Learning Strategy & Instructional Design
Designing programs and teams that didn't exist before is my love language.
My portfolio spans medical education, museum interpretation, oil and gas workforce training, cybersecurity, higher ed onboarding, and AI literacy. I've committed my career to building learning experiences that help people do difficult, world-changing work with greater clarity, confidence, and care. I've witnessed story do that world-changing work across disciplines, sectors, and communities, in the moments when it mattered most: a medical student processing a difficult patient encounter, a high school student in rural Ohio discovering a career path in the energy sector, a museum visitor standing in front of a 400-year-old painting, suddenly curious about their own life.
I'm a former academic program founder and professor turned instructional systems designer and learning strategy consultant — with end-to-end design fluency, 15+ years of cross-sector leadership from prototype to policy, and a lifelong conviction that storytelling is one of the most urgent transferable skills there is — because imagination fuels impact.
Featured Projects
Student Onboarding + Career Readiness
COMMence Program
COMMence was built around a question: what happens when high-achievers do everything right and still feel lost? Business students were leaving McIntire with strong résumés but limited preparation for conflict, ambiguity, feedback, and belonging. The program was designed to close the meta-skill gap between academic achievement, purpose, and resilience.
The result: a comprehensive blended program serving 400+ students annually—three asynchronous welcome modules, a two-day in-person conference, and a follow-up Canvas course. Synthesia avatar videos introduced frameworks for self-awareness and growth. H5P activities made reflection interactive. A live conference brought the whole thing together.
Explore the COMMence CourseCross-sector Storytelling in the Health Professions & Beyond
Story Slam Challenge
Medical education researchers at SIU identified a gap: the curriculum could teach diagnosis, but it couldn't yet train the whole physician. A trauma-informed storytelling curriculum built to fill that gap—and adaptable enough to follow the learner across sectors: physicians processing difficult patient encounters, high school juniors writing college application essays, middle schoolers finding their voice in Girls Inc. summer programming.
Built using an iterative design framework, the course translates in-person workshop energy into an asynchronous format without losing the personal touch. At SIU SOM, it helped future physicians reconnect with purpose and empathy; beyond medicine, it's helped people get into schools, ace interviews, and move forward with clarity. The throughline: story is one of the most urgent skills we can teach.
Explore the CourseWorkforce Readiness
Ohio Energy Uncovered: Geology, Jobs & Impact
A mobile-first, modular eLearning course designed with three Ohio career and technical education centers—translating field-level industry knowledge into career pathways for learners who may not otherwise have access to them.
The design challenge: petroleum geology is technically dense, and learners are often entering an industry they know nothing about. The solution was a repeatable architecture—Video → Workbook → Quick Check—that lowers cognitive load and supports stop-and-restart learning on a phone. Short hook videos (30–90 seconds) create curiosity before the workbook explains; vertical infographics translate dense content into fast, scannable comprehension; drag-and-drop activities confirm understanding with no grade penalty for wrong attempts.
Every section connects geology and energy science to real Ohio jobs, wages, and communities—so learners finish not just with technical vocabulary, but with a real sense of what these careers look like.
Cybersecurity Crossword Challenge
Designed for nontraditional community college students navigating academic barriers and limited technical confidence. The design challenge wasn't cybersecurity content—it was learning to learn.
Weekly interactive crossword puzzles gamified content review, but the deeper architecture was metacognitive: building the habits and confidence that encourage learners to keep going as the material gets more challenging.
Companion study guides and job aids reinforced core concepts beyond the puzzles—giving students tools to carry into future coursework, and strategies for approaching unfamiliar material with curiosity rather than avoidance.
Test Your Knowledge