Fr. David Mariano Vidal is the Pastor of Ave Maria Parish and a priest of the Diocese of Venice in Florida.
In 1993 Fr. Vidal began studies for the priesthood and was ordained on August 9, 2001, in La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. After some years of missionary work in the United States, he entered the graduate program in the School of Philosophy of The Catholic University of America, receiving the Licentiate degree in Philosophy in 2012 with a thesis on “Nature and Suppositum in the Metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas” under the direction of Msgr. John F. Wippel. He received the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Catholic University in 2020, with a dissertation on “Res as Transcendental in the Metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas” under the guidance of Dr. Gregory T. Doolan. Fr. Vidal was a lecturer at Saint John Vianney College Seminary in Miami from 2018 to 2022 and has been an adjunct professor in the Philosophy Department at Ave Maria University since 2023.
As a priest of the Diocese of Venice, Father Vidal came to Ave Maria Parish in August 2017 as Parochial Vicar; he was appointed Administrator of Our Lady Queen of Heaven Parish, LaBelle, in May 2018 and returned to Ave Maria Parish in 2021 as Pastor. Fr. Vidal frequently celebrates daily Mass and hears confessions at Donahue Academy and serves as an ex-officio member of Donahue’s Advisory Board, guiding the school in close collaboration with the Principal.
Fr. Vidal comes from a large family of seven siblings. Two of his brothers are missionary priests and three of his sisters are nuns.
Dr. Marc Snyder is one of the founding faculty members of Donahue, where he taught and was Assistant Head of School from 2007 to 2013. From 2013-2015, he was the founding Upper School Principal of Aquinas American School in Madrid, Spain, before returning to Miami, Florida, to be the founding Headmaster (2015-2020) of True North Classical Academy in Miami. While at True North , he grew the school from a single school of 180 students into a network of five schools of over 1,700 students that have consistently ranked in the top 1% of academic schools in Florida. He also served as the Executive Director of True North ‘s Foundation (2020-2022), where he helped raise millions of dollars for the schools’ growth and development. Dr. Snyder returned to Donahue in 2022 to serve as Assistant Principal. Dr. Snyder has several degrees including a Bachelor’s in Biology from FAU, a Bachelor’s of Philosophy from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, a Master’s in K-12 Educational Leadership and a Doctorate in Higher Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University. He is currently pursuing a second Master’s in Character Education from the University of Birmingham’s Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues in London. He is married to his beautiful wife, Cynthia, and has two children, Isabela ’24 and Michael ’26.
Ms. Brady Beckerman is from St. Augustine, Florida. She earned her B.A. in English from Florida State University and moved to Ave Maria to pursue her M.A. in Theology, which she completed in May of 2022. It was during her graduate studies that she found her passion for Thomism, C.S. Lewis, and scripture. In her free time, she enjoys reading novels, doing freelance editing, and studying theology and languages, preferably with a cup of coffee in hand. She is excited to strive toward sainthood with the faculty, staff and students of Donahue.
Mrs. Bruce graduated from The Ohio State University with a B.A. in Early Childhood Development. She has over 25 years of experience teaching preschool age children. Mrs. Bruce has two grown children, Jack and Annemarie. Her son Jack, his wife and two children also live in Ave Maria.
Mr. Matthew Byrne has been teaching in the Logic and Rhetoric levels at Donahue Academy since 2015. He obtained his B.A. from Manhattan College in the Bronx where he studied Political Science and History. He then obtained his J.D. from Pace University Law School and practiced law in New York and New Jersey for more than 20 years. He engaged in graduate course work at the Archdiocese of New York’s Institute of Religious Studies while teaching religious education at his local parish. His legal career included being the managing partner of his own law firm, a senior attorney in county government, and a municipal attorney and prosecutor. He served as an elected judge in New York for 16 years and completed his elected public service as a trustee in local government. Mr. Byrne has also been an educator for more than 25 years including more than sixteen years as an adjunct college professor at multiple colleges, including his alma mater Manhattan College. He was instrumental in developing a new curriculum in criminal justice at Dominican College where he taught the first courses offered in their new criminal justice concentration. He loves being in the classroom interacting with is students every day and helping them with their formation in knowledge and faith. He and his wife, Maribet, and their sons, Matt, ’21 and Jack,’20, relocated to Ave Maria from New York in 2014.
