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College
Adam Braus
Instructor & Instructional Designer
Braus is an engineer, entrepreneur, published author, and product manager. He has over 10 years of experience coding in JavaScript, Ruby, Python, and Swfit. He started his journey helping to building the tech community in Madison, WI before moving to San Francisco and becoming an instructor at General Assembly. Braus leads the Junior Software Product Development program in which all Make School students learn the industry best practices of building software products. For fun he likes to make music on his piano or fiddle, make and eat food with friends, and go camping in the natural beauty of California.
Adriana Gonzalez
Instructor
Adriana has previously been an iOS developer and CTO of a startup. She’s been building projects in teams of all sizes since 2014. Adriana is at Make School because she loves contributing to a major change in higher education - making it accessible for everyone.
Dr. Anne Spalding
Dean of Engineering
Anne holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics and started her career as a CS Professor at Colorado Mesa University. After years of teaching at a traditional college, she moved to San Francisco to work as a software engineer, then help start Dev Bootcamp, and build internal technical training for software engineers. Anne is passionate about empowering students to build the software of today and change the world of tomorrow.
Casey Spurgeon
Director of Outcomes and Talent Partnerships
Casey holds a BA in Psychology and an MA in Education. Casey has been an advocate for equal access to education and has been working on creating systemic change in the tech industry. He has been a teacher, a recruiter and a career coach. Casey loves partnering with students to create change in their lives and careers.
Dan Morse
Instructor Manager
Dan is an author, award-winning entrepreneur, and growth marketer. Throughout his 10+ years of experience he has been on the lead team of a Venture Capital fund, led programming at a civic education nonprofit, started a youth urban agriculture program, and has grown a user base by 300k. Dan gets excited by students feeling able to change the world.
Dani Roxberry
Instructor
Dani wrote her first BASIC program at age five. Since then she has had experience as a Senior Systems Engineer, CTO with clients like IMAX and the NFL, CTO with patented software used by products like Twitch, and an instructor for UC Berkeley Extension. Her mission is to inspire others to build the innovations of the future.
Elizabeth Swander
Project Manager
Elizabeth started her career working at a project-based entrepreneurship non-profit serving K-8 students before moving on to lead student programming at UC Berkeley. She then transitioned to edtech as a Product Manager for higher ed tools at Cengage. Elizabeth is empowered to provide opportunity to the modern learner and values putting students at the center of the system.
Ian Birnam
Curriculum Developer
Ian’s experience includes curriculum building at UC Berkeley, product building for companies like HBO and Disney, and launching products in the tech industry. Throughout college, Ian struggled to find mentorship opportunities for his practical product goals. This is the core Make School is built on, and he is driven to continue executing on this vision.
Jay Lowe
Instructor
Jay started his tech career as an engineer in Marine Science before switching over to the education space. Since then, he has spent several years as an instructor for special education students and developed products aimed at reducing the chaos of administration. Jay felt that the education world was struggling to evolve and joined Make School to help catalyze the revolution of modern education.
Jessamyn Dahmen
Instructor
Jessamyn’s experience has been in teaching computer science fundamentals to people new to CS through outreach events. She has a strong interest in broadening participation in computing of underrepresented groups - focusing on healthcare, machine learning, and interface development applications. Jessamyn is passionate about making computer science more accessible.
Joseph Catanzarite
Data Science Instructor
Joseph Catanzarite is fascinated by methods for discovering and exploiting patterns in data. He is passionate about training the next generation of Data Scientists and building an organic Data Science learning community at Make School. Joseph obtained a BSc in Mathematics at Caltech and holds an MS in Physics (U of Arizona) and a MS in Electrical Engineering (USC). He has worked as Professor of Physics & Astronomy and Natural Sciences Department Chair at Cypress Community College, an Astrophysicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and a Data Scientist on NASA's Kepler mission.
Dr. Justine Meyr
Director of Science and Letters
Justine holds her PhD in Education and a MA in Latin American Studies. She began her career as an administrator and Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her 15+ years of experience working in higher education has developed a passion for novel technologies to be used in educational environments. Her mission is to make computer science more accessible and applicable to a diversity of people and disciplines.
Lisa Tran
Student Experience Coordinator
Lisa earned an M.A. in Counseling Psychology with a concentration Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of San Francisco and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine. She has over 10 years of experience working with adolescents and transitional aged youth in diverse nonprofit, community, and school settings. Her favorite thing about working at Make School is being part of a team that's changing the way students receive an education. She loves being able to work directly with students and supporting them in having a positive Make School experience.
Megan Dias
Manager, Student Experience
Megan holds a BA in Psychology & Business Admin and an MA in Educational Admin & Leadership with an emphasis in Student Affairs. She has been published in Huffington Post & Inc on job-search best practices. She has worked in university admissions, residential life, career counseling, HR, and recruiting. Megan loves helping students to be successful.
Meredith Teo
Instructor
Meredith earned her BS in Computer Science from Harvey Mudd before joining Google as a frontend software engineer. While at Google, she worked on the AdWords and Google Analytics platforms. After leaving, Meredith worked as a private tutor, and as an instructor for Girls Who Code. She enjoys helping students bring their interests and passions to the classroom.
Dr. Michelle Lessly Blackburn
Director of Academc and Student Affairs
Michelle holds a PhD in Law and Public Policy and an MA in Higher Education Admin. She has worked in higher education for 10+ years, specializing in student affairs and education policy at Abilene Christian University, Pepperdine University, and recently at MIT. She is inspired that Make School is dedicated to developing highly-skilled software engineers who can change tech.
Mitchell Hudson
Instructor
Mitchell is self-taught and has worked freelance for various large and small companies in the Bay Area and around the world. His teaching experience has been as an adjunct and staff faculty in higher education. Mitchell believes that changing education is a great way to create positive change in the world.
Dr. Regina Yoong
Science & Letters Instructor
Regina holds a Ph.D. in English and has been teaching literature & communications for the past 8+ years in Malaysia and in the United States. She is the recipient of the prestigious Fulbright scholarship for education, research, and international exchange, and was the former contributing editor for Harvard Divinity School’s Cosmologics Magazine. At Make School, she loves helping students develop their own unique voices in story-telling and discover the importance of humanities in computer science.
