Meet our Team
The team at Our Driving School cares about the success of our students and aims to create safe and knowledgeable drivers that will help lower accident rates and make the Algoma District a safer place to drive. Our instructors are experienced and knowledgeable. We provide real-life examples and challenges you may face every day on the road and how to navigate safely around them. You can trust Our Driving School to provide guidance and the knowledge to become a confident and safe driver.
Mary Jane Lewis
Office Manager | Licensed Driving Instructor
Mary is our Administrative Assistant and one of our Driving Instructors. The thing she loves most about her position is meeting all the students and families. She enjoys seeing each student grow and become more confident in their driving abilities. The excitement she shares with our students when one of them succeed is genuine! In her spare time, she enjoys being creative, learning and spending time with her grandchildren and granddogs. Mary is a kind and fun addition to our team. Be sure to say hello the next time you’re in the office!
Dick Wall
Licensed Driving Instructor
Dick worked in the financial sector all his life until his retirement. He later approached Our Driving School to teach people to drive properly, safely and most importantly defensively. He hopes to make a difference in peoples lives by teaching them to be confident while driving. Dick is an avid gardener.
Jason Kern
Licensed Driving Instructor
Jason has been a driving instructor since 2018 and came onboard with us in July of 2021. Jason is very dedicated to our students, he provides lessons as early as 5:00 a.m to as late as 11 p.m. Like he always says, #practicemakesbetter. Prior to being a driving instructor, Jason owned his own company and now owns his own maple syrup operation. Very Canadian of you Jason!
When Jason has spare time, he enjoys racing on our local tracks with one of his 3 race cars.. or spending time with his lovely wife.
Dean Dugas
Licensed Driving Instructor
Dean is one of our newer instructors, he joined Our Driving School in 2020 and offers over 25 years of driving experience as a courier driver here in Sault Ste. Marie. If anyone knows the roads of our city, it’s Dean! He also has over 15 years of coaching youth and young adults in hockey and baseball. Let’s just say Dean is perfect for the job, and he loves seeing those big smiles after students successfully pass the road test.
In his spare time, Dean enjoys the outdoors camping, fishing, hunting and exploring what our Algoma District has to offer!
SCOTT KENNEDY
Licensed Driving Instructor
Meet the newest member of the team, Scott brings a robust background in the field of adult education.
He’s a lifelong learner who enjoys motivating others to reach their potential. He loves teaching and looks forward to working with students to develop their skills and knowledge, so they are safe and competent on the road.
Monte WHite
Licensed Driving Instructor
Monte is our wonderful Wawa Licensed Driving Instructor! Monte has worked as a firefighter for 15 years, and is now a Senior Technical Specialist for the past 7 at the Wawa Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. He loves teaching students to be safe and confident drivers, offering a wide range of skills including in-car instruction, ATV, UTV, and snowmobile operation.
Monte is married with 3 children, in his spare time he enjoys camping, hiking and fishing with the family up in beautiful Wawa, Ontario. It’s so nice, they named it twice! 😉
FRANK VAN LITH
Licensed Driving Instructor
Born and raised in the Netherlands, Frank led an active life filled with sports and travel. His diverse athletic pursuits included tennis, soccer, judo, golf, skiing, and rally racing. With a passion for exploration, he visited approximately 30 countries worldwide!
In 1993, his journey took him to China, where Frank met a woman from the Soo, and they eventually got married in China. Together, they lived in China for six years and are proud parents of three children.
Retiring at the end of 2020 marked a new chapter in his life. After three years of retirement and completing most items on his to-do list, he felt a renewed desire to be an active member of society. Given his penchant for helping people become better drivers, Frank eagerly accepted an offer from Francine to become a driving instructor!
Francine Floreani
Our Driving School Owner
Since her beginning in the car business at the small dealership on Great Northern Road to the new, large and modern present location of Great Lakes Honda, Francine has brought a new spin to the car buying experience for her customers. Being the only female car dealer in a normally male-dominated business, she knows exactly what it’s like to overcome challenges.
In recent years, Francine looked to expand her knowledge in the automotive industry with the purchase of Our Driving School. Since purchasing the business in 2018, Francine and her team have acquired Howson Driving School, built a brand-new state-of-the-art facility and purchased an entire new fleet of safe vehicles for students to drive. Francine enjoys bringing the “fun back to learning how to drive” and believes that at Our Driving School, this is something that students appreciate and enjoy. In true Floreani fashion, she saw this opportunity as a way of making people smile!
Bringing her excellent skills of customer service along with her values on transparency and community involvement, she has proven that customers are indeed appreciative of how they are treated when learning how to drive. She is always delighted to meet new students and is just as excited as they are when they pass their driving exams and become an #ODSGrad.