinity School, and an M.A. in Mathematics from Rhode Island College. He has published scholarly articles in the Westminster Theological Journal (“The Best Wine: John 2:1-11” in 1979 and “Paul and Rabbinic Soteriology” in 1982).

Dr. Margarita Fenn studied the great books at the University of Dallas, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior and earned degrees in Classics and philosophy.  After a year of studies in Germany on a Fulbright Scholarship, she pursued doctoral studies in philosophy at Boston College on a University Fellowship. Dr. Fenn has interests in Ancient Greek philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology, and literature. She teaches courses in the history of philosophy at Boston College and at Northeast Catholic College, enjoys exploring the great works of philosophy, history, and literature with her students.

Dr. des. Nicholas Newman serves Northeast Catholic College as an instructor in all levels of Latin. He recently completed graduate studies in Ancient Greek literature and linguistics, Latin literature, and Medieval history at the University of Zurich, and his published dissertation, The Liturgy of St. Gregory the Theologian: Edition, Translation, and Commentary, is forthcoming.

Dr. des. Newman’s research focuses on three aspects of literature: 1. the programmatic use of texts, especially in the Liturgy of St. Gregory the Theologian and in the political treatises of Remigius dei Girolami; 2. textual interaction, especially in Lucian of Samosata’s Verae Historiae, and 3. Rezeptionsgeschichte, a topic he has recently explored in the ninth century Byzantine poet, Arsenios of Corfu.

As an educator, Dr. Newman’s primary goal is to introduce his students to the vibrant world of antiquity. He is especially interested in the classical and great books models of education.

A Catholic artist and mother of five, Keri received her BFA from Parsons School of Design in New York City and later pursued Christian Russian-Byzantine iconography, studying under the late renowned Russian iconographer Ksenia Pokrovsky. Her icons, created through Iconeye Studio, have been exhibited in galleries, churches, and museums throughout New England and in private collections internationally. Keri has also held a career for over twenty years in both non-profit and for-profit arts administration which includes serving as the Executive Director of the Sharon Arts Center of Peterborough and Sharon, NH, a senior manager of the New Hampshire Institute of Art, founder and CEO of Creative Hands Art Studio and Atelier Gallery in Madison, NJ, and co-founder of The Starving Artist in Keene, NH. Keri is currently director of OQ Farm: A Creative Sanctuary — a new initiative to bring a Christian arts colony into existence that centers around supporting the artist through both creative and spiritual renewal on a 500-acre farm in Bridgewater, Vermont, and is also working with master iconographer George Kordis on the new International Centre of Contemporary Iconography in Athens, Greece. She is enthusiastic about helping to equip and support the next generation of Catholic artists in order to build towards a renaissance of beauty through the arts and the on-going transformation of culture.

Mrs. Katherine Yost is an accomplished singer and artist, who brings her extensive expertise in those fields to the College’s Music and Art sequence. After studying Music and Literature at Duke University, Mrs. Yost went on to various activities in the arts, serving as Organist, Choir Director, and soloist at churches in Texas and Massachusetts. She has also taught course in the visual arts and in Sacred Music in Texas and in New England.