Dr. Ben Merkle is the college’s second president, a Fellow of Theology, and previously served as the undergraduate dean. He holds a D.Phil. in Oriental Studies and an M.St. in Jewish Studies from Oxford University, England; an M.A. degree in English Literature, and a B.S. in Education (Secondary Education-Chemistry, with a minor in History) both from the University of Idaho. He also studied theology at Greyfriars Hall from 1998 to 2000.
Dr. Timothy Edwards holds a D. Phil in Oriental Studies, Oxford University 2004, M.A. in Jewish Civilization, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2000, B. Ed. in Physical Education with Religious and Moral Education, West London Institute of Higher Education, 1991. Dr. Edwards brings a wealth of knowledge from his years serving as a graduate level instructor at the Oxford Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He held professorship at Bristol University for two years. Dr. Edwards’ dissertation was published and he has written several academic articles. Dr. Edwards created a Hebrew Program that is used at seminaries and universities around the United States and has been translated for use in other countries. He is both Academic Dean and Fellow of Theology at New Saint Andrews College.
Luke Jankovic, Chairman of the Board of New Saint Andrews College, earned a B.A. from New Saint Andrews College, and serves as the Vice President of Higher Education at EMSI, where he has worked since 2006. He leads product development and data innovation, and he is responsible for the dual goal of EMSI’s vision for their higher education tools: to help students achieve their education and career goals, and to connect employers with talent.
Toby J. Sumpter graduated with a B.A. from New Saint Andrews College, then earned an M.A.T.S. from Erskine Theological Seminary before his ordination as a minister in 2007. He serves as associate pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, and is one of the hosts of CrossPolitic Show & Podcast. He authored the commentary Job Through New Eyes: A Son for Glory, as well as the non-fiction Blood Bought World, and produced the updated and annotated The Elfin Knight: Book II of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene.
Bill Church received a Bachelor of Liberal Studies (Magna Cum Laude) from Hillsdale College in 1977. He is the owner and CEO of Church & Church Inc. in Auburn Hills, Michigan, a $40 million lumber and building material distribution company with 70 employees where he has been employed since 1977. He is the President of Triangle Enterprises, a Michigan home building company, and a partner in Kestrel Building as well as several land development projects in SE Michigan. He was a founding Board Member of Christian Leadership Academy (now Bloomfield Christian School) in Michigan, and currently resides in Moscow, Idaho, where he is a real estate agent at Key Properties, serves as an elder at Christ Church, and is both a permanent Board member and Secretary of the Board for New Saint Andrews College.
David Alders president of Carrizo Creek Corporation, manager of Caddo Farms LLC and managing partner of Buck Bay Timber, Ltd. and Dagwood Timber LP, received a B.S. in Agricultural Economics with honors from Texas A&M University in 1985. He serves on the Board of Regents of Stephen F. Austin University, a state university located in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he resides. He also serves as a director of the Texas Forestry Association, the Texas Agricultural Land Trust and the Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce, as trustee of the Texas Center for Legal Ethics, and as a member of the Executive Committees of the East Texas Regional Water Planning Group. Other current board memberships include Citizens 1st Bank, Heartbeat Pregnancy Center, and Regents Academy of Nacogdoches. He is also a board member and past president of the Nacogdoches County Farm Bureau, and vice president and past president of the Pineywoods Groundwater Conservation District. Prior board service includes the State Bar of Texas, the Nacogdoches Economic Development Corporation, the Heritage Land Bank Association, and he is also a past chairman of the board of the Texas Department of Rural Affairs.
Csaba Leidenfrost was born and raised in Liberia, West Africa. After obtaining a B.S. in Wildlife Resource Management from the University of Idaho in 1983, he and his wife joined the Wycliffe Bible Translators, who sent him to pursue graduate studies in linguistics and translation at the University of Washington and the University of Texas at Arlington. Assigned to work in Côte d’Ivoire, he and his wife studied French from 1985-1987 in France. From 1988 to 2004 they were based in a village in Côte d’Ivoire among the Bakwé people, where they raised their four children and studied the Bakwé language and culture. Csaba’s work has been central to Bakwé language documentation, and includes: working with Bakwé colleagues to analyze the sound system of the Bakwé language and develop a written language, publishing pedagogical materials for teaching adults to read and write, training teachers, publishing around 60 pieces of literature in the language (including Bakwé folktales, short stories, and health booklets), and translating the New Testament into Bakwé. After civil war broke out in Côte d’Ivoire, he began to work remotely to finish the Bakwé New Testament translation, with an average of two trips to Côte d’Ivoire each year. Csaba is a past chair of the Board of New Saint Andrews College.
Francis Foucachon was born and raised in Lyon, France, where he trained to be a chef. After several years in that field in both France and Switzerland, he attended Reformed Theological Seminary in Aix-en-Provence, where he was part of a church-planting team which also helped start a French-speaking Christian school. After graduation he was ordained as a minister in the PCA, and planted a church in a suburb of Montreal. As Evangelism Explosion Director for Quebec, he taught numerous clinics all over the province. In 1995, Francis completed the course work in the Doctorate of Ministry program at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, and was sent to Lyon, France, as a PCA church planter. During his ten years there as Team Leader, he founded the American School of Lyon, which was the first classical Christian school in Western Europe. Francis moved his family to Moscow, Idaho, to accompany their children as they attended New Saint Andrews College, where he opened the high-end French restaurant West of Paris, and authored the book Food For Thought. He returned to full-time ministry to the French-speaking world as founder and President of Huguenot Heritage with the goal of training francophone leaders worldwide, and works in partnership with Third Millennium Ministries as their French Project Coordinator to provide free biblical education through video seminary curriculum.
