Tom Kern graduated from the University of Illinois in 1972 with a Bachelor of Social Welfare. He attended Lincoln Christian Seminary from 1972 to 1975, and took graduate counseling classes at Azusa Pacific University in 1981. Tom worked as a Youth Minister in Danville, IL, from 1972 to 1975, and as a missionary teacher in Liberia, West Africa, from 1975 to 1976. He taught for one year at an alternative High School in Springfield, IL. Tom came to CEM to serve as an intern in 1978, and faculty trainee in 1979. He married intern Jan Myers here at CEM in 1980; Tom and Jan were on staff at the Missouri Christian Encounter Ranch until the end of 1980. They returned to the California Ranch in 1982, and Tom has been the Christian Encounter High School principal since then.