Our Team

Our specially trained math instructors will teach your child how to understand math in an individual setting; our unique approach enables us to explain concepts really well and lend a helping hand to every student. Our tutors foster a caring, encouraging environment that helps kids thrive and learn! Read below to learn more about our talented team:

Alberto Carabarin, Centre Director/Owner

Alberto graduated from Universidad de las Americas-Puebla in Mexico with a B.Sc. in Mathematics. After moving to Canada in 2003, he completed his PhD in Mathematics with a specialization in Probability Theory at the University of Ottawa, and went on to work as a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University. During his years as a student, Alberto worked as a tutor in those universities’ Math Help Centres, which fostered his passion for helping others overcome their issues with mathematics. It also helped him realize the need to shore up the younger students’ mathematical foundations from the earliest age possible, in order to better prepare them for their university studies. He found that the Mathnasium Method is an ideal way of achieving this goal, so he and his wife Adriana set out to bring Mathnasium to Kanata.  In his free time, Alberto loves spending time with his wife and kids, watching sports and playing the occasional video game.

Emma Norlen, Assistant Centre Director

Emma is the only person at the Centre that didn't write her bio. She is currently taking a double degree in Mathematics and Physics and therefore, she is always super busy. Her love for math started many years ago when her mom was tutoring kids at home. And her love for kids is undeniable: she carries in her purse a bottle of bubble solution and sock puppets just in case she comes across a child that needs some entertainment! Her dislikes include messy spaces, change, plastic lids for pop cans and our red suggestion box. 

Francis Kawan, Instructor

Francis taught high school math and science for twenty years with the Ottawa Carleton District School Board. After staying home with his children for seven years, he has returned 
to filling his week days teaching what he loves. He, as most stay-at-home parents, has an abundant amount of patience and understanding. We are very lucky to have him teaching at Mathnasium! When Francis is not teaching or with his family, he is probably roaming the forest with his map and compass. 

  Dulce Garza, Instructor 

Dulce holds a bachelor degree in Electronic and Communications Engineering and a Masters Degree in IT Management. She worked for many years in the Human Resources department of a supermarket company, but don't worry, she used her mathematical skills there running models and analyzing compensation data for more than 6,000 employees. After a 10 year hiatus to take care of her children, she's back at work at Mathnasium Online and enjoying it a lot! Nothing beats seeing that "Aha" moment when a student understands a new concept.

 

 Ayesha Shaikh, Instructor 

 

Ayesha is currently an undergraduate student studying biochemistry and accounting at the University of Ottawa. Despite pursuing a bachelor's degree in the sciences, she's always felt a connection to math and was the unanimously appointed math tutor by her high school peers. This led to her obtaining a ton of informal tutoring experience throughout her high school career. Besides helping her classmates, siblings, and many others with their academics, Ayesha likes to spend her time online shopping. Her plethora of hobbies include knitting, drawing, painting, and bringing up how cold she is. 

 

  Selena Zou, Instructor 

 

Selena is currently debating whether she should major in mathematics, statistics, computer science, or some combination of the above. She actually came to her love for math quite late, having struggled throughout middle and early high school. But after meeting a teacher who really made the effort to make math make sense, she realized the beauty behind the sometimes-tricky concepts and sometimes-messy numbers, and very quickly fell in love with math! It's that same journey of finding excitement in learning that she wants to share with the students at Mathnasium. In her spare time, Selena enjoys reading about history, playing piano, and sometimes being (happily) conscripted into helping her roommates and friends with their math problems.

 

  Annika Xu, Instructor  

Annika is currently an IB student who hopes to work in a math or tech-related field in the future. Over the past two years, she has spent time as an elementary math tutor, allowing her to gain knowledge and experience teaching kids. She has always enjoyed helping people with math—it being one of her favorite subjects in school—and she hopes to further help kids understand math concepts through Mathnasium. Alongside math, her other favorite subjects in school are art, computer science, and the natural sciences. In her free time, Annika likes to draw and paint both digitally and traditionally.

 

  Christine Wu, Instructor 

Christine is currently a high school senior at Lisgar Collegiate Institute. She hopes to study computer science in university, and has always had a passion for mathematics. Throughout middle and high school, she loved helping her peers with mathematics and has experience working as a private tutor for elementary school students, so Mathnasium is the perfect place for her to grow her knowledge and tutoring skills. Besides academics, Christine does pre-professional ballet and plays piano in her free time.

Ravit has recently moved to Canada from India. He is a full-time MBA graduate (with Distinction) from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom and has a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from India. His professional experience of more than 10 years, spans across supply chain, sales and IT. He has progressed from an individual contributor role to a function head role and later on to a founding member role for a greenfield project of a CAD 26 billion retail company. Ravit has been an effective mentor in his professional career. He is also passionate about working with youth of all ages and has a soft corner in his heart for them. Mathematics has always been his favourite subject and he loves to impart knowledge of the subject to children of all ages. 

Previous Instructors

Annie Loubier, Instructor

Annie is one of the Learning Centre Instructors at the Kanata Mathnasium location. She is also a student at Carleton University; she is currently majoring in English Literature and intends to use her degree to attend teacher's college, with the goal of eventually becoming an elementary-level schoolteacher. In her spare time, she is an avid reader and writer, and she hopes to one day be a published novelist. She is passionate about working with youth of all ages. She aims to help facilitate and broaden their understanding and to provide a fun and comfortable learning environment for them. She has previously worked as a peer tutor of secondary-level math and also as a pre-competitive swimming coach for children ages 7 and up, and she surely brings that experience with her to her role at the centre. 

Catherine Riley, Instructor

Catherine has recently moved over to Canada from the United Kingdom. After finishing her degree in Economics, she completed her teacher training, specializing in high school Mathematics, and spent the last year teaching in a high school back in the UK. Since moving over to Canada she is hoping to become a high school teacher again so she can continue to inspire and help students learn to love math. In her free time, she enjoys keeping active; going skiing, running and rowing, as well as watching movies and attending hockey games. 

​Stacy White, Instructor 

Stacy is currently taking a degree in Chemistry  at the University of Ottawa and she hopes to use her degree to become a high school level Chemistry and Mathematics teacher. She has previous experience as a tutor of both elementary and high school level math and has also previously worked in a grade 7 classroom as a teacher's assistant. In her spare time Stacy loves to read, paint, watch sports, and try to learn new things; most recently she is learning to play the ukulele. She is very passionate about helping kids understand and excel in their studies and brings this passion to help the students at Mathnasium! 

Sharon Pragashkumar

Sharon is currently a university mathematics student and she hopes to some day become a professor in math. She has worked as a tutor all throughout her school career which has shown her the importance of understanding mathematical concepts from an early age. Thus, she loves working with kids and helping them enjoy math as much as she does. In her free time, she takes great interest in playing piano and guitar, reading books, watching movies and spending quality time with family and friends. 

Nicholas Janb

Nicholas is currently taking his Master's of Science in Health Systems at the University of Ottawa. His aim is to work as a hospital administrator, working to improve our healthcare system. He spent the majority of his University years tutoring kids in Math. Nick is also very passionate about playing the piano and has been doing so since the age of three. He loves teaching and helping others and is very excited to be working as an instructor at Mathnasium! 

David Famade-Lola

David is currently taking a double degree in Mechanical Engineering and Computing Technology at the University of Ottawa. His aim is to work as an engineer and a programmer, while contributing to the development of the next generation's technology. He enjoys playing video games, watching and playing sports, and travelling. He loves teaching kids and looks forward to working with the directors, instructors and parents in helping the children advance their mathematical knowledge.