Our instructors

Leigh Morrow

Leigh Morrow is a former television investigative reporter (CBC, Global, City TV) who covered local and international stories in Canada, the United States and Vietnam. With a degree in journalism and more than three decades in broadcast journalism, she loved telling people’s stories and digging deep for many award-winning investigative pieces. From her experiences, she co-wrote a memoir for women in their middle years, Just Push Play – on Midlife. In 2017, she became certified by the Birren Center for Autobiographical Studies in California to teach and train others in the Guided Autobiography method. Leigh teaches Guided Autobiography level 1 and 2, and a number of courses on creative aging, including The Wisdom Years: Aging with Purpose and Creativity. Learn about Leigh’s studio where she writes and creates on her website.

Shahriyar Motahari

Shahriyar Motahari is a PhD student in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at UBC, specializing in developing innovative technologies for the removal of emerging contaminants from water. Shahriyar also has a background in tutoring high school students, reflecting his passion for teaching and mentorship.

Soroush Nasseri

Dr. S. Soroush Nasseri is a biomedical engineer and researcher at the UBC School of Biomedical Engineering. Soroush's research focused on developing tools for the application of 3-D cell cultures for development and discovery of novel drugs.

Liza Navarro

Justin Newell

Justin Newell, art historian and artist, has lectured extensively on Western Painting, Sculpture and Architecture from 1300-1963, the Bible in Western Art, and the Greek Myths in Art. His lectures have been offered at UBC and local colleges, as well as aboard Elite Cruise Ships, where he is recognized as one of their top special interest speakers. He also conducts art history tours to Venice, Florence, Rome, Paris, London, and other art centres of the world, weaving his knowledge of history, art, political events, and famous sights into his presentations.

Lucia Nogacz

Lucia Helena Kouten Nogacz, MA, has close to 30 years’ experience teaching Portuguese language, literature and writing to learners of all ages in Brazil and Canada.

After earning her master’s degree in Portuguese language and literature, Lucia worked as a teacher and pedagogic programs coordinator at elementary and high schools in Brazil. She was also a pedagogic director at a preschool in Curitiba where she developed bilingual Portuguese-English projects.

In Canada, Lucia has worked as a language instructor at Berlitz Canada since 2010, and is accredited in Practical Teaching Techniques in speaking, listening, reading and writing from the same institution. She has taught several levels of Brazilian Portuguese classes to various ages and has prepared students for the Portuguese Language Proficiency Test (CELPE-BRAS). Lucia also has experience revising, translating and proofreading books and scholarly materials from Spanish and English to Portuguese.

Lucia was born in Curitiba, Brazil, and moved to Vancouver more than a decade ago. She reads books of a variety of genres daily, and has a passion for learning about Portuguese and English literature and languages.

David Ogle

David Ogle, MSc, COC, PCC, believes coaching is an effective means to distill our genius into simple and doable actions. He applies his background in neuroscience and organizational leadership to coaching executives, senior leadership teams, and Olympic athletes. By leveraging a deeper understanding of the brain and seeking a greater awareness around one’s role as a leader and their contribution, the highest potential for performance is achievable.

David holds a Master of Science in Applied Neuroscience and Mental Health and brings over a decade of coaching and organizational leadership experience in high-growth organizations. He graduated from the UBC Certificate in Organizational Coaching, is a certified StandOut Strengths Coach and has completed courses through CTI.

Ryan Ollis

Rodolfo Ortiz

Joel Ostblom

Joel Ostblom, PhD, is a post-doctoral teaching fellow in the Master of Data Science program at UBC. Joel discovered his passion for data science and reproducibility while completing graduate work in developing quantitative image analysis pipelines for stem cell and biology research.

He has co-created or has been the lead developer of several courses and workshops at UBC and the University of Toronto. Joel regularly contributes to open source projects and data science learning resources to promote data literacy and share his enthusiasm for programmatic data analysis. Learn more about Joel.