Educator. Entrepreneur. But perhaps most importantly, nerd. After a decade of teaching, Dan has developed a simple yet effective principle: by discovering and unleashing your own inner nerd, you can rule the world—or at least your own small corner of it.

You might be thinking: me, a nerd? Don’t worry. Dan does not expect all of his students to reach full-fledged nerd-dom. But Dan does do his utmost to ensure that his students reach a deeper understanding of GMAT content, develop a stronger grasp of the exam’s inner secrets, and gain an overall appreciation for the exam.

Dan discovered his inner nerd at an early age, honing a love for language with his old-school English teacher mom and a love for all things mechanical with his neighborhood crew of adolescent inventors. He went on to enjoy four years at the University of Michigan, sharpening his quantitative and critical reasoning chops through a strict regimen of math and engineering classes.

With his mechanical engineering degree in hand, Dan enjoyed some vocational exploration, researching environmentally-friendly nano-materials at an engineering startup, teaching high school math in public and charter schools with Teach for America in Brooklyn, scoring a 770 on the GMAT and joining Manhattan Prep as an instructor in 2011, and most recently co-founding and serving as marketing director for First Ascent Climbing & Fitness, a locally-grown, world-class, community-focused group of indoor climbing and fitness centers in Chicago. Through all of the roles he has undertaken, teaching the GMAT uniquely combines Dan’s love for unlocking the inner nerd in his fellow humans with his passion for logical reasoning and problem solving.

When he is not teaching the GMAT or dangling from the indoor cliffs of First Ascent, Dan can be found enjoying the great outdoors, philosophizing over a single malt, and cooking dinners with his lovely wife.