About Brett

One of the most formative chapters of my career began in 2007, when I moved to Sumatra, Indonesia. I founded a language and cultural exchange and developed curriculum, lesson plans, and instructional materials for children, university students, and adult learners. The work also included a partnership with Indonesia’s Department of Education.

Teaching across language and cultural differences taught me something I have carried into every role since: shared words do not necessarily produce shared meaning. Explaining something clearly is important, but the real question is whether the other person can use it. That experience taught me to pay attention to context, assumptions, and the distance between what someone has heard and what they are prepared to do.

That lesson continued to shape me through more than 20 years in music ministry. Although music was the setting, the work grew to include teaching, communication, team leadership, coaching, volunteer development, planning, and organizational change.

Most recently, at First Baptist Church Powell, my role expanded from Worship Pastor to Pastor of Liturgy. I supervised three employees, led more than 65 weekly volunteers, worked with senior leadership and an elder board, developed leaders, and coordinated the communication and systems required to keep people moving in the same direction.

I also helped lead a multi-year shift from stage-focused programming toward greater congregational participation. That kind of change could not be accomplished through an announcement or a single training event. It required clear expectations, ongoing communication, leader alignment, coaching, reinforcement, and patience. People needed time to understand not only what was changing, but why it mattered and how they could participate.

Today, I work as a Field Insurance Agent with AAA — The Auto Club Group. Insurance has placed me close to the realities of frontline performance. I regularly translate coverage, eligibility, and policy options into language customers can understand and act on. I also help newer agents navigate systems, workflows, and the practical problems that arise while serving customers.

That experience has reinforced the importance of usable support. Employees rarely need more information for its own sake. They need the right information at the right moment, presented in a way that helps them make a decision or complete a task with confidence.

I begin with the problem rather than assuming that training is automatically the answer. I want to understand what people are expected to do, what is happening now, and what is getting in the way.

Sometimes the barrier is knowledge or skill. At other times, the issue may involve unclear expectations, workflow, tools, access, capacity, competing priorities, or a lack of reinforcement. The people closest to the work often see those barriers most clearly, so I value their perspective early in the process.

When learning is part of the solution, I want it to resemble the work people will actually perform. I favor plain language, realistic practice, and practical support that continues beyond launch. Depending on the need, that support may include job aids, coaching, leader reinforcement, or other resources people can use while doing the work.

Completing a course is not the same as performing successfully. What matters is whether people can apply what they learned when the real task, decision, or conversation is in front of them.

I am building toward work that brings together instructional design, learning and development, leadership development, communication, performance improvement, and organizational change.

I am especially interested in helping organizations turn complex expectations into clear, usable support for people doing real work. That may mean designing a learning experience, improving a workflow, developing a leader resource, clarifying communication, or creating practical tools that help people follow through.

My graduate work has strengthened the research, design, evaluation, and performance-improvement practices I bring to that work. I am completing an M.S. in Instructional Design and Technology at the University of Arizona Global Campus, expected September 2026.

The next chapter of my career builds on the same work that has shaped the chapters before it: helping people understand what matters, develop the ability to act, and contribute with greater confidence.