Jan (Juana) Lawrence is the founder of the Escuela de Juanita. She is on the faculties of the University of San Diego and Cañada Community College. She received her B.A. in Romance Linguistics and has a Master's in Education specializing in early childhood, multi-cultural education and second language acquisition. Juana has taught in Italy, the United States, and Mexico. She developed a method of teaching second languages through cooking and the arts in use in some San Francisco Bay Area schools. This method has been successful with both children and adults. She consults and continues developing Spanish language programs.
Juana is involved in early childhood teacher training in the Latin-American community in California. As well as the Spanish Language and Cultural Program, the Escuela de Juanita has a summer community service early childhood program for local Mexican children from disadvantaged families. Her hope is to be able to find funding to keep this educational program ongoing year round. She has a house in the village of Aticama near the Playa Los Cocos.