Board of Directors
 Misty Foxley Chairman |
 John Frary Director |
 Theresa Handy Director |
 Gregory van Duyse Director |
 Dana Wood Director
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 John Reeder Treasurer |
Executive Board
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Conference Committee
Youth Conference Committee
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Youth Conference & Graduation Assistants
Web Team
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Board of Directors
Misty Foxley - Chairman
Misty has been working tirelessly in one capacity or another in organizing this conference and setting up its volunteer leadership staff for the past six years, serving four years as LDSEHE President. She has a continuing admiration for parents who choose to bring their children home and devote their time and energy to their development and education. Misty’s desire is to help support a growing number of LDS homeschoolers throughout the nation with this conference. She and her husband, Derek, live in Virginia, have six children and have been homeschooling for over 18 years. Their oldest son recently returned from a mission and both he and his sister are students of private universities. Derek and Misty consider their experiences in homeschooling as some of the most fulfilling and greatest experiences of their family life.
John Frary - Director
John and Cheri are the parents of ten children and have home schooled for over 20 years. They have been married for 35 years. John works as a Security consultant / contractor in Information Assurance. He has spent over 25 years in retail businesses and possesses extensive customer service skills. He was a training manager for many years training hundreds of managers in operations, HR, P&L responsibilities. He served a mission to France in the early 70's. He met Cheri at BYU and they finished their Baccalaureate degrees at the university. John has been active in Boy Scouts for over thirty years. He and Cheri have been active in numerous church callings, and are waiting patiently to spoil their grandchildren.
theresa handy - director
Influenced by Reed Benson at BYU, Theresa and her husband David decided to homeschool even before the first of their four children were born. Feeling a need for a local LDS support group, they formed the first statewide LDS homeschooling organization in Oregon and held annual conferences. They relocated to North Carolina in 2003. The Handy family's homeschooling adventure continues, with grandparents joining their household, health struggles, running a family book publishing business, and much more! LDSEHE is grateful for Theresa’s knowledge, experience and willingness to serve.
Gregory van Duyse - director
Gregory and his wife Evelyn have been home schooling their five children (11, 9, 8, 3 years old and a new baby!) for the past five years in Montreal, Canada. They have been inspired by the Lord to educate them and consider it a blessing. Gregory is an entrepreneur and loves to be engaged in building the Kingdom. The 2004 LDSEHE conference inspired him to help make the conference accessible to as many saints as possible. He feels it is a pleasure to work beside so many good people who strive to build the kingdom of God one child at a time. Gregory has contributed in exceptional ways towards developing the vision, clarifying the mission, and ordering the organizational framework of LDSEHE. His leadership and support of the executive board is extremely valuable and appreciated.
Dana Wood - director
Dana and her husband, Spencer, have been homeschooling their 10 children since 1987. As a military family, they have lived all over the country, including nine years in Alaska. Besides homeschooling, Dana enjoys reading, sewing, gardening, knitting and quilting. Through her service as LDSEHE Vice President, Dana was primarily responsible for the extraordinary success of our youth education conference in recent years. She is also becoming an oft-requested and trusted speaker. She and her family reside in New Jersey.
john reeder - treasurer
John and his beautiful wife, Christena, began their homeschooling journey at the beginning of the 2006 school year. As newcomers to this fast-paced and exciting world, they were glad to find an organization dedicated to helping those with similar values. They were so impressed with what they gleaned from their first homeschooling conference they felt they wanted to lend their assistance in whatever way they could to help this association grow. They have three wonderful children who are/will benefit from the conferences -- and one who is very anxious to begin participating in the Youth Conferences.
Executive Board
Katie Wilson - president
Katie Wilson and her husband, Dave, are the parents of four children, three boys (ages 15, 13, and 9) and one girl (age 6). They live in Virginia and have been homeschooling for ten years. After graduating from BYU with a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in English, Katie and her husband, Dave, returned to the east. She then attended George Mason University, where she received her Master's Degree in School Psychology. Although she always knew she would stay home with her children when they were small, Katie never suspected that she would be homeschooling them. In fact, throughout her graduate program, she was firmly committed to making public schools better. However, by the time her oldest son started first grade, Katie knew that homeschooling was the path her family was to take. She started attending LDSEHE home education conferences in 2002 and served as the secretary for three years. The Wilsons love to take road trips, spend time with family, and read! Their favorite part of the day is dog-piling on the couch while Mom reads aloud.
Melissa Orton - vice president
Melissa grew up in a small town in Idaho—growing potatoes and moving water lines. She is the oldest of six children, and the only girl. Her parents started homeschooling when she was a junior in high school. By taking home study courses from BYU, she was able to graduate from high school early and begin college. This helped her realize how much time is really wasted in public school, and convinced her that she wanted to homeschool her own children some day! Melissa and Matt have three daughters, ages 12, 9 and 5. They have been homeschooling for eight years.
