Co-Founder

Robi Marshall, co-founder and former Curriculum Director of Coram Deo Academy, has always been passionate about learning and teaching. Growing up in a reading family, with the example of her high school librarian aunt who read every book that came onto her bookshelves, Robi has a “voracious appetite” for knowledge, learning and scholarship.

 An education major at Washington State University, she met Rodney J. Marshall and married him in 1975. In her junior year, Robi successfully petitioned and began to teach in schools. Directly after graduating, Robi leapt into the education field after a church approached her about beginning a school.

For nearly 20 years, Robi was fully involved in nearly every aspect of Christian school development including teaching, administration, and networking opportunities.  Robi also served on the accrediting committee for the first accredited classical Christian school. At this time, she says, “The desire to pursue teaching and learning from a classical model intrigued me.  The more I read, the more fascinated I became.” 

After moving to Dallas/Ft. Worth, both Marshalls worked in the education arena. Robi took a position as Marketing Trainer for a curriculum company training employees on new educational products and educational pedagogy.  She then began to write curriculum for three Christian educational companies. She often spoke to homeschooling groups while Rodney spoke and assisted in the formation of schools all over the world. In 1998, two homeschooling families approached the Marshalls about starting a school and as Robi describes it, “We pretty much jumped in with all we had.  We thought, why couldn’t we?”

They began the school while both working other jobs and putting school expenses on their personal credit cards.  “It was way too ambitious, stimulating and crazy,” at the same time she says, “We thought, ‘We can do this. It may kill us, but we can do it.’”

Coram Deo’s first year in existence, Robi taught English to 6^th through 10^th graders.  She taught every hour that classes were scheduled, including lunchtime. If she felt that an important work should be explored by her students, Robi first would read, research, and dive into the era of that particular piece of literature.

She is insistent that even if she did not receive a classical education, “by golly [she] knows how to learn and read.” As she says, “Learning keeps us vivid and alive. Self education is important and I plague everyone with it.  Self education was always expected of the individual and always followed formal education.  It should continue for all of life!”

As the school grew exponentially and entered the accreditation process, Robi took on the role of Curriculum Director, working with an amazing team of educators insuring continuity and quality in the methodologies and nearly 400 texts used at CDA. She continued to teach AP Literature and Composition to CDA eleventh graders, which nourishes her passion for active self-education, keeps her involvement in the school palpable and her insights into curriculum development fresh.

Now that Coram Deo has a firm foundation, the Marshall's have begun a consulting business for classical Christian schools .  As Robi says, “We’ve been given a reallyrich Christian and historical heritage and it is our obligation and delight to cultivate and transition it to the generations that follow. We hope to raise up firebrands that will ignite others to carry the gospel and civilization onward.”