Our academies serve homeschooling families anywhere in the U.S. or abroad. Please browse our Administrative Staff, Contact Teacher, and Family Representative bios below to learn more about the people who serve you!
WorldWide IDEA in the news
- Parents explore homeschooling options, USAG-Yongsan, Republic of Korea
- Advantages of homeschooling for military families (4.8M news video), Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Homeschool News Link
Administrative Staff
Carl Knudsen, Superintendent
Carl has served as a School Superintendent and teacher for over 36 years. He has well-developed skills in negotiations, staff development and training, budgets, curriculum development and innovative distance education program implementation. He was voted teacher and superintendent of the year during his tenure as an educator.
While Superintendent at Galena City School District in Alaska, Carl successfully implemented teaching strategies that raised Native Alaskan standardized test scores from an average below the 50th percentile to above the 90th in four years. He also initiated a post-secondary vocational program providing boarding students vocational certification opportunities in Rural Alaska, and he fostered corporate and educational partnerships with General Motors, Suzuki Motor Corporation, UAA, UAF, and AVTEC. He has written many successful grants, including technology-based grants, educational services consortium grants, grants for after-school programs, and professional development grants.
Amanda Hoke, Director of Student Services
Amanda is originally from Poplar, Montana, located on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. She holds a B.A. degree in Business Administration and has been working with education in the private sector for over six years. It was the U.S. Military that brought her to Alaska, where she began her journey with the first IDEA program that served the Alaskan families. During that time, she worked out of the Fairbanks office. When the IDEA International program began, she moved to Anchorage and embarked on her more than five-year journey with that program. She transferred to WorldWide IDEA in September 2006 to continue serving all of the families that also moved to WorldWide, as well as many new families.
Tonya Brewer, Director of Business Services
Tonya holds a B.A. in Business Administration Management and has been working in the homeschooling industry for more than six years. She and her husband are raising their young daughter, Chloe Blue. Her passion in life is horses.
She says that she looks forward to continue serving homeschooling families for many years to come.
Contact Teachers
Terri Beede
Terri is a native Montanan, born and raised in the small town of Glasgow. After graduating from high school, she married her Kindergarten crush, moved to Billings, and pursued her degrees in Elementary and Special Education through Eastern Montana College. She had her first baby and graduated from college in May of 1992. They moved back to Glasgow, where Terri received her first teaching assignment. During the years of 1992-2000, she taught 3rd grade, Special Education, and completed her Master’s degree in Elementary Level Leadership and had two more beautiful babies. Terri says it has been a blessing these last six years to be home with her children, and now to be part of WorldWide IDEA’s innovative academies.
Tanya Korta
Tanya lives in the rural village of Galena, Alaska, with her husband, Jon, and three children, Dylan, Kaleb, and Kiana. She enjoys spending time with her family outdoors, cruising down the Yukon River, camping, snow shoeing, and dog mushing. She also enjoys music and reading. She and her husband own a small bed and breakfast and a sled dog kennel. Tanya was a classroom teacher for 11 years and has a love and special interest in early literacy development.
Melinda Lewis
Melinda has lived in various places in the United States, but she has spent most of her time in Ohio, Montana, Utah, California, and Alaska. She has been a teacher for the last 10 years. During five of those years, she taught students from Fort Irwin, California, and she has also taught in a small Eskimo village in Alaska. She has provided services to home-school families for the last 4 years including creating computer-based math courses. Melinda and her teenage daughter live north of Anchorage in a converted barn. They enjoy spending time outside in the beautiful state of Alaska and traveling.
Mark Pope
Mark traveled west to attend college after growing up in the suburban Midwest. He worked in the Black Rock Desert as a soil geologist upon graduation in 1977. After his tenure in the desert, Mark decided to apply his education degree and see what opportunities teaching would present. He soon found himself in the arctic taiga and tundra of the Kobuk River Valley, where he built his first dog sled and was mushing a 12-dog team. He married his wife Ruth 14 years ago, and they are raising and homeschooling two amazing people, Raven and Ciel. After teaching in the public school system for 20 years, Mark discovered the wonderful world of homeschooling and has enjoyed working as a Contact Teacher for the past eight years. As a Contact Teacher, Mark says, he does whatever it takes to help homeschooling parents provide their children with the finest educational opportunities possible.
Family Representatives
Vicki Acker — Europe, CONUS & Non-military U.S. Regions
Vicki, a homeschool mother for the last 12 years, currently lives near Scott AFB in Illinois. She has three homeschool graduates, who have all successfully gone on to college (one college graduate), and two younger children she currently homeschools. She has a B.S. degree in pre-medicine from Ball State University and a second B.S. degree in computer science from Wright State University. She has worked with military homeschool families for the past six years. She loves to read, solve jigsaw puzzles and spend time with her family.
Nina Carr — Yokota Region
Nina is a homeschool mom of three teenage boys, currently living at Yokota Airforce Base in Japan. She has homeschooled for eight years in Japan and Maryland. She has a B.S. degree in Accounting from Brigham Young University. Nina is a CPA and has worked as a Tax Accountant for over 15 years. She enjoys traveling and exploring the world with her family — We love learning together, she says.
Jeannine Hood — Guam Region
Jeannine currently lives on Andersen AFB in Guam with her husband of 19 years, Wade. Together, nine years ago, they made the decision to homeschool their three wonderful children Devin, Lauren, and Hunter. They find it very rewarding being together doing numerous family activities. While schooling her children, Jeannine also enjoys various artistic past times along with volunteer teaching art for her local church school. She is thus pursuing her degree in graphic design. While serving as a Family Representative, Jeannine strives to help other families in their endeavor to home school their children. She enjoys her job meeting new people and hearing of their learning experiences. WorldWide IDEA has made many experiences come alive with the extra help in teacher support. She says, it is exhilarating working with a staff that has the same goals and attitude towards educating our children.
Liz Iwaniec — Hawaii & Australia Regions
Liz was born and raised in New York City. She married her high school sweetheart, and together they embarked on his Naval career and currently live in Hawaii. Their youngest daughter, Joleen, was homeschooled her entire life, graduated at the age of 15 and is now attending college, pursuing a double major in Engineering and Business. Liz started homeschooling with IDEA at its inception in Okinawa, and later became a Family Representative for families living in Hawaii and Australia. Her greatest fulfillment is: "that together with the incredible WorldWide IDEA team, so many families are getting the support and guidance needed to educate and prepare our young for the future."
Dayna Akers — Okinawa Region
Bio coming soon.
Amber Bequillard— Korea Region
Bio coming soon.
Carol Stith — Misawa, Yokosuka, Atsugi & Camp Zama Regions
Carol lives in Yokosuka, Japan, with her husband and daughters. She has been homeschooling for the last seven years. She has a B.S. in Finance and Business Management from the University of South Florida. She grew up in southern California where she met her husband, and where her Navy adventure began. She enjoys discovering new learning experiences in every day things and feels strongly that learning is not limited to the classroom She likes playing sports, traveling and reading.