Dr. Fox is a parent and educator of many years’ experience in the public, private and university systems, with a special interest in the gifted adolescent. She has lectured for learned societies, the University of Toronto, and York University, and has held the post of Head of English and of Vice-Principal at a Toronto private school. She received her doctorate in English Literature from the University of Toronto School of Graduate Studies in 1986, with a dissertation on Political and Social Models in the Works of Philip Sidney. Her special scholarly interests are in Renaissance literature, history and political science. She has also pursued academic work in pedagogy and philosophy as well as fine arts. She has lobbied for the legalisation of midwifery in Ontario, and taken part in numerous amateur and professional theatrical productions. She is a published poet, and the author of five novels. She also sings Gershwin, and accompanies herself on the piano. She has spent many of the happiest hours of her life in the world’s great museums.

One of Canada’s foremost flamenco teachers, choreographers and dancers, she has taught for the University of Toronto, the Royal Conservatory of Music, Appleby College, and the University of Calgary as well as teaching music at The Dragon. Artistic director and principal choreographer of Theatre Flamenco, she has shared the soul of Flamenco through classes, workshops and concerts with leading artists. In addition to her many outreach programmes through the Arts Council and Toronto area schools.

Ms. Carolina’s early studies included dance at the National Ballet School and music at the Royal Conservatory of Music. After university studies in music composition, she lived in Spain for 10 years, and studied with such famous artists and teachers as La Tati, Manolete, Ricardo "El Veneno", Paco Fernandes and the late Maria Alba. She has worked and toured extensively in the tablaos of Spain and the concert halls of Europe, the Middle East, the U. S. A. and Canada, along with a two year stint at the New York City Opera, and appearances at New York’s famous flamenco gathering place, le Chateau. She now travels throughout Canada performing, choreographing and teaching, most recently bringing her Misa Flamenca, the first Flamenco Mass to be realized in Canada, to sold-out audiences in the west.

Sarah Beatty, Administrator:

Ms. Beatty grew up in a haunted farmhouse in Queensville, Ontario.  She graduated with an Honours BFA at the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2004, where she was trained in printmaking and book arts.  She has recently begun to make quirky cards under the name Good Morning Press, a project which has stemmed from collaborative efforts of art practise that is known publicly as S.D.Wormwood.  She partners a handbag company called Plain Jane, where she designs, prints, and sews purses.

Seth David Halvorson, Ph.D., Columbia University, (2006) M.Phil., Columbia, (2005) M.A., Stanford University, (2000) B.A. with honors, Macalester College, (1996). As a philosopher who is interested in education, Halvorson has taught with outstanding reviews to undergraduates in the Core Curriculum at Columbia College, Columbia University, and high school students  and teachers at summer institutes at Stanford University and the University of Iowa. A champion debater, Dr. Halvorson's courses attend to argumentation, critical thinking, and advocacy skills. Seth's scholarly interests lie at the intersection of ethics, politics, and education; with a focus on citizenship, civil society, and deliberative democracy.   His recent book on the mechanics of value debate has been recognized as one of the best textbooks available on the subject .Currently, he speaks to learned societies and local universities.

Halvorson's dissertation is unique. It was nominated as both finalist for Outstanding Dissertation in Politics and Education, and also internationally, as finalist for the Kuhmerker Dissertation Award in Moral Education. Prior to graduate school, he spent three years at Harvard's Institute of Politics. He has over 15 years of experience teaching high school students and coaching champion debaters. Dr. Halvorson's courses at Dragon will focus on the history of philosophy, political and ethical theory, and government. We are delighted to welcome such an eminent and committed teacher to our community.

Matt Russo:

Matt Russo holds a B. Mus. for Jazz guitar from U of T where he is currently completing a specialist degree in Astrophysics. He teaches senior level Math and Physics courses at the Dragon Academy, developing the student’s faculties in understanding the mathematical nature of the universe, critical and skeptical thinking, and areas of Physics such as Quantum Mechanics and cosmology. He also teaches a weekly workshop in rock music, providing the students with a venue to develop their musical personalities through practice, performance and recording. Mr. Russo has a passion for scientific literacy which he inherited from Carl Sagan and enjoys teaching at the Dragon Academy immensely.

