My Story
I didn't set out to become an instructional designer. I set out to understand why some people learn easily and others don't — and spent 30 years building that answer in classrooms, working with children and families, and leading teams through complex change.
What I kept discovering: the problem was never the content. It was always the design. People failed not because the information wasn't available, but because it wasn't organized in a way that matched how they actually needed to use it.
That insight is the thread running through everything I do now as an instructional designer. I bring the same diagnostic thinking I used in the classroom — what's the actual gap? what's getting in the way? what does "doing it right" actually look like? — to every learning experience I build.
What I Believe
Good learning design is invisible. Learners shouldn't notice the scaffolding — they should just feel more capable at the end than they did at the start. That means starting with performance, not content. It means building for the moment of need, not the moment of delivery. And it means measuring behavior change, not quiz scores.
Tools & Expertise
Experience
Translating complex clinical and pedagogical frameworks into virtual learning experiences, VILT sessions, facilitator guides, and asynchronous curricula that support behavioral health care access and facilitator effectiveness.
Led teams of educators through curriculum redesign and instructional coaching. Designed onboarding programs for new staff, built performance frameworks, and managed professional development programming for 15+ educators.
30+ years in early childhood and elementary education, with deep expertise in Montessori methodology. Designed learning environments, developed curriculum, and diagnosed learning gaps for hundreds of students across diverse settings.
Resume
Gretchen Lautenschlager — Resume
Instructional Designer · Learning Architect · Remote-ready