Our instructors

Lawrence McDaniel

Lawrence McDaniel, BSc, is a freelance full-stack web developer and business analyst, as well as an angel investor, entrepreneur and mentor. He has worked as a freelance technology consultant since 1999, and has advised dozens of startups as well as international banks, hedge funds and real estate investment funds.

Lawrence has years of experience designing high availability, horizontally scalable cloud-based infrastructure environments, and 20+ years’ experience designing transactional database systems. His areas of expertise include financial modelling and forecasting systems, analytics, machine learning, big data, web, mobile, database technology and Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure.

Lawrence is an ambassador for the AWS Activate Program in Mexico and advises companies on migration plans to AWS. He also works with early-stage ventures creating back-end environments and implementing continuous integration strategies.

Christopher McLeod

Daria Melnik

Paula Moriarity

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.

Ryan Ollis