Community Showcase: Star Peterson

Luis Malbas  
Hello, everybody, welcome to The Training, Learning, and Development Community. Thanks for joining us today we've got a member showcase with Star Peterson, we're gonna be chatting with star in just a moment, I want to apologize because I missed the Mahad. This actually scheduled for earlier today. And then I had a calendar screw up, it was totally my bad. I just have a bunch of stuff like throughout the day that I had going in at a meeting that I thought I cancelled and I didn't and so, so I missed the one this morning. But here we are. Star, thank you being so much for your fliexibility, thank you for being flexible with meeting me again today. And I'm really looking forward to you answering some of these questions to talk a little bit about your background. Also your participation and on Friday's event, our IDEAL21 conference. Yeah, I'm really excited about that. And yeah, let me start out a little bit with let's see, we've got a great group of people in. Let's see, Kim is here. Hey, Cam, Andrea, Lisa, Gina. Lane, Elizabeth. Michelle. Val, thanks for for popping in and sharing a little bit of your, your day with us. So star first question, let's talk about your whole journey into l&d. Love your background. You were a preschool teacher, you've done a bunch of different stuff that's really exciting. And actually, you know, instructional design is something that it seems like it's kind of a relatively new direction for you. But can you talk a little bit about that?

Star Peterson  
Lately, I taught for 15 years, I've taught everything from preschool to high school. But I always designed my own instruction. I always worked either with homeschooling students, or in private schools. So I was never given the lesson plan to to teach. I always created my own. I've also supervised graduate students. And then I was furloughed in March of 2020 when COVID hit and I thought, well, I've got this time on my hands. This seems like a good time for a pivot and I love learning and I love teaching. So instructional design was just the perfect fit.

Luis Malbas  
Oh my gosh, and it looks like you you've been very successful with with doing it just because you know, you've got your own consulting group. Is it stellar diversity training? Calm? I think is the website. Another nother thing. I'm surprised I can remember sometimes. So folks, check that out stellar diversity training.com Is is where stars website? And what was that? What was that shift? Like for you going from, you know, academic into corporate training, it looks like you're already doing a lot of instructional design anyway. But there are a lot of folks within this community that that are making that same kind of pivot. Is there anything that you can you can talk about that maybe made it a little easier for you or describe sort of what your experience was like doing all of that?

Star Peterson  
That's it jumped in with both feet? I read all the books I could get my hands on joined all the groups I could I found. And gadget, I watched a lot of software tutorials. So yeah, it's been fun i i get to learn about all sorts of different things and go down rabbit holes, that wouldn't have been part of my job before.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, and you're an animator to beyond animator. What got you into that? Were you somebody that was always a little bit like kind of intermediate like that, or was that brand new.

Star Peterson  
I just as you know, needed to learn storyline and rise and all the basics. And so beyond came up as one of the ones that I needed to learn. And I just loved it. I just finished a five unit program, training middle school teachers on how to deal with, like, support students who have challenging behavior, and the whole all five units all 15 lessons were animated. So I had so much fun. I was like, am I getting paid to do this? I get I get to make this great.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, that's excellent. It seems like your skills would be particularly valuable because you have that experience in academics and all of a sudden taking on these tools like learning how to use rice and beyond and other things like that, being able to share them with people that are on the academic side of things. That seems like you know, those those types of services would be would be an in demand now. So far, so good. Yes. Yeah, that's awesome. Um, and so now that you are a learning and development professional instructional designer, what's your favorite part of of this career?

Star Peterson  
You know, it'd be a tie between the learning and the teaching. I'm writing a course right now about LGBTQ history, and the history of views of gender around the world and major events in modern history. And it's just so fun like I, I'm genuinely interested in what I'm learning. Yeah, so just just learning the new things. Some, you know, some days, I might be learning about health insurance because I'm writing for that, like, it's, it never gets boring. There's just always something different.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, that no, that's great. What are you using to build that? That course?

Star Peterson  
Um, I am. I'm sorry, say it again.

Luis Malbas  
What are you using to build? Is it a rise course? The LGBTQ? Oh, no,

Star Peterson  
that's I'm sorry, that's in Canvas. I'm building it for a charter school that serves in the non traditional learners. They also print out the courses for people who are incarcerated. So no, it's all on canvas.

