Our instructors

Joan Li

Joan Li is from Beijing, China and has a Masters in Applied Linguistics. She has mainly been involved in language teaching and translation in China, Japan and Canada. Since joining UBC Extended Learning in 2005, she has taught Mandarin as well as Chinese characters courses.

Siliang Liu

Celine Liu holds a Master of Science degree from the University of British Columbia. She is an applied scientist at Amazon. She is passionate about building revolutionary solutions for online beauty shopping experiences. Before joining Amazon, she graduated from the University of British Columbia (UBC) with degrees in computational linguistics and computer science. Besides her interests in STEM, Celine used to be a soprano and piano player for over 10 years. 

Connie Lo

Nathan Lockhart

Nathan Lockhart, MA, CEC, is a learning professional and certified executive coach with more than 20 years of experience. He specializes in the design and delivery of experiential training both in live, virtual classes and in online self-guided courses. He also provides one-on-one coaching to executives on topics related to leadership, communication, and negotiations.

A former employee of Health Canada and the Privy Council Office, Nathan’s knowledge spans a number of disciplines, including public policy development, negotiation, issues management, and strategic communications. He’s a dynamic public speaker with a strong understanding of workplace challenges and demands facing professionals and has delivered more than 500 workshops to organizations in the private, non-government, and government sectors.

Terence Lowe

Terence (he/him) is the Program Leader, the Centre for Equitable Systems Design (CESD) at UBC Extended Learning managing the equity, diversity, inclusion (EDI), anti-racism and intercultural communication programming. Terence overseas the delivery of learner-centred teaching methodologies, facilitator training and support, and instructional content for the CESD’s courses, online certificate programs, and organizational development programming.

Terence has worked extensively in community-engaged learning and EDI work as an educator, consultant, advisor, trainer, and facilitator for an array of adult learner programs in higher education and community-based organizations, locally, nationally, and abroad. He firmly believes in inspiring learners to grow in empathy and deep courage to do the work it takes to transform the systems we are in.

Jenny Lu

John Madden

John Madden, MSc, is the Director of Sustainability and Engineering in Campus and Community Planning at UBC. He leads the development of UBC policy on climate action, green building, sustainability engagement, planning and reporting. With over 20 years of experience advancing sustainability in institutional settings including municipal government and international agencies, John has helped to shape UBC’s reputation as a global model in climate action.

John is also an adjunct faculty with UBC's School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and Master of Engineering Leadership in High Performance Buildings, and is an active member of the Canadian Green Building Council.

Moussa Magassa

Dr. Moussa Magassa, PhD, is Principal Strategist, Community Engagement, EDI and Anti-Racism Education at the University of Victoria where he works to enhance understanding of the university’s human rights, equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism education goals, community engagement and participation. He’s also an associate faculty for the Diploma in Social Justice at UVic and for the Royal Roads University Master in Global Leadership. He also teaches as an instructor for the Diploma in Intercultural Studies programs at UVic.

Moussa has extensive experience researching, designing and facilitating training, courses and workshops in anti-racism awareness and intervention training, intercultural competency development, intercultural conflict resolution, human rights discrimination and harassment, social justice, anti-oppression education, and immigrant and refugee integration. Born in Senegal, and conversant in a number of languages, Moussa is an advisor to various organizations, including Resilience BC and Simon Fraser University’s Migrant Systems Change Leadership Certificate program. He has also served on several boards, including those of the Francophone Federation of BC, the Francophone Society of Victoria and as co-chair of the Greater Victoria Police Diversity Advisory Committee.

In addition to holding a PhD in curriculum and instruction with a special focus on critical race theory, anti-racism, Islamophobia and human rights, Moussa also holds a Master of Arts in Human Security and Peacebuilding, along with several credentials in conflict resolution, peace studies, forced migration and refugee studies, and humanitarian law. He is a qualified administrator of the intercultural competence assessment tool.

Marjan Mahmoudi

Marjan Mahmoudi, PhD, has been a French as a second language teacher and translator for more than 20 years. She has lived in Iran, France and Canada, and has taught at Conseil scolaire francophone (CSF) in Vancouver, and at a variety of private schools and colleges.

Jesse Malakoe