Sherry Veach -Youth Conference Chair
Sherry Veach is the mother of four children ages 18, 16, 12, and 7.She and her husband, Jeff, have been homeschooling for seven years and graduated their first child from homeschool this year. Sherry graduated from BYU with a B.S. in Clothing and Textiles and was married the next day in the Salt Lake City temple. The Veach family has lived in New Jersey, Switzerland and currently lives in North Carolina. Sherry loves to read, travel, swim and even quilt when she has the time (which is not very often!).
Conference Committee
Jamie Anderson
Jamie Anderson, a current resident of VA and mother of four children, has been homeschooling "officially" for six years. During her undergraduate studies, she felt inspired that at some point in her future, she would need to teach her children at home. Subsequently, she received her Bachelor of Science in Elementary and Special Education from Brigham Young University- Hawaii. Her home-schooling approach has evolved from traditional conveyor belt to a mixture of TJEd and classical. Jamie and her husband, Travis, enjoy their role as the primary educators and mentors for their children—who range in age from ten to four years. As a family, they enjoy spending their free time accomplishing running goals, drawing, studying a good read, and playing outdoors.
melissa coombs
Melissa Coombs grew up in Lugoff, South Carolina. An excellent student, she was awarded academic and Journalism scholarships to the University of South Carolina. She later attended UVSC and BYU in Provo, Utah and it was there she met and married her husband, Shawn. They have been married for 17 years and have five children. The author of “The Hows and Whys of the Year Supply,” Melissa is passionate about food storage and preparedness and is a popular speaker on these subjects. She and her family raise a huge garden every summer and bottle hundreds of jars of fruits and vegetables each year. Melissa used to think that homeschooling was the craziest thing she ever heard of, until the Lord told her that she needed to homeschool her own children. Although she really knew very little about the subject, she jumped in with both feet and quickly learned a lot! She now knows that it is the best thing she has ever done for her family. She has been homeschooling her three sons and two daughters for the past seven years, and although “it’s the hardest thing [she] has ever tried to do,” she absolutely loves it!
jennifer Georgia
Jennifer and her husband Paul have been homeschooling their four children since birth, and their oldest is now a junior in college. They have lived in the Washington D.C. area for sixteen wonderful years. She spent 20 years as a critical care nurse, and though she loved it, she has temporarily put that career aside to focus on more important things. Over the years she has taught co-op classes in science, Spanish, history, and writing. She has read just about every homeschooling book out there, and is currently writing one herself. She’s a passionate supporter of homeschooling, believing that it will be the "hope" and "change" that we need in society. In her downtime she loves to read, sing, garden, travel, and do projects of all types.
Heidi McFarland
Heidi and her husband, Brian, have been dedicated homeschoolers since the first of their three beautiful children was born. They attended their first LDSEHE conference while living on Long Island during Brian’s grad school years, and were amazed and inspired by the experience. Their family is now happily settled in Birmingham, AL, where opportunities to associate with other homeschoolers (and non-homeschoolers) are plentiful. Heidi is a passionate student of many subjects and has devoted particular attention in recent years to American History and the Constitution. As the first Latter-day Saint and first homeschooler in her family, Heidi is laying a new foundation for the spiritual and scholarly development of generations to come, and she greatly appreciates the opportunity to be involved with LDSEHE.
Jill Syphert
Jill grew up in WA state and developed a love for climbing and canoeing. She served in the Mississippi Jackson Mission after living in AZ for a year. She and Russ have been married almost ten years and have FOUR daughters, ages eight months to eight years old. Their eldest requested to begin homeschool halfway through her kindergarten year at public school, and they've never looked back! Jill has completed several semesters at George Wythe University through their Distance Studies programs, and is elated at how life changing a liberal education can be, even beyond the structured university classes. Learning is exciting! The Sypherts use the Well-Trained Mind, a sprinkling of TJEd, and a lot of library books to flesh out their studies. They currently reside in Maryland.
denise Ward
Denise and Craig Ward have been married for 27 years, and have 12 children (seven girls and five boys), ages 4-26. They also have two grandchildren, with more on the way. Denise has been homeschooling 11 years. She started homeschooling when her oldest child reached high school. One day she had finally had enough of the “rat race” and pulled all of her children out of public school in the middle of a year. To date, Denise has four homeschool graduates (attending BYU, BYU-I and SVU, and one on a mission), and eight still in homeschool. Because of the ages of her children, Denise is currently teaching pre-school through the 12th grade. She has also had four babies during her homeschooling years, and understands how hard it is to teach multiple grades, and handle babies at the same time! Through it all, Denise has learned that organization is a blessing, not a chore.