Carson Sensing III received his B.B.A. in Business from the University of Mississippi, then spent a year working at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, as an intern for Reformed University Fellowship. He returned to his native Nashville to work in his family’s construction products business, where he began in the shop, then progressed through sales, branch management, and purchasing; he eventually became president. Carson helped start a classical Christian school where he served as headmaster for two years, and also assisted in a church plant before his move to Moscow, Idaho. Carson has served on the board of: The Classical Academy in Franklin, Tennessee, The Nashville Area Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, The Slavic Reformation Society, Highlands Ministry, and ENCO Materials, Inc. He has been a member of three church diaconate boards during the last 20 years.
Carlos Pliego earned his degree from the School of Communications at Anahuac University in Mexico City in 1985. During 1982, he also studied abroad at the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University. For two years after his graduation from Anahuac, Carlos worked at the Surety company, Americana de Fianzas, in Mexico City, after which he was employed at an Insurance agency, Orozco Rubio y Asociados. From 1995 to the present, he has been with the Insurance and Surety Broker “Intertec” as a Partner and Surety VP. He is a member of the Mexican Association of Insurance and Surety Agents (AMASFAC), the National Association of Surety Bond Producers, Surety Alliance, International Surety Brokers Alliance, and the Risk and Insurance Management Society.
Arnold Abens received a B.A. degree from Bethel University in 1983 and did graduate work at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he later served on the Trinity Foundation board. He is CEO and President of Abens Financial Services, Inc., and the manager of Water’s Edge Farm. He serves as the current Chairman of the Minnesota Family Institute, and a past Chairman and current board member of the Minnesota Family Council. Mr. Abens is Chairman of the Compensation Committee and board member for American Investors Bank and Mortgage. He is an owner and board member of National Flooring Equipment, and of New Perspective Senior Living and Economic Development Corporation (EDC). He is Chairman and a board member of Prime Professional Association. Past board service includes the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, SD Sports and Entertainment, Royal Alliance, Stages Theater, Silica, and membership in the Freedom Club. He serves as an elder for Christ Church Twin Cities.
Israel Waitman has worked in the oil and gas industry, the retail trade, and the real estate market over the past twenty-three years; his degree is in Golf Course Management from Mundus Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. He is cofounder and owner of PDC Logic, GIS Holdings, and Hyper Energy Services. PDC Logic is the largest privately held drill bit company in the United States. GIS Holdings is a real estate development and investment company with properties in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado. Hyper Energy Services is a water management company serving the hydraulic fracturing industry in the U.S. and Canada. Israel currently serves as an elder at Providence Reformed Church in Grand Junction, Colorado, and is a co-founder and board member of Grace Home, a maternity home ministry in Blanchard, Oklahoma.
Douglas Wilson served in the submarine service of the U.S. Navy, then earned two B.A. degrees, one in Philosophy and one in Classical Studies, plus an M.A. in Philosophy; all three of his degrees were granted by the University of Idaho. He has been an Instructor at both the University of Idaho and Lewis & Clark State College, and is currently a Senior Fellow at New Saint Andrews College, where he has taught since its inception without compensation. At NSA he has taught Greek, Latin, Theology, Rhetoric, and various electives, and he currently serves as Director of the MA program. He has also taught many classes at Logos School, a classical Christian school in Moscow, Idaho, which he helped found. He has served Christ Church, Moscow, as a pastor since 1977, and under his leadership it has founded New Saint Andrews College, Canon Press publishing house, the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, and many mission churches around the US and internationally.
He has authored almost eighty books for a dozen different publishing houses on a variety of educational and devotional topics, such as Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning, published by Crossway Books in 1991, a book which contributed to the creation of the Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS). He has also co-authored, contributed to, or edited another two dozen works, including several textbooks. He has been featured in two documentaries, and writes prolifically online at diverse sites which range from The Gospel Coalition to The Huffington Post. His articles, columns, and book reviews have appeared in numerous print publications, and his novel Evangellyfish received Christianity Today’s 2012 Best Fiction award.
He is a Board member for Logos School, and sits on the National Advisory Board of ACCS.
Mike Church attained his B.A. from New Saint Andrews College in 2007. During his senior year at NSA, Mike started working in business development at EMSI, and after graduation he became their top salesman. His five years there saw EMSI claim a spot in the Inc 500, and he led the launch of EMSI’s first international software product in the UK. He is now a real estate broker and owner of Kestrel Realty Group and Kestrel Property Management of Moscow, Idaho. Mike currently serves as a deacon at Christ Church. Past board service includes Collegiate Reformed Fellowship and Homestead Ministries.
Edwin Lang graduated with a B.A. from New Saint Andrews College in 2000. He’s been the headmaster of Geneva Academy in West Monroe, LA since 2002 and teaches the great books, logic, and rhetoric. He also taught two years at a classical school in Baton Rouge, LA. Ed and his wife Heidi (A.A. 1999) have five children, the oldest of which attends New Saint Andrews College. They worship at Church of the Redeemer (CREC) in West Monroe, LA where Ed serves as a deacon.