LISA SNIDER
Lisa has always had a love of language. She has a Masters in Linguistics in addition to being trilingual. She has several years of teaching experience, and she especially enjoys working with the students at GEOS.

DENISE URDANG
Denise is a mother, painter, linguist, traveller, language teacher and a great friend to all. She often can be found in a cafe reading and drinking her coffee. Please feel free to interrupt her; she loves interruptions.

KENSHO NISHIMURA
Kensho was born in Yokohama, Japan, and immigrated to the United States with his family back in '85; he was able to retain fluency in his native language, because his mom is a Japanese teacher. Kensho also works as a freelance translator of Japanese 'manga' comics. He grew up in Berkeley, California, and received his B.A. from San Francisco State; he is currently enrolled in a Master's program at Chapman University. Kensho LOVES pandas, Mexican food, Hip Hop, Totoro, and traveling around the globe! What Kensho likes most about teaching at GEOS is the diversity of student population.

MATT MCKENNA
Matt was born in Boston MA. He received a degree in political science from Northeastern University. Prior to becoming a teacher, Matt worked for the Verizon corporation in Massachusetts and New York for 5 years. In 2004, he left the company to become a teacher. Matt went to China to receive his TEFL certification. After that he became a teacher in Zhuhai in China for approximately one year.

In June of 2005, he relocated to San Francisco. In San Francisco, Matt started working at GEOS. Matt likes teaching because it allows him to be creative and meet a lot of different kinds of people. His philosophy in the classroom is: it should be educational but it should also be fun!

Matt is an avid traveler. He lived in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. His other interests include chess, good movies, spy novels, and Chinese history.

JUSTIN HUGHES
Justin was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and his family history in California dates back to the Gold Rush. Justin's main interests are music, travel, reading, writing, self expression, and adventure.

Justin has experience teaching English locally and internationally. In San Francisco he volunteered as a teacher’s aide working with international students in ESL classes at the City College of San Francisco.

Justin worked as an English teacher in three different cities in Thailand. Most recently, he spent over a year teaching English at American University Alumni (AUA) Language Center in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

He loves listening to music and playing music in his free time. He plays drums and piano. Justin has played drums and percussion for many years, and he spent two years studying the ancient art of Japanese Taiko with the San Francisco Taiko Dojo.

Justin is currently studying classical piano. His favorite composers are Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, and Beethoven. He listens to a wide variety of music including rock, metal, classical, jazz, and experimental. Some of his favorite artists are Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Kronos Quartet, Neurosis, Radiohead, Sigur Rós, Mr. Bungle, and The Who.