Youth Conference Committee
Sarah Brimhall - president
Sarah Brimhall has attended LDSEHE for seven years. She designed the past couple of t-shirts for the conference, and is currently taking graphic design classes at the local community college. Sarah is 17 (nearly 18!) and absolutely loves being homeschooled. Right now she works part-time as a secretary for an attorney, and she also sings in a small a capella vocal ensemble. Sarah can run for almost seven minutes without stopping, has her very own READ poster hanging in several of the Virginia Beach public libraries, and is very good at singing and dancing in the rain.
bryce carbee
Bryce Carbee has been homeschooled all of his life and is currently a Junior. He enjoys the Young Men's program and is working on his Eagle Project. He has completed a Community Emergency Certification Training Course (CERT) with his homeschool group and is a First Responder for his Community in the face of an emergency. He thoroughly enjoys living in the modern age of technology where he can communicate with his friends via instant messenger or X-Box Live. He also enjoys playing the violin and learning how to make his own games on the X-Box and PC.
Nathan Handy
Nathan Handy was born in the middle of Oregon's great winter of 1994. He spent several years of his life on a farm and half of his life in the State of Oregon. As he likes to say to his friends, “I'm organic.” Due to his father’s job, his family was moved to North Carolina. Some of his talents include rock climbing, tubing, and story-telling. He also considers himself a quite unaccomplished writer, although he is an Olympic class reader. His hobbies include reading, attempting writing, acting, and caring for his adorable beagle named Susie.
kaylee huie
Kaylee Huie (15) currently lives in Virginia with her family. She is the first of four children, a freshman in high school, and has been homeschooled since first grade. Her passion in life is horses. She is actively involved in 4-H, which allows her the opportunity to show her horse, Megas Black Magic. Her other passion is music. She teaches piano lessons and has been playing for eight years. Kaylee enjoys attending seminary where she strengthens her testimony.
Nick Jones
Nick is 17 years old and the second of six children. He has four sisters and one brother. Nick's family has homeschooled for six years. Nick is currently taking classes at the community college along with finishing up high school and enjoys the challenge. He is working at a plant nursery where he likes learning about plants, saving money for his mission, and getting his hands dirty. Nick loves the outdoors, playing games, and taking road trips with his family. His favorite trips have been to see church historical sites, with his personal favorite being Nauvoo. Nick was born in Oregon and has moved back and forth to North Carolina three times, with a year spent in Ohio. Nick has earned his Eagle Scout and Duty to God awards. He was privileged to serve a "mini" mission for a week this summer and cannot wait to serve his own mission. This is Nick's first time serving on the Youth Conference Committee, for which he is grateful. The 2008 LDSEHE Conference was the first one that Nick and his siblings attended. They loved every bit of it!! He hopes to help make this conference as rewarding and fun as the last one!
Heather Roberson
Heather is 16! She has been homeschooled her whole life and absolutely loves it. She was born in Provo, UT, and is the oldest of seven children. She is in a military family and has moved many times. She recently moved from Arizona and loves the desert. She loves reading, dancing, spending time with her family, playing the piano, and writing. She is currently writing a fantasy series. She loves music and is interested in becoming a music teacher. She also loves birds of prey and hopes to become a falconer. Her heroes are the Founding Fathers, Joan of Arc, and Captain Moroni. Heather is very excited to finish the YW’s Personal Progress program soon. This is her second year attending the LDSEHE conference.
Zach Powell
Zach Powell is 14 years old and lives in Salem, Virginia. He has been homeschooled on and off since second grade. He started his own professional landscaping business two years ago called Dirt and Turf. He has a dog and two cats. He also has a seventeen-year-old brother named Taylor. Zach likes to play baseball and football and enjoys camping and boating. One of his goals is to own a professional corporation someday.
Clarissa Veach
Clarissa Veach is 16 and a junior in high school. She has been homeschooling for seven years and loves the freedom to study at her own pace. She loves math, physics, reading, swimming, and sewing. She has attended the LDSEHE youth conference for the last two years and is excited to be on the youth conference committee this year. She plans on finishing high school and would like to attend BYU where she wants to major in physics. She is the second of four children and the only girl in her family.
Youth Conference & Graduation Assistants
Kari Brimhall
Kari and VonLogan Brimall have been married for 20 adventurous years and have four fabulous children (ages 10-17). They have lived all over the country and in Mexico. It's never a dull moment as they love exploring new places, serving in the church (he is in the Stake presidency, and she teaches early morning seminary), writing and making movies with their family and friends.
Michelle Carbee
Michelle and her husband Todd have been homeschooling their two boys, Chase (17) and Bryce (15) since they were born. This year they have added homeschooling their niece, Brooke, age 11, to their routine as she came to live with them in September. Michelle has been active in homeschooling by organizing and running group activities and classes for over eight years. She has taughts classes for LDSEHE’s annual conference in the past. This is her second year of working with the Conference Committee.
Marty Huie
Marty Huie, and her husband, Mark, have been homeschooling for nine years. They live in Virginia with their four children ranging in age from nine to 15. They have been homeschooling since their oldest child reached first grade. Their approach to homeschooling has evolved through the years, changing according to the needs of their family and inspiration. Currently, they draw from many sources, combining a classical education with a Thomas Jefferson Education approach. The Huies love living in the country where they can own horses, 4-wheel to their hearts content, and “live” nature rather than just read about it. Their favorite part of the school day is when they gather together and “devour” a great classic.