MEET THE
CSGA TEAM
Bill Nara
Founder | Executive Director | Instructor
Bill is the Founder & Executive director for CSGA, he mainly teaches Chess & Online Chess. Bill also hosts Chess tournaments around the Twin Cities area.
Jason Lavine
Jason instructs Chess, Strategy Games, Cooking, and Personal Finance & Investing. His hobbies are playing golf & poker. He's also a proud dog dad to Larry.
LISA SCHULER
Executive Assistant
Lisa assists the Executive Director with the needs of the company. In her free time she competes in jigsaw puzzle competitions.
DAVID NARA
Technical Manager | Instructor
David teaches Chess and Scriptwriting for CSGA Enrichment. Additionally, he is a talented scriptwriter, and in his free time, he plays video games.
HENRY HARRIS
STEM Director | Instructor
Henry is a licensed teacher that leads Chess and Coding Clubs during the school year, along with Strategy Games and Rock'n'Roll Band Camp in the summer. He is a proud father of four kids and three dogs, and coaches football and soccer in the fall and spring. He enjoys fishing and the outdoors, traveling, music and cooking in his free time, which you can imagine he does not have much of.
JEFF HAHN
Board of Directors
Jeff is on the Board of Directors for CSGA. He works in sales and marketing. His favorite games are Backgammon, Bridge & Acquire. He is also a scout, theater & marching band dad.
LYDIA HAHN
Instructor
Lydia is studying at Century College for engineering. She is an instructor for TinkerCad, sewing, strategy games, 3D Printing & Design. Ticket Ride is her favorite game. She enjoys embroidery, cross, & stitch love cats.
SPENCER WILSON
Instructor
Spencer teaches strategies games during the summer. He is an artist in drawing and digital arts. Star Trek Ascendancy is his favorite game.
LIZ EDWARDS
Instructor
Liz has been with CSGA since May of 2022. She volunteers a lot in her free time and she loves learning different languages. She loves to travel & have been to multiple states plus Sweden, London, Iceland, Mexico, Poland & the country of Georgia.
ANN ROMAN
Instructor
Ann teaches art classes for CSGA. Painting, drawing, portraits. Artist & semi-retired art teacher. 30 years of teaching. She also has performed improv. Her favorite game is Skyjo.
LIAM NEWERT
Instructor
Liam is an instructor for the Rock Band summer program. He is a Minnesota history buff. He has a border collie named Scout. Favorite game is Operation. Boy Scout camp counselor & life guard.
DAVE KIRKWOOD
Instructor
Dave is teaching TiinkerCad and 3D Printing, he is also the concessions coordinator for chess tournaments. His hobbies are street/dirt biking, & collects antique lathes. He does 3D printing at home & acquired a laser engraver. His favorite game is Just Cause Three.
DAN BESEMANN
Instructor
Dan is instructing after school strategy games. He is a Chemistry instructor at Hamline U. Founder of Athenium Games which are educational board games. His favorite game is Ticket to Ride.
ALEX SIECHEN
Instructor
Alex is an instructor for Dungeons and Dragons and other strategy/table top games. He also handles game inventory and storage logistics. His hobby is teaching games. A fun fact about Alex is that he is a student at the U of North Dakota majoring in air traffic management.
TAMMY NARA
Instructor
Tammy is an art teacher at turtle lake. She has a blog & owns a business for hiking & painting. She also has a studio at Northdrop King Building.
MEGAN GROMMES
Instructor
She is an instructor for chess and strategy games. She also teaches knitting and crocheting. Her hobby is photography. A fun fact about Megan is that her family has fostered over 50 cats in the past 7 years. Lastly, she is ELL Para at Highview Middle School.
BRENDAN STERN
Instructor
Brendan's role at CSGA is instructing strategy games at Chippewa Middle School. Background in animation and game design. Godsforge is his favorite game.
PAUL WILSON
Instructor
Paul facilitates strategy games at conventions including GenCon, Con of the North, & CooleeCon in LaCrosse. He collects medical emergency games. His favorite game is Plague Inc.
PAUL SACKAROFF
Instructor
Paul Sackaroff coaches Chess online and at our Scholastic Tournaments around the Twin Cities. He teaches English at Osseo Senior High School and also coaches a chess team in the MNHSCL (Minnesota High School Chess League). He lives in St. Paul, has a family and 2 pet chickens.
Amaris Garcia
Web Developer, Instructor
Amaris teaches Graphic Design in the Summer & in the Fall Costume Design. Outside of working for CSGA she's a part time photographer & loves going hiking. She also has a tuxedo cat named Diego.
Zach Lavone
Instructor
Zach is an experienced Chess instructor and Tournament director as well as an aspiring game designer working on a Trading Card Game called "Yor". He also has a background in esports, martial arts, engineering, and axe throwing. Valorant, Kingdom Hearts and Star Realms are his favorite, multiplayer, singleplayer, and tabletop games.
Jacob Borgmann
Instructor
Jacob is an amateur woodworker and semi-professional game master, active in the convention circuit. He has joined Bill Nara at GenCon in Indianapolis & Minnesota's own Con of the North. His favorite board game is Council of Blackthorn, but his favorite role-playing game is Runequest!
Shane Weber
Instructor
Shane coaches advanced chess, handles strategy board games, as well as Dungeons and Dragons. In his spare time, he studies Psychology and Early Childhood Studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
