Our Awesome Faculty
Dr. Joseph Wiest is the founder and consultant of the program. Dr. Wiest is professor and former chairman of the Department of Physics and Engineering at West Virginia Wesleyan College. He has taught physics and mathematics to gifted children from third grade to high school. His wife, Dr. Jeanie Wiest, is a pediatrician. They are the parents of two gifted sons. Dr. Wiest teaches Intermediate Computer Science and Advanced and College Prep Computational Astrophysics and Mathematics for the Wesleyan Summer Gifted Program.
Dr. Katharine Antolini offers courses in American History and Gender Studies at West Virginia Wesleyan College. She is a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College and holds an M.A. in Sociology from Rutgers University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in History from West Virginia University. She specializes in the field of women’s history and has published articles on the role of Confederate women in the American Civil War and the history of American holidays. She was one of the featured speakers of the WV Humanities Council’s 2014 Sesquicentennial Speakers Bureau commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Her talk, “Mothers of Martyrs: Woman and Civil War Commemoration,” highlighted the role that women played in the creation and celebration of Memorial Day, Emancipation Day and Mother’s Day in the wake of the war. Her book, Memorializing Motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the Struggle for Control of Mother’s Day, was published by the West Virginia University Press in Fall 2014. Dr. Antolini teaches History at all levels for the Wesleyan Summer Gifted Program.
Dr. Kim Bjorgo-Thorne grew up in Florida, and came to West Virginia in 1999 to pursue a Ph.D. in fisheries ecology. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of Florida. She has worked as a research diver with the Florida Regional Reef Project and also worked for the Florida Marine Research Institute. She earned an M.S. degree from Clemson in fisheries, with a minor in statistics. In 2006, Dr. Bjorgo-Thorne completed her Ph.D. dissertation on the spatial ecology of fish in the Kanawha River, and began teaching at West Virginia Wesleyan College in 2006 in the department of Biology and Environmental Science. Dr. Bjorgo-Thorne's childhood experiences with Florida's diverse plant and animal life were the biggest factors in her pursuing a career in environmental science, especially water-related, issues. Her passion is teaching, with a focus on the remarkable resilience and innate fragility of this small island we live on: planet Earth. Dr. Bjorgo-Thorne teaches Environmental Science at all levels for the Wesleyan Summer Gifted Program.
Dr. Tracey DeLaney grew up in Minnesota and served 3 years in the US Army upon graduating from high school. She earned her B.S. and M.S. in Physics from New Mexico Tech and she earned her Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Minnesota in 2004. Dr. DeLaney held post-doctoral appointments at Harvard and MIT before coming to West Virginia in 2009. She is currently an Associate Professor of Physics at West Virginia Wesleyan College. For her research, she studies supernova remnants, which are the remains of exploded stars, i.e. star guts. Dr. DeLaney is also director of Wesleyan's planetarium and gives general astronomy shows to audiences of all ages. In 2019, Dr. DeLaney took over as director of the Wesleyan Summer Gifted Program. Dr. DeLaney teaches Elementary Computer Science and Elementary and Intermediate Physics for the Wesleyan Summer Gifted Program.
Mr. Robert Howsare is an Assistant Professor and Department chair for the Art & Design Department at West Virginia Wesleyan College. Informed by a background in psychology and commercial printing, Robert Howsare’s interdisciplinary work explores failure and the glitches occurring within systems. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Ohio University.
His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally; select venues include the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the Austrian Cultural Forum of New York, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art and the International Print Center of New York. Howsare’s work has been recognized by WIRED Magazine, Abitare International Design Magazine, HOW, and other publications. Most recently his work has appeared in The Art of Tinkering, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design and on Adult Swim. Awarded artist residencies include the Charlotte Street Foundation Studio Residency, Vermont Studio Center, and Prairieside Cottage.
Andrew Irvin is a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College and will be teaching math, physics, and computer science for us this summer. While a student at Wesleyan, Andrew was a member of our SPACE club and helped build rocket payloads. Andrew was our head counselor last year and now that he has graduated, we asked him back to teach for us.
Kellie Tatem is a 2021 graduate of the MFA program at West Virginia Wesleyan College with a degree in Fiction. Her thesis, “His Ordained Wife,” is a novel in short stories exploring generational trauma and redemption. Kellie is the 2022 winner of the McKinney Fellowship. Kellie teaches for our English department and is the creative writing instructor for the Summer Gifted Program.