Marsha Familaro Enright, M.A. Psychology, became riveted with the problems of education when, as a child,  she found herself in love with learning and school while surrounded by other children who were miserable.  This was a mystery to her; she did not want such misery to befall her future children.  It led her on a life-long quest for effective and enjoyable education.
During college, she discovered the ideas and methods of Maria Montessori which presented ingenious and psychologically effective means of creating a happy hotbed of learning for young students.  In 1990, Marsha founded Council Oak Montessori Elementary School as a place for her own children to learn. 

With this project, Marsha took the idea for a new elementary school in March of 1990, to the opening of the school with a first class of 17 students and a full staff in September, 1990.  The school reached an enrollment of 75 a few years later, and successfully continues to this day with about 100 students ages three to fourteen years old.  In the October, 2006 issue of Chicago Magazine , Council Oak was named one of the top 25 private elementary schools in Chicago.

As Marsha’s expertise in education grew, so did her concern and discontent with higher education.  She saw more and more students graduating from college unequipped to think for themselves and lacking important knowledge and life skills, as well as the most basic understanding of what is necessary for a fully free society.  Most frighteningly, these included many students from the ‘best’ universities in the U.S. such as Harvard, the University of Chicago, and Stanford.  Marsha was alarmed at the problems and unhappiness caused by these developments, as well as the threat they pose for civil society.

At this point, equipped with considerable breadth and depth of knowledge about the most effective means of education and fearful of the grip that collectivism in all its forms had on higher education, Marsha became convinced that the country needed a new college, dedicated to reason, individualism and a fully free society.  She initiated the development of the project and the search for other team members.

Marsha resides in Chicago, Illinois 

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Murray Franck, J.D., L.L.M., was the first to start working with Marsha on the concept of the school, in 1999.  Murray has practiced Intellectual Property Law in NewYork City for 40 years.  He taught business law at Baruch College in New York for 15 years.  Also dedicated to reason, individualism and a free society, Murray was Legal Counsel and Board Member to the Institute for Objectivist Studies for 10 years.  He brings a deep understanding of philosophy and values to the project, as well as theoretical and practical legal expertise.  

Murray resides in New York City.

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Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D. Organizational Behavior, is an author and lecturer at Harvard University. He taught the largest course at Harvard on "Positive Psychology" and the third largest on "The Psychology of Leadership"--with a total of over 1,400.

Tal consults and lectures around the world to executives in multi-national corporations, the general public, and at-risk populations. Topics include happiness, self-esteem, resilience, goal setting, mindfulness, and leadership.  Tal is committed to creating and promoting curricula that will develop rational, independent thinking.

An avid sportsman, Tal won the U.S. Intercollegiate and Israeli National squash championships. In addition to his numerous other teaching projects, Tal developed a program for effective learning of at-risk students, which has been implemented in South Africa and the U.S.  Tal is dedicated to the philosophical values of the college. “I would very much like to see a college that is committed to the values that have made this country great—to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” he says. He became involved with the project in 2003.

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Donald Baldino, M.A. in Philosophy and M.S. in Library and Information Science, became interested in the College Project in 2003.  After a long career in Telecommunications, Don went back to his passion and is now in the midst of working on his Ph.D. in Philosophy.

Over the years, Don learned that few colleges encourage free inquiry. Don believes that:  “Dozens of colleges are dedicated to Christian fundamentalism; thousands, to “social justice”—to discredited socialism.  Let no one tell me that there is not room in America for one college dedicated to liberty, free markets, and individualism.
"Ayn Rand wrote that it is immoral to donate to institutions of higher learning, without considering what ideas are taught there. College alumni, in response to news articles about repression of ideas on campuses, are questioning the appropriateness of contributing to their almas maters. Let us put before them a choice—whether to fund their old schools, based on warm and fuzzy recollections of their youth, or our new school, based on crystal-clear commitments to the ideals of their maturity.”

Don resides in Chesterbrook, Pennsylvannia 

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Patrick Peterson, B.A. St. Lawrence University, officially joined the RIFI Team in 2007 as a volunteer Development Consultant.  Unofficially, he has been working with Marsha on many aspects, including Donor and foundation searches, marketing and fundraising campaign consulting and the newsletter since 2005 . 

Pat has dedicated many years to the ideas of a free society.  A long-time student of Ludwig Von Mises, Pat has been instrumental in the founding and development of several important organizations.  He greatly increased the size and activity of the Libertarian Club of DuPage County, Illinois in the '80's; he led the Heartland Institute 's early development efforts, helping increase its budget and programming over twenty times in the first seven years.  He went from Heartland to co-found and then run the Free Market Society of Chicago, dedicated to educational seminars and events, which later became Freemarket.net.  Currently, he runs the Jefferson Club in the San Francisco Bay area, while continuing as a board member of the St. Martin De Porres House of Hope in Chicago.

 Pat resides in San Jose, California

Ronen Nakash, B.S. Mathematics and Computer Science, B.S. Business Management has worked in several fund-raising and marketing positions.  Most notably, he directed the Ayn Rand Institute’s aggressive marketing campaigns from 1995 to 2000, during which he helped to triple the number of donations to the institute to $3 million.  Ronen became interested in the College Project in 2003.

Ronen resides in Los Angeles, California 

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Kernon Gibes, B.S. Mathematics and Economics, M.S. Statistics, helped design and program the initial web site for the College Project. Kernon founded and manages the only international web site devoted to the field of Sensory Science, the Sensory Nexus with a membership of almost 2,000 scientists and professionals. Kernon also built and manages the web site for Marsha Enright’s New Intellectual Forum Objectivist Salon . Kernon has worked as a professional statistician for 23 years, first in the pharmaceutical industry and then in the consumer products industry.  Supportive of the College’s ideas and values, Kernon became involved with the project in 2005. Kernon resides in Battle Creek, Michigan 

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John Gillis, Architect, an enthusiastic supporter of the College’s values and principles, designed the original graphic in 2005 to symbolize the mission of the rational, dynamic integration of reason, individualism and freedom.

John resides in Brooklyn, New York 

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"The hallmark of a well-functioning mind is the ability to identify facts, analyze ideas, integrate knowledge, and successfully translate principles into action."