Mrs. Campau graduated from Dowling College in New York with a masters degree in secondary education. She has been teaching for over 20 years and has taught everything from middle school math to algebra and calculus. She has spent most of her career as a public high school teacher and is grateful for the blessing of now being able to teach at Donahue, where she can help students have a deeper understanding of math through the Catholic faith and of the Catholic faith through math.
Alexis Casterline graduated with a B.A in elementary education from Ave Maria University in 2019. She taught first grade for two years at Eden Park Elementary School in Immokalee. Miss Casterline grew up in Northeast Ohio and moved to Florida in 2015. She is excited to be at Donahue Academy where she gets to give and receive the goodness of Christ daily.
Karen Dittus holds a B.A. in theology with a minor in classical languages from Ave Maria University. During her last year at the university, she enjoyed being able to intern at Donahue Academy. She has a great love for teaching and has many years of experience teaching religion and working with students of various ages. She feels blessed and is excited to be a part of the Donahue family!
Mrs. Meredith Flynn graduated from Lehigh University with a B.A. in international relations and anthropology and holds a masters degree in education from George Mason University. She has taught grades K-9 in a public charter school setting in Northwest DC, Boston and Herndon, VA. She joined Teach for America in 2008 and continued her love of teaching for 6 years serving as a Special Education Teacher, as well as a Special Education Coordinator, Mentor Teacher for Special Populations and a Resource Teacher for Reading, Writing and Mathematics. She is trained in the Wilson Reading Program and the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project. She is married to her husband Daniel Flynn and they currently have 3 children attending Donahue. She is thrilled to serve children in need of support and specialized instruction as well as supporting our incredible teachers at Donahue Academy.
Mrs. Fox graduated from Ohio Dominican College summa cum laude with majors in English, theology, and education. She has spent half of her more than 40 years in education as a teacher in Catholic high schools and grammar schools. She has a passion for teaching, especially the young, and for introducing them to the love of Christ and His Church. Mrs. Fox and her family were among the founding families of Donahue Academy; her five children attended Donahue, were trained in the Catholic classical tradition, and were taught to think! Their current professions are: mechanical engineer, federal prosecutor, postpartum nurse, and marine biologist. Her youngest is a recent graduate of Franciscan University with degrees in Spanish and communications arts. Her son John’s wife is also a Donahue graduate! Mrs. Fox and her husband are very grateful for the education Donahue has given their children.
Mr. Fulmer holds B.A. degrees in philosophy and history from Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, and an M.Ed. in administration and supervision from Marymount University, Arlington, Virginia. The son of a teacher, Mr. Fulmer was practically raised in a school building, and teaching middle schoolers is his professional vocation, his calling. Prior to returning to the school building as a teacher, he worked in politics at both the federal and state levels with former U.S. Senator and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, first as his driver and eventually as his Chief of Staff. While living and working in Washington, DC, he met his wife, Lidiya Zubytska, who is now Assistant Professor of Politics at Ave Maria University. Mr. Fulmer and his wife live in Ave Maria with their four daughters, all of whom attend Donahue Academy. The Fulmers are members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and pray constantly for an end to war and a complete Russian withdrawal from the sovereign territory of Ukraine.
Mrs. Amy Gawron graduated from Franciscan University in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. In 2016, she moved from Rhode Island to Ave Maria along with a large family group that included her mom and two siblings! Three of her six children currently attend Donahue Academy and she has three graduates (’17, ’19 and ’21). Amy has been involved with Donahue Academy since she arrived in Ave Maria, first as a substitute teacher and then as co-teacher in first grade. When Donahue added a Pre-K program in 2017, she was invited to become the lead teacher. She has since earned a Director Credential with the Florida Department of Children and Families. She finds great joy in welcoming the littlest ones into the Donahue family!
Mrs. Cassie Graham holds a B.A. in mathematics from Carleton College in Minnesota and a M.A. in mathematics from the University of Washington. Since 1998, when she started teaching, she has taught everything from early childhood math fundamentals to algebra to calculus to statistics in many varied settings, including a public high school, college classrooms, a boarding school, and at home with her small children.
Though Mrs. Graham cannot imagine a more exciting or fulfilling job than teaching math, she is grateful for the many other opportunities she has at Donahue to work with students, including coaching cross country and hosting formational lunches for and mentoring high school girls. She is also ecstatic that she can bring her passion for teaching to the school in which her husband teaches and at which four of her six children attend, and from which she has two graduates (’22 and ’23).
