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Hi and Welcome to Acton of Albany!
We are Katie and Joe Coffey, and we are the founding family behind Albany’s only Acton studio. Married in 2015, we have three beautiful children all under the age of 6. While owning and operating four Benjamin Moore stores in the Capital Region we realized nothing was more important than raising Good, Autonomous, Adaptable, people.
In 2021 while discussing our children’s future education, we pulled up the local elementary school’s reading list. As a family with Judeo-Christian values, we immediately knew we wanted something more for our children other than the traditional public-school system.
We began looking into co-ops and private schools, but nothing felt right. We loved the idea of homeschooling but wanted a community of learners.
While listening to Episode 336 of Dr. Jordan Peterson’s Podcast we came across Jeff Sandefer – the Co-Founder of Acton Academy. We instantly knew a learner-driven community could be incorporated into our homeschooling plan. Shortly thereafter, we started the application process until we were approved in March 2024.
We are excited to find like-minded founding families who believe their children deserve the freedom, excitement, and community of a learner driven childhood.
Our campus location is currently being finalized, and we will provide updates as soon as possible.
Jeff Sandefer lives a dual life as an entrepreneur and a Socratic Guide. As an entrepreneur, he founded his first company at age 16 and went on to found or co-found seven successful businesses. As a Socratic teacher at the University of Texas, Jeff’s students five times voted him the school’s Outstanding Teacher and Businessweek named him one of the top Entrepreneurship professors in America.
Jeff went on to co-found the Acton School of Business, an MBA program perennially ranked by the Princeton Review among the best in the nation. In 2012 The Economist honored him as one of the top fifteen Business School professors in the world.
Jeff is a graduate of the Harvard Business School, where he served for over twenty years on the school’s governing committees. He was a longtime director of the Philanthropy Roundtable and National Review magazine and one of the youngest members ever elected to the Texas Business Hall of Fame.
Laura lived on both US coasts and in between as a child, then settled into Vanderbilt University for her undergraduate studies in the College of Arts and Science. After being awarded the highly competitive Walter Wattles Fellowship at Lloyd’s of London, Laura worked in the aviation insurance industry in New York City.
Deciding to follow her calling into the world of education, Laura returned to Nashville and earned her Master of Education at Peabody College. This led her to her work at the Oklahoma Arts Institute, creating fine arts education programs for teachers and talented high school students.
Laura married Jeff Sandefer and is the happy mother of Sam and Charlie and step-mother to Taite. It is the inspiration of these children that led Laura and Jeff to co-found Acton Academy.
Her greatest hero is her mother who was a Master Teacher. Her wisest mentor is her father who sent her off to college with two words of advice: "Be curious."
Begin a Hero’s Journey,
Discover precious gifts and a commitment to mastery.
Become a curious, independent, life-long learner.
Embrace the forging of a strong character.
Cherish the arts, the physical world, and the mysteries of life.
Treasure economic, political, and religious freedom.
We believe each person has a gift that can change the world in a profound way;
We believe in learning to learn, learning to do, and learning to be.
We believe in a closely connected family of life-long learners.
We believe in economic, political, and religious freedom.
