Meet our Team

Byron is an instructor of over 16 years’ experience in adult-education, more than half of that time spent as an ESL and college English teacher. He has helped hundreds of students — especially international businessmen and women in oil & gas-related enterprises — achieve their language goals, in addition to drafting and editing business correspondence, reports, and presentations. Originally from Los Angeles, California, he has visited Mexico, Brazil, and the Caribbean, and has made his home in Houston for many years.

“Having taught at another international ESL school, I really like that CCLS uses practical, conversation-based lessons that are based on years of learning-psychology research, which suits my academic side. But instead of lots of reading, CCLS focuses on listen-and-say exercises as grammar is learned. It gets people speaking the target language right away — and I know the value of that kind of immersion.”

In his personal time, Byron conceived and operated a well-received jazz club & salon in Houston, and is a long-time songwriter and music producer. In addition to teaching certification through CCLS, he holds degrees from Houston’s University of St. Thomas and Houston Baptist University.

Carol is originally from Madison, Wisconsin. She earned her Master of Education with a concentration in English as a Second Language (ESL) and Instructional Design from the University of Saskatchewan-Saskatoon, Canada. Ms. Pianzola also has 30 graduate hours in Applied Linguistics from the University of Texas-El Paso, and she holds Lifetime Texas Teacher Certifications in ESL and Spanish. Ms. Pianzola has enjoyed teaching ESL in a variety of educational settings, including public school, university, adult continuing education, and corporate.

Margaret is a Corporate Cross-Cultural Trainer and English teacher, originally from the U.S.A. Her specialization is facilitating cross-cultural teams on strategies to accomplish their business objectives effectively. She graduated from Tulane University with a degree in Latin American Studies, Economics, and Spanish. She has a decade of experience training and coaching adults in a corporate setting and working with senior leadership teams on developing their global leadership skills to work across multiple cultures effectively. Most recently, her focus has been on delivering Intercultural Management programs on the growth markets in Mexico, Argentina, and the U.S.A. Margaret has worked extensively across multiple industries, including high tech, pharmaceutical, financial, medical, and manufacturing. Her previous work experience was primarily in financial services, business news, where she edited submissions from various countries. She is fluent in Spanish, having lived in Mexico, Argentina, and Venezuela, and has extensive travel experience worldwide. Margaret also resided in Indonesia, France, Azerbaijan, and Kuwait, spending twelve years internationally.

After studying Spanish in Mexico, Russian in Azerbaijan, French in France, and Arabic in Kuwait, she understands the difficulty of learning a new language and its importance to success in a foreign country. She looks forward to helping all students at CCLS Houston improve their English.

Alisha instructs Accent Reduction, English as a Second Language and Spanish as a Second Language for CCLS Houston. Originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico, she received her B.A. in Spanish and Latin American Studies from New Mexico State University, her M.A. in Mexican History from TCU. In 2021, Ph.D. in Spanish Socio-linguistics with minor fields in Phonetics/Phonology and Heritage Speaker Pedagogy from the University of Houston. She also participated in study abroad programs at Universidad de Las Americas in Puebla, México and Universidad de Salamanca, in Salamanca, Spain. Her Ph.D. research focused on formality in love letters of 19th and 20th century Mexico. Alisha has principally taught Spanish and U.S and Latin American history for over 20 years. She is married, with two teenage boys and two large labradors.

Soha has a master's degree in TESOL with more than twenty years of experience in teaching English as a university professor in her home country and more than five years experience as an ESL instructor in Houston, Texas. During this long time, she has always tried to present the subject in an interesting way to facilitate learning. Soha is highly motivated to help students change for the better. She has taught a variety of TESOL major courses including advanced technical writing, academic writing, general linguistics, English language testing, English teaching methodology, as well as TOFEL and IELTS courses. Her special interest is in English phonology and pronunciation. She has extensive experience working with ESL students.Soha creates a classroom environment that accommodates the needs of her individual students. Ever since she started teaching, she has been passionate in her genuine commitment to three things: maximizing individual student performance, inspiring students’ interest in learning, and creating a lively atmosphere to make students more active and motivated. Most of her students believe they have learned a lot in her class without feeling tired or confused. Having been an educational supervisor for years, she is aware of students' needs. Soha truly enjoys spending time with students and finding their excitement when they finally get a tough concept. Her teaching style is to guide students as opposed to just telling them the answers so that they can develop independent thinking and problem solving.