Luis Malbas  
Wow. Wow. That's great. That's excellent. So anything that you know, now that you wish you had known when you started out? It seems like you've probably just been really, really busy with learning a whole bunch of stuff. But like, now that you've been in it for a little bit? Is there anything that if you could go back and tell yourself, like, when you'd first started, do this first.

Star Peterson  
You know, I've been pleasantly surprised at the ELearning Development opportunities that were available, while I was still learning how to transfer instructional design skills to corporate. So I think that gave me a lot of hope, like, Okay, I don't have to go, you know, I don't have to be at 100% or even 80% to start earning a living this way. I can start small I can start you know, start with things I'm familiar with. So that's been on my surprise.

Luis Malbas  
Wow. So like, what are some of those things that you started out with? curious to hear, like just

Star Peterson  
doing lies development, I did a couple courses for Kellogg's, I have a special background. And so I made a few rise courses. As a, again, as a junior Instructional Designer for healthcare system in Georgia. So it was it was a great way to get my feet wet. I learned so much from working underneath more experienced instructional designers. And yeah, it was it was within my skill set. It wasn't build a complicated branching scenario, in Storyline on your very first job.

Luis Malbas  
Wow, that's really, really interesting. So you think rise would be like a great place for like, you know, if you're an elearning developer, that just starting out rise is something that you

Star Peterson  
absolutely, absolutely. And really Dion's not difficult either. It's really user friendly.

Luis Malbas  
Mm hmm. That's great. So now like what kind of projects are you weren't working on, I know, you just mentioned, you know, a couple things that you were you were learning a great deal from, but anything else you you can throw out there.

Star Peterson  
I'm working on a 12 month project for a university that wants to improve their employees relationships with her LGBTQ students. So every month, I do a 30 minute webinar. And then I'm doing I do a micro learning course to help reinforce what they're learning in the webinar to give links so they can learn more if there's things they're interested in. So it's great. It's been wonderful to have a full year to really go into depth and not be limited to that usual hour that you get.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, no, that's great. That's great. How did you know um, and this, I don't know if this is even on my list, but I'm just like, totally curious. When we first started chatting, you sent me a couple of links to some Facebook groups that focus on on di and I think some LGBTQ stuff, and I subscribed to them and like reading these posts now. And I'm like, Ooh, that's good. That's really, really good. But I'm wondering, like, what kind of certifications did you get once you decided to start focusing on, you know, diversity and inclusion, accessibility? Those types of things? Did you like get any formal training for that?

Star Peterson  
I did earn a diversity in the workplace. I think it's I forget the exact name. It's, um, maybe it's gender and sexual orientation in the workplace or something from the University of Pittsburgh, but a lot of it Yeah, a lot of it's just been lived experience. Been an anti racist activist for years. So the vocabulary was already familiar to me.

Luis Malbas  
Right, right. Because I had read that maybe taking one of those certification courses, or one of these programs is actually good, just so that you get familiar with the language and the concepts, but it sounds like you already had that as through lived experience.

Star Peterson  
Yes. I just needed the credentials. I needed a piece of paper that said that I knew this.

Luis Malbas  
That's really fascinating. That's great. Um, but so what are some of the challenges you're seeing as a trainer and the ei space.

Star Peterson  
I think opening people's eyes to corners of Dei, that aren't always considered, for example, disability, LGBTQ issues, I think we think, dei, we have a very specific idea of this is what people are going to learn about. And we're going to do the unconscious bias training, and we're going to do the microaggression training. And that's all huge and important. And I feel like there are other groups that aren't as easy to pin out because they don't self identify for protection, self protection reasons that really need a lot more support in the workplace.

Luis Malbas  
Interesting. And, you know, I was see a friend of TL DC, somebody who has done a lot of broadcasts with us, Kristen Hayden Safdie, she had posted something on social media earlier today, where she had written a blog post on why she thought it was important for l&d professionals, to, to take on or to learn more about diversity, equity and inclusion. And, and why do you think that's, that's important?