Dr. Graham graduated in 1995 from Stanford University with an honors degree in humanities; he then completed a religious studies master’s degree at Syracuse University in 1998 and a pastoral theology degree through Ave Maria University in 2010. He recently completed and successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in theology of pedagogy. Dr. Graham has been a high school teacher for over 20 years and is currently Dean of the upper school academics while full-time teaching alongside his wife, Cassie, who teaches mathematics. Dr. Graham also coaches cross country and soccer, runs the Model UN program, and assists with the Shakespeare in Performance play each year. He and Mrs. Graham currently have 4 of their 6 children attending the school from 4th to 10th grade, with two graduates (’22, ’23).
Born and raised in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Mr. Horstmann earned his B.A. in history from West Chester University before moving to Florida. He is currently completing a master’s degree in theology from Ave Maria University and is very passionate about ancient history, theology, and ancient languages. He is very happy and grateful to be able to share his interests with his students through an authentically Catholic and classical setting!
Mr. Jahnke graduated from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota with a B.A. in philosophy and in Catholic studies as well as an M.A. in Catholic studies. He has taught humanities, Latin, algebra and held various administrative positions. He is grateful for the blessing of leading such an excellent school where students joyfully pursue Truth, Beauty and Goodness through Catholic classical education. Mr. Jahnke, his wife, and eight children reside in Ave Maria and are blessed to send the eldest five to Donahue Academy.
Deacon Kinnick graduated from St. Norbert College with a B.A. in Psychology and later earned a M.A. in Theology from Ave Maria University and a S.T.L. from St. Mary of the Lake of Mundelein Seminary. In 2007, he was ordained a permanent deacon for the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin. He has spent 40 years in education—working as a teacher, administrator, campus minister, and coach. He also has extensive experience working for the Catholic Church as full-time permanent deacon, Director of Faith Formation, and spiritual director; as instructor of both the Lay Formation Institute and the Formation Program for the Permanent Diaconate for the Diocese of La Crosse; as speaker/presenter conducting parish missions, delivering motivational and catechetical speeches for men’s and women’s conferences and youth, parish, and school events and diocesan staff, school, and clergy training as well as appearing as guest apologist for Relevant Radio and Spirit Radio; and as theological consultant for the USCCB, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and the Dioceses of La Crosse and Madison. In conjunction with the North American Lourdes Volunteers organization, Deacon Kinnick also has led 6 youth/adult service pilgrimages to Lourdes, France, a place he describes as the intersection of the Cross, the vertical with the horizontal—where we offer perfect glory, honor, and praise to God through our service of the disabled, the sick, and the dying of the world.
Deacon Kinnick, his wife Yvette, and two younger children, one a current Donahue student and one a graduate (’22), moved to Ave Maria in the summer of 2017 to be close to his two older children (graduates of AMU) and grandchildren. The move fulfilled a promise Deacon Kinnick had made to himself in 2010, after his initial visit to Ave Maria: to move his family to Florida and to be part of this community of Our Lady dedicated not only to the search for goodness and truth and beauty but also to developing young people of virtue eager to take part in JP II’s call for the New Evangelization.
Ms. Klucinec has been teaching for 30 years and has taught 4th grade at Donahue Academy since 2009. She previously taught at other Catholic schools in Illinois and Wisconsin. She has also enjoyed being a teacher-author for companies such as St. Benedict Press and Teachers Pay Teachers, Inc. She enjoys golf, cooking, softball, composing music, and watching the Steelers! The best part of teaching is seeing her former 4th graders graduate from high school, and then come back and visit their old classroom!
B.A. Liberal Arts, Magdalen College; State of Florida K-6 Elementary Educator Certification; Diocese of Venice Intermediate Catechetical Degree.
Mr. McCormick graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a B.S. in forensic science. While attending college, he also served as a Life-Teen missionary, where he served middle school aged youth in Georgia. He also volunteered with the youth ministry group at Ave Maria Parish. Teaching at Donahue provides an even better opportunity to serve and minister, as well as to share a deep appreciation for the sciences and the pursuit of all that is True, Good, and Beautiful. Mr. McCormick married his wife, Jasmine, in July 2015 and they have four children.