Sanda grew up in Romania and was preparing to be an English teacher in her country before immigrating to the United States in 2000. She has been working in adult learning for over 22 years and has taught English as a Second Language to adults in the college system for over 10 years. She is a native speaker of Romanian and near-native speaker of English, but she can also understand and communicate in French and Spanish. Sanda attended the prestigious Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and completed her studies at California State University in Sacramento, California, where she earned a BA in English and an MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. In addition to being a passionate English instructor, Sanda is an expert in adult learning strategies, learning assistance, and student success. In her personal life, Sanda is a mom of three teenagers, who are transitioning into university life; she is a great dog lover and an enthusiastic gardener.

Patricia is a fun and dedicated Brazilian Portuguese teacher. She is native from Brazil and has been living in the United States since 2011. She has bachelor’s degrees in both Business Administration and Education, she has also earned a master’s degree in English Methodology and Translation. She has obtained several certifications for her English proficiency including the TOEFL.

Patricia has taught English and Portuguese in several well renowned language schools in Brazil for over 20 years and has seen her students improve and succeed in their careers and language skills throughout the years. In the US she has taught Portuguese in different Oil and Gas companies, Language Schools, and for individuals interested in learning and/or improving their Portuguese proficiency.

Patricia loves to teach, she has taught groups and private lessons where she adjusts her material and methodology according to the needs of her students. She believes that with persistence, encouragement, a light and upbeat environment, hard work, and the right support system anyone can learn and be confident in speaking the language that they dedicate themselves to. Patricia enjoys outdoor movies on nice weather days, she enjoys the good company of her family and friends, trying new restaurants, cultural events, workouts at the gym, and cooking Brazilian dishes.

Rita is a native speaker of Portuguese from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Speech Language Pathology.

Rita has extensive experience in teaching the Portuguese language in the Houston area to executives in the Oil and Gas industry, Corporate Groups and lessons with children.

Rita has developed individualized programs for students that teach according to their level of language proficiency and deliver the best of the Brazilian culture.

Cecilia is a proud Brazilian who has recently moved to Houston. After studying international relations and foreign affairs at a leading institution in Brazil, Cecilia devoted the next decade of her life toward helping others attain the Business-critical skill of attaining a second language. She was successful in helping several students achieving a proficiency Portuguese language level throughout the years.

Looking for new challenges, she engaged in different projects such as filmmaking and organizing events. Currently, she is pursuing her master’s degree at Harvard University in International Relations as she continues her work in language teaching as a Portuguese instructor in CCLS Houston.

She is also interested in watching independent movies, tv series, and reading books. Her favorite kinds of story are sci-fi and detective stories. She enjoys practicing Taebo, Yoga, and Aerial silks. Acquiring and developing language skills are part of her life, in this sense, she studies French and works towards developing her Spanish.

Ingrid is a Brazilian journalist and spent over five years as a writer in a major newspaper in Brazil covering city, cop and political matters. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Brazil and English as a second language from The University of Houston, where she was honored twice by University of Houston as both Graduation Speaker and Outstanding Student. She also speaks Spanish, English and is progressing in French.

She moved to Houston in 2009 and has been working as a market reporter covering news and prices assessments for the petrochemical and natural gas markets. Besides communication, Ingrid has extensive experience in teaching Portuguese in the Houston area to executives in the Oil and Gas industry, corporate groups and private classes. She lives with her husband and her two kids in the greater Houston area.