Star Peterson  
I think it's just the fundamental value we have as human beings to want to make things more fair. No one chooses to be part of a historically excluded group, whether it's sexual orientation, gender identity race. And it's just fundamentally unfair that people be treated differently, and struggle more based on something that is out of their control. And so I just have that drive to make things easier for everyone to help us all understand one another better, and to help people avoid unintentionally committing microaggressions.

Luis Malbas  
I love it. That is, you know, totally agree. Is there anything in particular about being an educator, especially an instructional designer, like why it might be even more critical for young people as IDs to be able to, to have these extra this, this knowledge and this awareness?

Star Peterson  
Seek even just knowing the right vocabulary when you write about historically excluded groups, or I have people ask questions like, what's, what's the right word? Am I allowed to say queer? Like, what? Just? Um, yeah, just having the background? Because it's constantly changing. We're constantly learning. And, yeah, just so that when you're when you are writing a course, or learning about something new, you can use respectful language.

Luis Malbas  
Right? And you know, you actually talk a little bit about that on your website, on your website about using respectful language. Is there anything that you can just, you know, give us a quick, some tips about that at all? I'm really curious myself, just I know, even for me this, doing this whole event has been a learning experience. And I've loved every moment of it. But can you answer that a little bit like just

Star Peterson  
so some people, we used to use the terms like marginalized groups, and it kind of brings up this picture, almost of the center is the white sis hat male. And everyone else's put is on the margins as if they're not the main characters. And so what I've heard people use instead is historically excluded groups, because the people who were in power or actively excluding women, people of color people who were not straights. And so I like that term. The term queer is tricky. We don't say homosexual anymore, because it used to be a medical diagnosis, like a mental health diagnosis. Some people in the queer community are not comfortable with it. When I advise people, like for example, police officers, and like, you know, it, given the the history between officers and the queer community, I advise you not to use the word queer because it might be taken in the wrong way. So yeah, as I say, that's, that's a big one. That's a that's another tricky word.

Luis Malbas  
Wow, you're going to go over any of that kind of stuff on on Friday at all in your in your session.

Star Peterson  
I wasn't planning on it. Um, I was just going to talk with two people about who's left out of our dei discussions, and talk specifically about supporting transgender employees who are transitioning, supporting people who are neurodiverse people who have sensory processing disorders. Again, just the I try to remember the people who get left out of the traditional conversations even in Dei,

Luis Malbas  
oh my gosh, I cannot wait can't wait for Friday. It's gonna be great. Um, okay, so, let's talk about now like you've been, you know, you've been an Instructional Designer for a while. Any particular training projects that you're especially proud of, that you can share with us?

Star Peterson  
In this, um, how I would say I'm working on one for mental Health Professionals. I've done a lot of informal surveying within the transgender community. And a lot of people when they start questioning their gender identity, or they hear from their therapists, like, oh, well, this, that's not my field, you're going to have to find someone else. And they lose that relationship. And that trust and I, so I want to empower more therapists to feel like okay, I, this doesn't have to be my specialty. People don't need to seek me out specifically looking for this. But if I have a relationship with someone, I want to know the basics enough that I can support them using the tools that I have. So I'm really excited about making the training for mental health professionals, specifically to help the LGBTQ community because there are just higher rates of mental illness within the community, higher rates of suicide, and pretty much any statistic that you look at, because of the discrimination.

Luis Malbas  
Wow, wow, that's fantastic. I love it. I am just, I am actually I am definitely gonna have to like follow you like everywhere, I just want to like, Oh, thank you talking about so um, star who are what keeps you inspired.

Star Peterson  
I would say everyday people who are shunned by society for their gender identity, who take a risk every time they go out, see the grocery store, wearing a dress while having a beard. Just people who are being super brave and hanging in there. When it's constantly hard when society either makes them invisible or invalidates their gender. To me, that is so much more work than any prize you could win, just keeping going and being brave and being true to yourself.

Luis Malbas  
Oh, yeah, no, I totally agree. I admire that so much when people's just their willingness and their need to be honest with themselves about who they are. And just living that as is. That inspires me as well. Great stuff. Um, so I think you talked about this a little bit already. But, um, you know, I went to your website, you have some incredible resources, that resource page of yours, your listing, it's a really big document, but there's some great stuff on there, I'm gonna have to grab it and share it at some point. But in fact, I saw that you had some O'Reilly Media Links that we share, and that's where I that's, that's where I actually work for my day job. But, yeah, but so but how do you like stay on top of your professional development altogether?