Mrs. Jasmine McCormick holds a B.A. in biology from Ave Maria University and a M.A. in bioethics from Creighton University in Nebraska. While studying at AMU, she also worked as the Director of Youth Ministries for Ave Maria Parish where she discovered her love of working with teens. Teaching the rhetoric level sciences allows her to continue to minister to teens while also sharing her deep love of science and passion for bioethics. The profoundly Catholic and classical environment of Donahue Academy offers a truly unique environment in which the science courses can be fully integrated with philosophical, theological, and ethical inquiries, as the students are taught that “the scientist loves truth wherever he finds it” (Langford). It is this unique educational environment that convinced her and her husband, Conner, that Ave Maria needed to be their home. They feel abundantly blessed to work at Donahue and raise their four children in such a supportive and faithful community.
Miss O’Hern holds a a M.S. in Exercise Science from Georgia State University and a B.S. in Communications from the State University of New York at Fredonia. She transitioned into education after working in the health and wellness industry, as she felt God calling her to serve Him through teaching. Originally from New York, Miss O’Hern worked for the Diocese of St. Petersburg as a PE and Religion teacher prior to joining Donahue Academy. In her free time she enjoys exercising, cooking, baking, reading, and learning about the richness of our faith. She is grateful to be part of the Donahue Academy family and hopes to instill virtue and a love of Christ in her students.
Trenton Phillips O’Neil studied music at Ave Maria University where he trained in vocal performance, organ performance, and choral conducting. His passion for sacred choral music drove him to conduct multiple liturgical and performance choirs while at AMU in addition to serving as a church organist. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in music from the University of Kansas. He began his teaching career as a public elementary music teacher in Immokalee and is now overjoyed to be teaching and doing what he loves in a Catholic and classical setting.
Ms. Osorio worked in the banking industry for 16 years. She, her husband, Fernando, and her two daughters fell in love with Ave Maria on their first visit because of its unique, family-oriented environment and its mission to bring the love of Christ to everyone. Ms. Osorio and her family moved to Ave Maria from Broward county in 2022. She feels blessed to have one of her daughters as a student here and to be a part of the Donahue Academy family where she has a purpose to serve God and this community and to share her Catholic faith.
Married to Lisa, father of six, and grandfather to three (so far), Tim comes equipped with a B.A. and M.A. in Theology and Christian Ministry from Franciscan University. He has served for nearly three decades in Church administration and catechetical roles: As a catechist, youth minister, RCIA coordinator, Parish Director of Religious Education and Adult Faith Formation, Diocesan Director of Family Life, NFP instructor, Premarital Inventory trainer, and Safe Environment facilitator and trainer. Tim has also led groups in marriage enrichment and chastity formation in addition to coaching youth sports and being a Scout leader. Most recently, he served at the national level as Associate Director of the USCCB Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth and as staff lead for the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage. Desiring to return to more direct ministry and to a strong Catholic (and warmer) environment, Tim and his family relocated from the greater Washington D.C. area to sunny Ave Maria. He is eager to partner with parents to assist and support them in forming their children to be saints.
Mrs. Scheck graduated from Hillsdale College in 2023 with a B.A. in mathematics and a minor in classical education. She credits much of her interest in these subjects to her time as a student of Donahue Academy, from where she graduated in 2019. She is excited to be back at Donahue as a teacher’s assistant, working in the school that six of her siblings currently attend.
Mr. Scheck graduated from Donahue Academy in 2013. After attending Ave Maria University for one year, he spent two years asa full-time missionary in Central America. Following Central America, he went to France to serve as a missionary to college students and then spent a year as a volunteer teacher on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in northern New Mexico. At the end of that year, he entered seminary formation for the Diocese of Gallup and completed his philosophical studies at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, from which he holds bachelor of arts degrees in philosophy and humanities. After graduation, he was sent to St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado, where he completed the Spirituality Year Program, discerning out of seminary formation at the end of that year following a thirty-day silent retreat praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Prior to joining Donahue, he worked as a dorm director at St. Bernard Preparatory School in Cullman, Alabama. He loves novels, movies, youth ministry, and football, and he is very grateful for the opportunity to give back to the Donahue community.
Mr. Watson comes to Donahue from Newark, OH, where he was the Vice Principal at St. Francis de Sales School. He also served as a member of his parish’s leadership team and as a deacon candidate for the Diocese of Columbus. Mr. Watson has a M.S.E. in educational leadership and a B.A. in integrated language arts. He has worked in Catholic education since 2005, attended Catholic schools himself since childhood, and has sent his own children to Catholic schools. He, his wife, and four children, three of whom attend Donahue Academy, live in Ave Maria.
