The LifeWorks Team
Jai Flicker
Founder of LifeWorks Learning Center, Jai has worked with high school and middle school students throughout Marin County since 1999. Out of his experience he has developed a unique approach to working with youth called Academic Mentoring, which blends academic tutoring and personal mentoring strategies. By motivating students from within and supporting them to build solid foundations of character, he and his staff have helped many struggling students transform themselves into happy, healthy, and successful young adults.
Jai grew up in Marin, attended Drake High School and later received his BA from UC San Diego
Tom Hruschka
Tom earned his Ph.D. in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley and his B.S. in Biomedical/Electrical Engineering at Duke University. Since finishing school he has enjoyed teaching and tutoring students of all ages throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. He has experience setting up and running math and science camps and also helping students with SAT/ACT prep. Over the years he has developed a teaching style that can actually make learning fun!
Ben Long
Ben earned a B.A. in Peace Studies from Manchester College and is a trained facilitator through the Diversity Awareness and Leadership Training program. Ben is passionate about learning and teaches with an enthusiasm that engages his students’ innate curiosity. He brings a global awareness and a multi-cultural perspective to his position at LifeWorks, having studied and worked in France, Africa and the Middle East. Ben is a patient, supportive listener who respects each student’s unique process and motivates them to learn more about themselves and the world around them.
Siobhan Poling
Siobhan's enthusiasm for math and science grew out of her work as an explainer at the Exploratorium museum in San Francisco. Once she realized that studying science can be fun she obtained her B.S. degree in Biology from San Francisco State University. Siobhan has been teaching and tutoring young people for many years. She helps her students become active learners by encouraging them to ask questions and pursue their answers. Siobhan grew up in the bay area, she took many AP courses in high school, and knows first-hand the pressures modern high school students face. She works with her students to make their work load feel more managable and helps them find joy in learning.
Jono Schrode
Jono has been teaching math, science, and music for more than twenty-five years. He grew up in Philadelphia where he received his degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and then spent most of the 80s living, teaching, and performing in New York City. Since coming to California, he has continued to interweave his three careers as a teacher, a musician, and an interior designer/builder, and he delights in the ever shifting balance among those three pursuits. Six years ago, he cofounded The Ducks, an eclectic/electric rock’n’roll band based in Sonoma County, and he is also a burgeoning author and an avid long distance cyclist. His life’s greatest joys and passions, however, are unquestionably found as father to his sixteen year old daughter Erin.