About

The path

My path started teaching seniors how to use eBay. Average age: 64. Zero computer experience. Some of them went on to teach technology to others. That's a Kirkpatrick Level 4 outcome. Learners becoming teachers. It hooked me on learning design before I knew the terminology. But honestly, what hooked me was simpler than that: I discovered I could move people. Help them see themselves differently. Watch someone cross from "I can't do this" to "I can teach this to someone else." That's not a training outcome. That's a transformation.

From there, eight years in automotive technology at Cox Automotive. I progressed from DMS implementation to senior trainer, training every new hire for 18 months straight, building operational fluency across every dealership department. That's where I discovered I cared more about building training systems than delivering individual sessions. Better systems meant more people moved, more consistently, at greater scale.

In my last role, I got to prove it. Over four and a half years, I built the entire L&D function from zero: a 26-person global team across the US, Canada, and France, 637 learning modules, three LMS migrations, a $500K+ annual budget, and a production system designed to scale. When AI tools became viable, I integrated them through live experimentation alongside my team. Not mandates. Not demos. We sat together, opened the tools, and figured it out. We cut development time 31% and kept every person through the transition. That's what happens when you lead with care before capability.

During COVID, I spent three terms as a Canvas LMS administrator at the University of Utah's College of Communications. I set up online courses for professors who had never taught digitally before. One of them told me at the end of the term she didn't think she could do it. She did it. Her students thrived. That moment is the same moment as the eBay student who became a teacher. Twenty years apart. Same feeling.

An executive coach I worked with for 18 months helped me name what's actually true: I'm a creative. I move people. I help them grow, share, see what they're capable of. The systems I build are the infrastructure for that. The writing, the newsletter, the speaking. That's the same impulse, just pointed outward. I'm happiest when I'm creating something that changes how someone thinks or works or sees themselves. That's been true since the seniors and the eBay course. It's still true now.