Utah native, John Payne, grew up in a musical family full of road trips, birthdays, and gatherings filled with song and four-part harmonies. He has been a teacher of music, religion, and choirs at all levels of education and has held music director roles at multiple parishes. He has a deep love and gratefulness for the forms of music which, in service to the Word, reflect the transcendental beauty of God and His Creation bringing us into closer relationship with Him. John holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music from the University of Utah with an emphasis in composition and continues to pursue advanced education in music. He considers himself particularly blessed to be a husband, father, and grandfather.

Born in Wadowice, Poland, Maria Zielinska began her life as an artist at the Bielsko-Biala High School of Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland. Having shown her work extensively throughout the United States and abroad, Maria has drawn inspiration from and has focused her work primarily around nature – her latest abstract works are large and colorful expressions of simple happenings she notices in the world around her. By exaggerating such small things in large sizes, she turns what is often times unnoticed or easily looked over into beautiful compositions bursting with color and life. Maria currently works out of her studios in Park City, Utah and Wadowice, Poland.

Since converting to the Catholic faith in 2020, Miray Quintanilla has felt the constant pull toward deeper knowledge of the rich, wisdom of God. She has an affinity and love for all things music, philosophy, grammar, literature, and the Ancient world and its languages. She has previously taught Latin and Religion for the first, fourth, fifth, and sixth grades.
Miray holds a BA in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Utah and is currently enrolled in the "Catholic Education Formation and Credential Program" through the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education (ICLE). She considers herself an autodidact, both loving to teach and be taught; nūlla aetās ad discendum sērā - it is never too late to learn.
Miray plays the violin in the Taylorsville Symphony Orchestra and cantors for St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center, where she was recently joined to her husband in the sacrament of matrimony. Having discovered the beauty of the faith through a long and winding road, Miray has a special devotion to Our Lady Undoer of Knots.

Born in Kentucky and raised on the Wasatch Front, Gavin Doughty has over many years enjoyed the privilege of Utah’s many wonders, in both its natural beauty and one-of-a-kind mixture of people and culture. He grew up skiing at Snowbasin, running the hills of North Ogden, and researching Mormonism. A convert to the Catholic faith in high school from evangelical Protestantism, he has experienced in the last several years the seeming infinity of consolations that comes with membership in the Church—intellectually, aesthetically, interpersonally—and sought greater exploration of her treasures in his studies at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, CA, and the International Theological Institute in Trumau, Austria, from which he graduated in 2024 with a BA in the Liberal Arts. Feeling uniquely suited and called to engage and continually renew the learning that has brought his mind and soul so much clarity and enthusiasm, he is eager to be part of the faculty and mission of Chesterton Academy of Northern Utah, in the heart of the Church and of his home state.

Kevin Marr was born in southern Georgia and raised in coastal North Carolina. He attended the prestigious North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics as a junior and senior in high school. However, surprising most who knew him, Kevin attended Franciscan University of Steubenville to study Philosophy and Theology, intending to apply for seminary after college. Though God revealed a different vocation for him, Kevin found a deep love for his major and for education. He grew up watching his mother teach in a Catholic grade school, eventually becoming a principal. This inspired him to go on several education focused mission trips in college, one to Good Shepherd School in Los Angeles and another to Mar Qardakh School in Erbil, Iraq. After graduating Summa Cum Laude from Franciscan in 2023, Kevin was accepted into the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) Teaching Fellows program. ACE teachers spend two summers on Notre Dame’s campus taking master’s courses in education and are assigned to teach and live in community around the United States. For the last two years, Kevin has taught 5th and 6th grade at Blessed Trinity Catholic School in the Twin Cities, Minnesota and received his Master’s of Education in May 2025. Kevin’s passion for Philosophy and Theology, especially Ethics, as well as his love for being outdoors make him ecstatic to serve as a teacher at Chesterton Academy of Northern Utah. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, fishing, camping, and reading.

Born and raised in Michigan, Michael Johnston is a Saint Joseph native who grew up being nurtured by the Lake. Drawn to the theological and philosophical riches of the Church at an early age, he convinced his parents to send him and his siblings to the local Catholic school, Lake Michigan Catholic. There, his love of the Church's history and tradition was fed both in the education he received and in his participation in the altar serving fraternity, The Knights of the Holy Temple. Conversations with his uncle and cousin about the higher things of God led him to their alma mater, Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California. In 2024, Michael earned his place among, "Those who know," and received his BA in the arts. Michael is excited to be at CANU to share his enthusiasm for finding the love and mind of God in all of the higher arts that man participates in.