My Personal Brand

Vision, Values, and Purpose

Education is a field defined by growth, reflection, and the constant pursuit of improvement. My personal brand as an educator and emerging learning designer is rooted in the belief that feedback, delivered with honesty and care, has the power to transform both teaching and learning. Throughout my career, I have sought to empower students and colleagues to embrace feedback not as criticism, but as an essential tool for growth. In this narrative, I articulate my vision, the values that guide my work, and the reasons why this mission matters. My goal is not only to reflect on my own professional journey but also to highlight the broader implications for the educational community.

A Vision of Growth Through Feedback and Literacy

My vision is to empower school leaders and educators to foster a culture of honest, caring feedback, grounded in the practice of radical candor, while equipping them with strategies that help every student become a confident and capable reader. When teachers feel empowered to grow, their students benefit in ways that extend far beyond academics. Relationships between teachers and students, strengthened by trust and reflection, create lasting impacts. At its core, this vision is about creating cultures where candor, growth mindset, and literacy intersect to transform learning environments.

My journey into Learning Design and Technology began with curiosity about how people learn and a desire to make education more meaningful and accessible. Recognizing that education is constantly evolving, I have committed myself to evolving with it. To meet this challenge, I embrace feedback as the cornerstone of growth.

Early in my career, I experienced the transformative power of feedback in project-based learning environments. Students participated in “critical friends” protocols, offering peers constructive insights that fueled both confidence and skill. Witnessing their empowerment solidified my belief that feedback, when delivered with care, changes trajectories. That inspiration continues to shape my vision as I transition into learning design, where creativity, strategy, and evidence-based practices converge to meet learners’ needs.

Core Values: What Guides My Work

The foundation of my personal brand lies in a relentless commitment to continuous improvement. I believe that no educator or student is ever finished learning; there is always space to grow. This commitment requires courage: the courage to accept feedback, to view it as a professional responsibility rather than a personal attack, and to act upon it for the sake of students. Too often, feedback in education is met with defensiveness, but I strive to reframe it as a tool for empowerment.

Over the course of twelve years as an educator, including ten in brick-and-mortar schools and more recently in online learning, I have embraced challenge as a pathway to growth. My transition to online teaching was an intentional choice to stretch myself professionally. Online education represents not only the future of schooling, but also a call to design learning that is engaging, inclusive, and adaptable. In both traditional and virtual classrooms, I have relied on feedback to refine practice, build confidence, and strengthen literacy outcomes.

One defining experience was leading a team in the Reading for Understanding initiative. This program placed feedback at the center of literacy instruction, requiring teachers to reflect on their own practice while equipping students to engage critically with texts. Through coaching cycles, conferences, and school visits, I witnessed how feedback created ripple effects: teachers grew in confidence, students improved in reading comprehension, and professional cultures shifted toward openness and collaboration. These experiences confirmed my conviction that literacy is not just another subject, but the foundation for understanding the world.

Collaboration also sits at the heart of my values. The best strategies emerge when educators share insights, challenge one another, and co-create solutions. Students notice when their teachers embody this spirit of curiosity and adaptability, and it signals that learning is a lifelong process. Furthermore, I am deeply committed to inclusivity and accessibility. Drawing on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, I aim to remove barriers and ensure that every learner can thrive. My design philosophy emphasizes equity, innovation, and evidence-based practice, integrating approaches such as microlearning, scenario-based learning, and learning analytics to personalize instruction.

Why This Work Matters

The importance of this work becomes clear when considering the consequences of ignoring feedback and literacy. Over the years, I have seen too many students struggle with reading, leading to diminished confidence that seeps into every other subject. When literacy gaps grow, they become learning gaps that are difficult to close. At the same time, I have observed educators resist feedback, fearing it will diminish their sense of professionalism. This resistance ultimately stalls growth, limiting opportunities for students to succeed.

Reframing feedback as growth rather than criticism is essential. By using differentiated feedback protocols, educators can engage in reflection without feeling attacked. This not only builds individual confidence but also cultivates cultures of trust and collaboration. Success, in my view, can be measured by how effectively schools integrate feedback systems that allow teachers to continuously reflect, refine, and improve. When teachers model openness to growth, students mirror that same resilience, creating classrooms where confidence and learning flourish together.

What excites me about Learning Design and Technology is the challenge it presents. Designing meaningful learning experiences requires creativity, evidence-based strategy, and a willingness to iterate. I am particularly drawn to how technology can support formative feedback, professional learning communities, and digital literacy. Tools such as learning analytics, scenario-based design, and accessibility standards have the potential to create learning that is both personalized and inclusive. These innovations align directly with my vision of making education more equitable and impactful.

My short-term goal is to deepen my expertise in learning design, master emerging technologies, and contribute to projects that support literacy and professional growth. My long-term aspiration is to influence school systems so that reading gaps no longer persist, because teachers and students alike embrace feedback as an integral part of learning. Influences such as Kim Scott’s Radical Candor remind me that while honest feedback may seem like common sense, it is often the most difficult practice to implement. Yet it is precisely this practice that has the power to transform schools into communities of growth.

A Call to Collaboration

As I continue to shape my personal brand, I am committed to contributing beyond my own classroom. I plan to share my insights through blogging, presenting at conferences, and engaging in professional networks. I believe in “working out loud,” documenting my process, reflecting openly on successes and setbacks, and inviting feedback from peers. By mentoring new designers and collaborating on research, I hope to build a culture of transparency and continuous improvement.

Ultimately, my personal brand is defined by a belief in the power of feedback, literacy, and growth mindset to transform education. My commitment is not only to my own development, but also to the empowerment of educators and students who deserve to thrive in environments grounded in care and candor. I invite others to join me in this mission of creating learning environments where feedback fuels growth, reading unlocks opportunity, and confidence becomes the foundation for lifelong learning.

This paper was reviewed and refined with the assistance of OpenAI’s GPT-4, complementing the human editorial process.