Jonathan Glidden:

As a teacher of international repute Jonathan Glidden has seen a very diverse and eclectic career thus far as both a classical and world music cellist. Jonathan has worked extensively in Canada and abroad teaching in such places as Dublin, Ireland at St. Mary’s Music Institute to as far as Mexico, where he gave performances in Ajijic and Guadalajara. Currently Jonathan is an ‘Artist in Residence’ at the Dragon Academy for Private Education in Toronto. As a world music Cellist, Jonathan as worked with members of the Boss Brass in performing original works by John MacLeod.  Mr. Glidden has also played with a Celtic music trio called Cu Chulainn, and was a member of the M.I.N.G.U.S Jazz Ensemble. Jonathan is a unique and multi-faceted musician showing an unusual interest in Jazz Improvisation, and Middle-Eastern Indian music. In 2004, Jonathan participated in the Canada Dance Festival as solo cellist with the Téatro Flamenco in Ottawa; and has collaborated with noted Canadian Spanish dancers Juliana Pulford and Claire Marchand. As a classical cellist Jonathan has worked under maestros Sir Andrew Davis, Bramwell Tovey, Nathan Brock, Jacques Lacombe and Alain Trudel, and has been a member of the Northern Lights Festival Orchestra (Mexico), , the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Mooredale Youth Orchestra, and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, of which he can be heard regularly on CBC radio.

Jonathan spent four years at Wilfrid Laurier University in the Bachelor of Music Program, and currently studies at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, ON under the tutelage of Bryan Epperson. His past teachers include Clare Carberry, Paul Pulford and Simon Fryer.  Through university he had performed a duo concert with Dr. Jeremy Bell as well as other members of the Wilfrid Laurier Music Faculty at the “Bartulis Fest” project, which was conceived and performed by NUMUS. There he had worked with Canadian composer Glenn Buhr on his film soundtrack as well as performing works by composer Bongani Ndonda-Breen with the silent film ensemble named Muisca Noir.

Marcus Kumala:

Mr. Kumala is a current winner of the 2008 Don Galbraith Preservice Teacher Award of Excellence and former graduate of the University of Toronto where he studied zoology and, specifically, the principles of phylogenetic systematics, under the great tutelage of doctors Deborah A. McLennan, a renowned ethologist, and Daniel R. Brooks, a famous parasitologist and Fellow of the Royal Society. One of Mr. Kumala’s long-term goals is to establish better communication between those within academia and those teaching in our primary and secondary schools. He thinks “it is important that each of our citizens is provided an opportunity to learn the foundations of science, and an accurate understanding of evolutionary theory is at the heart of a literate understanding of the science of life. With increased cross-communication, we can work towards creating a unified approach to teaching the biological aspects of the curriculum, which can only improve student understanding and foster greater scientific literacy amongst the community at large.” We welcome Mr. Kumala in the fall of 2008 to teach Physical Education, Biology and to share in the role of teaching grade 7-10 Science.

Brian Beare:

Brian has a Master of Science in Physics (Toronto, 2006), a Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics (Cambridge, 2005) and a Bachelor of Mathematics (Waterloo, 2001). He has worked in the North American software industry and on information technology projects for the Red Cross in Zimbabwe. Most recently he undertook research in experimental particle physics at the University of Toronto and worked as a teaching assistant. He now joins the Dragon Academy to put more focus in his career on science education. He splits some of his spare time between playing the guitar, bass and drums, but competency in any one of them remains elusive.

Nicole Fallon:

Nicole Fallon is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, where she is studying Medieval Latin and Middle English Christian legends. She enjoys working with students of all levels and has years of experience as a university teaching assistant, a private tutor and a supplemental education instructor. Ms. Fallon received her undergraduate and graduate training in Latin at York University and University of Toronto. In addition to her MA in medieval studies, she holds a Master of Science degree from Dalhousie and a Bachelor of Science honours degree from Queen’s University. In her spare time she pursues collage art, needlework and stained glass, and is an avid reader and doll collector.

Yann Vargoz:

Yann Vargoz went through the traditional cursus honorum of the French best students : a Baccalaureat in sciences, then three years of intensive preparatory classes in Mathematics and Physics, then a national exam and an entrance with the best grades at the ENSAE (École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique), one of the acknowledged 10 best French Grandes Écoles, located in Paris and Finance-oriented. After three years of school and graduation Mr Vargoz worked as a state-employed Statisticien-Économiste, first in the French diplomatic representation in Rome (Italy) and then for two years in Guadeloupe (French Caribbean).

Nevertheless deciding to become a teacher, he passed with the best national grades the most prestigious French teaching degree, the Agrégation de Mathématiques (MA+1), and was given the official title of Professeur Agrégé. Following what he successively taught in Nice (French Riviera), in Bondy (an impoverished suburb of Paris), in La Réunion (a French island close to Madagascar, Indian Ocean), in Guadeloupe for five years (French Caribbean), in Arles (Provence). During these years Mr Vargoz had the opportunity to teach from sixth grade, to MA level.

Living then in Maine (USA) for two years, he passed a BA in Lettres Classiques (Latin, Ancient Greek, Ancient French Literature), with a Teaching French as a Second Language minor, and then a MA in Lettres Modernes (Modern French Literature and Criticism). In 2007-08 he taught Algebra at Glendon College (York University). M.Vargoz practiced Ballet and Modern Dance at a semi-professional level, and is also a fiction writer, having been awarded three prizes for his short stories, the latest in June 2008