Our Service Learners & Other Participants

Designers for Learning was founded in August of 2014 with a charitable purpose to provide instructional design support to underserved social needs through service learning. Our service-learning projects are completed by volunteers, professional educators, instructional designers, and college students. Many of our course and project participants are enrolled in college instructional design and performance improvement programs, while others are interested in building their skills or giving back to support an underserved need. We encourage all of our volunteers and students to use our courses and projects to develop their individual portfolios. In addition, some student volunteer candidates used our service-learning experience to fulfill a practicum requirement, depending upon the requirements of their college program. Since 2014, over 4,000 people enrolled in our 100% virtual service projects in both small cohorts and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to gain instructional design experience and provide learning and performance improvement solutions to the social impact sector.


Our First Volunteers

The following is the roster of our first pioneering volunteers and service learners who joined us in our early days, along with their school or work affiliations and faculty sponsors (if applicable). They shared our vision and helped us build the foundation needed to support our mission.

2014 Service Learners:

  • Alexander Alderman, University of Missouri-Columbia (Faculty Sponsor: Sean Goggins)
  • Aysenur Ozyer, University of Colorado-Denver (Faculty Sponsor: Brent Wilson)
  • Candice Bowes, George Mason University (Faculty Sponsor: Karen Gardner)
  • Carol Kubota, Arizona State University (Faculty Sponsor: Wilhelmina Savenye)
  • Christina Chapman, Ashford University (Faculty Sponsor: Nancy Lockwood)
  • Cynthia Casillas, University of Wisconsin-Stout (Faculty Sponsor: Susan Manning)
  • Elizabeth Simpson, UW-Whitewater (Faculty Sponsor: Kay Lehmann)
  • Eric Ludwig, University of Colorado-Denver (Faculty Sponsor: Brent Wilson)
  • Eunsung Park*, Pennsylvania State University (Faculty Sponsor: Roy Clariana)
  • Gabrielle Blake, Old Dominion University (Faculty Sponsor: Jill Stefaniak)
  • Gilbert Reyna, Texas A&M – Corpus Christi (Faculty Sponsor: Stephen Rodriguez & Susan Elwood)
  • Greg Williams, Brigham Young University (Faculty Sponsor: Richard E. West)
  • Helen Graves, University of California-Irvine (Faculty Sponsor: Dana Massin)
  • Jennifer S McIntosh, University of Tampa (Faculty Sponsor: Enilda Romero-Hall)
  • Karen Chang, San Francisco State University (Faculty Sponsor: Zahira Merchant)
  • Kathy McIlhany, Purdue University (Faculty Sponsor: Hannah Kim)
  • Keith Webster*, University of Tampa (Faculty Sponsors: Jonathan McKeown & Enilda Romero-Hall)
  • Kristian Spring, Brigham Young University (Faculty Sponsor: Peter Rich)
  • Maria Torres, University of Tampa (Faculty Sponsor: Enilda Romero-Hall)
  • Matthew Bolton**, The University of Memphis (Faculty Sponsor: Trey Martindale)
  • Mintian Guo, Indiana University Bloomington (Faculty Sponsor: Elizabeth Boling)
  • Paige Hale, Morehead State University (Faculty Sponsor: John Curry
  • Preeti Sharma, Arizona State University (Faculty Sponsor: Gary Bitter)
  • Rachel Ogg, University of Missouri (Faculty Sponsor: Rose Marra)
  • Richard Ringer, Arizona State University (Faculty Sponsor: Wilhelmina Savenye)
  • Ronda Dorsey*, Indiana University – Bloomington (Faculty Sponsor: Krista Glazewski)
  • Sabrina Berntsen, George Mason University (Faculty Sponsor: Nada Dabbagh)
  • Sandye Royer, Idaho State University (Faculty Sponsor: Jane Strickland)
  • Shaina Khan, Cal State East Bay (Faculty Sponsor: Li-ling Chen)
  • Shawn Haag, University of Minnesota (Faculty Sponsor: Angel Pazurek)
  • Xue Yang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Faculty Sponsor: J. Jessica Li)
  • Yiwen Zhang, Cal State East Bay (Faculty Sponsor: Li-ling Chen)

Fall 2015 Volunteer Subject Matter Experts, Designers, and Facilitators:

  • Filiz Aktan, Florida State University (Student)
  • Kaylea Algire, Praescient Analytics & James Madison University (Student)
  • Betzi Bateman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Aaron Burgess, Cincinnati Christian University
  • Lynna Casiano, Public School District
  • Zhaihuan Dai*, Florida State University (Student)
  • Gio del Vecchio, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)
  • Anneleise Dickens, Phoenix Academy, Rock Hill Schools
  • Camille Dickson-Deane, Montgomery County Community College
  • JR Dingwall
  • Amanda Duffy, American Institutes for Research
  • Joe French, Columbia Southern Education Group
  • Joshua Heinrich, University of Cincinnati
  • Valerie Henderson, Consultant
  • Colleen Jackson*, California State University Monterey Bay
  • Cheryl Keener, Keiser University
  • Heather Lamb, VBCPS Adult Learning Center Keya Mukherjee, Saint Leo University
  • Jessica Resig, The Pennsylvania State University & Old Dominion University (Student)
  • Gilbert Reyna*, Texas A&M University, Health Science Center, Rangel College of Pharmacy
  • Eric Stauffer, Virginia Tech (Student)
  • Brian Steinberg, Various Online Colleges, and The Ally Group
  • Stacy Swan, CorpU / Independent Contractor

Spring 2015 Service Learners:

  • Alexa Franklin-Burrell, Full Sail University (Faculty Sponsor: Michelle Haynes)
  • Carolina Sandoval, California State University – Los Angeles (Faculty Sponsor: Manisha Javeri)
  • Colleen Jackson, California State University – Monterey Bay (Faculty Sponsor: Bude Su)
  • Elaine Rettger, Arizona State University (Faculty Sponsor: Wilhelmina Savenye)
  • Hana Moudallal, Oakland University (Faculty Sponsor: William L. Solomonson)
  • Holly Marshburn, Nova Southeastern University (Faculty Sponsor: Barbara Christina)
  • Jason Engerman, Pennsylvania State University (Cohort Facilitator)
  • Paige Hale*, Morehead State University (Cohort Facilitator)
  • Shulong Yan, Pennsylvania State University (Faculty Sponsor: Alison Carr-Chellman)
  • Wendy Gentry, Virginia Tech (Cohort Facilitator)
  • Willette Brye, University of South Alabama (Faculty Sponsor: Joe’l Lewis)
  • Zhaihuan Dai, Florida State University (Faculty Sponsor: Fengfeng Ke)

* Prior Service Learner; **Deferred selection