Learning & Development Specialist · Instructional Design

Nine years designing learning that sticks. Now bringing it to the workplace.

I'm Elena Vasquez, a former high-school science teacher and department lead in Austin. I've designed 32 curricula, taught 1,400 students, and coached 18 teachers. The audience is changing. The craft is the same.

Instructional designArticulate 360FacilitationLearning analytics
See my workWhat transfers
+14Points gained on unit assessments after my blended redesign
100%Retention in the new-teacher cohort I mentored
6eLearning modules built in Articulate Rise and Storyline
40+Professional development sessions facilitated for adults

About

Why a teacher makes a strong L&D hire

Every day for nine years I did the full learning cycle on a loop: figure out what people need to know, design a way to teach it, deliver it to a room that didn't choose to be there, measure whether it worked, and fix it by tomorrow. That is instructional design, facilitation, and evaluation, practised at a pace most corporate teams never see.

As science department lead I also ran the adult side: onboarding new teachers, leading professional development, negotiating with administrators for budget and time, and reporting results to the district. Those are the stakeholder and program-management muscles L&D teams run on.

Over the past year I completed the ATD Instructional Design certificate, learned Articulate 360 and the Kirkpatrick model, and built the workplace-focused portfolio below. I'm ready to do this work for a team of adults.

What I'm looking for

An L&D Specialist or Instructional Designer role where I can own learning programs end to end: needs analysis, design, facilitation, and measurement. Austin or remote.

Classroom to L&D

The same skills, in your language

Hiring managers sometimes don't see the overlap. Here it is, side by side.

What I did as a teacherWhat it's called in L&D
Lesson and unit planningBackward design from standards to assessments, 32 curricula
→
Instructional designLearning objectives, ADDIE/SAM, storyboarding, assessment design
Differentiated instructionAdapting one lesson for 30 different learners
→
Learner personas & accessibilityDesigning for role, experience level, and learning needs
Data-driven instructionWeekly assessment data, intervention plans
→
Learning analytics & evaluationKirkpatrick levels, completion and application metrics
Department leadBudget, scheduling, admin negotiations, district reporting
→
Stakeholder & program managementSponsors, timelines, resourcing, executive updates
Professional development facilitator40+ sessions for adult colleagues
→
Facilitation & train-the-trainerWorkshops, virtual delivery, SME coaching
Classroom managementEngagement for an audience that didn't opt in
→
Learner engagement designScenario-based, active, and practical learning

Portfolio

Three pieces of work

One built for a workplace audience, two from the classroom, all with a measured result.

Scenario Practice Assessment Branching decisions3 scenarios · 9 decision points · feedback on each Length18 minutes · mobile-friendly · SCORM 1.2 Workplace eLearning

Lab Safety Onboarding module

Articulate Rise + Storyline · Vyond · Canva

A scenario-based onboarding module for new laboratory staff, designed from a needs analysis with two lab managers. Learners make real decisions (spill, exposure, labelling) and see the consequence before the explanation.

94%average score on the final scenario assessment in pilot testing (12 learners)
Unit assessment average Before68 After82 Format6 weeks · video + lab + weekly check-ins Blended learning

Blended redesign of a six-week chemistry unit

Google Classroom · Edpuzzle · Formative

Replaced lecture-first delivery with short videos watched at home, lab time in class, and weekly low-stakes checks that told me who needed help before the test did. Shared as a template with the whole department.

+14 ptson the unit assessment across 160 students, two school years running
First-year program · 9 months OnboardObserveCo-planCo-teachSolo Cohort6 new teachers · weekly 30-min check-ins Program design

New-teacher mentoring program

Program design · Facilitation · Coaching

Designed and ran a nine-month onboarding path for new science teachers: structured observations, co-planning, and weekly check-ins, with a simple rubric so progress was visible to the teacher and to me.

6 / 6new teachers returned for a second year; district average retention was 71%

Experience & credentials

Where the skills came from

2020 — 2026

Science Department Lead & Teacher

Westlake Hills High School · Austin, TX
  • Led a department of 11 teachers: curriculum, scheduling, a $40K annual budget, and new-teacher onboarding.
  • Designed and facilitated 40+ professional development sessions for adult colleagues across the district.
  • Built the department's blended-learning templates and assessment data reviews.
2017 — 2020

Chemistry & Biology Teacher

Westlake Hills High School · Austin, TX
  • Taught 150+ students a year across four courses; designed 32 units from standards to assessment.
  • Piloted flipped and blended formats that the school later adopted.
ATD Instructional Design CertificateAssociation for Talent Development · completed 2026
M.Ed., Curriculum & InstructionUniversity of Texas at Austin
Articulate 360 · Rise & StorylineSix published modules; portfolio available on request
B.S., Biology · Texas Teaching CertificateTexas State University

Skills

Toolkit

Design

Needs analysisLearning objectivesStoryboardingScenario-based learningAssessment designAccessibility (WCAG basics)

Tools

Articulate RiseArticulate StorylineVyondCanvaGoogle WorkspaceSCORM / LMS basics

Delivery & people

FacilitationVirtual deliveryCoachingStakeholder managementProgram managementKirkpatrick evaluation

Contact

Let's build something people actually learn from

I'd love to talk about L&D Specialist and Instructional Designer roles, or a project where you need learning designed well and fast. Happy to walk through any piece of the portfolio.

TXAustin, Texas · hybrid or remote
inlinkedin.com/in/elenavasquez-learning
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