Star Peterson  
Just reading constantly, and I've been lucky to get work doing training in my field. And so you know, more questions come up and go down another another rabbit hole, or, you know, jump into Google and so it's, it's just happened naturally. just exploring the things that I'm teaching about. People start to see you as someone who, you know, they could go to for dia instructional design, then get hired for more of those and it's kind of like a snowball, I end up learning more.

Luis Malbas  
So is it generally the web that you go to are there or the other specific resources are you kind of do you do books at all?

Star Peterson  
No, I use the internet. I really like the social justice handbook. Guide to gender by Sam Kellerman. That's just the best in terms of fundamentals. Love the foundational Safe Zone Training, which is free if anyone wants to take that. But yeah, I there's just a wide variety. I just just like anyone else going online, go through it with a fine tooth comb, know your sources know who you can respect there, or what else might also be on their agenda and mostly online?

Luis Malbas  
Right? Do you have a specific practice for yourself or discipline that you allocate for professional development? You say, you don't have to maintain this much per week or month or anything like that.

Star Peterson  
Try to set goals for Okay, I'd like to improve this in my portfolio where I don't have a strict rule about every week or every month. It's more like what are the next couple weeks look like for me, okay, when I finished the paid work. This is an area where I can improve. I had when I first started, instructional design, hadn't a fun accountability group and it was great. We met every single Saturday and we're like, what, what did you do from last week? What are you going to do this coming week and that helped enormously?

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, an accountability group. I love that. As a musician I've always I try to find groups like that. I don't I'm not in one right now. But when I was a songwriter, we actually I formed a formed a group with with some other songs. songwriters, and it was definitely the most productive period of my songwriting career was just, you know, cuz every time we'd have to meet, we would have to have new material. So it's like,

Star Peterson  
we need deadlines as as human beings, a lot of myself included, definitely need deadlines and to have we don't want to go in front of other people and say, Oh, I didn't do what I said I was going to do. So having that deadline of yes, this is going to be done by then. People are going to hold me accountable. Just yeah, invaluable.

Luis Malbas  
Wow. All right, star. So what are the kinds of jobs have you worked?

Star Peterson  
Let's see, I the most interesting one. So far, it was for a rave. They wanted training on sexual harassment on supporting people with possible drug overdoses, as well as the usual things I do in terms of just awareness around gender identity and sexual orientation. So that yeah, that was, that was eye opening, I was given hundreds of pages of journal articles on rave culture. I didn't even know that there were journals about electronic dance music. But there you go.

Luis Malbas  
Wow, that's wild. So I mean, it was it was a it was a it was, was it like a one time event? Or was it a company or a group that produced like a series

Star Peterson  
or? It's a company that organizes raves in the Netherlands, they're based in New York City, and they wanted to do a thorough training for their employees, they organize these three day events. So you know, new batch of employees for each event.

Luis Malbas  
Wow, that is really, really cool. Maybe you'll even get to go to one of them. That'd be

Star Peterson  
interesting. That that would be a different experience. Can't say I've ever experienced anything like that.

Luis Malbas  
So star if you weren't an l&d professional or an educator right now, what do you think you'd be?

Star Peterson  
Oh, not even an educator? Oh, my goodness. I mean, if, if time were no option, I'd probably just be handing out food at the food bank. Yeah. I just want I, whenever I have the opportunity to help people in concrete ways I want to do that. And just been lucky to find a field where I feel like I can help people in concrete ways and still pay my bills. See, I would I would just be balling I would honestly probably be volunteering and food banks and preschools. Yeah, like there's a really big need in both of those places.

Luis Malbas  
Oh, that's wonderful to hear star. It's wonderful to hear. Um, if there's one thing that people should know about you what is it?

Star Peterson  
Goodness, um, I guess just that my personal experiences as someone who's non binary and pansexual really inform a lot of my work. That's I make a point to get a lot of feedback from as many people as possible. And a lot of times the original ideas about even what questions to ask them or based on my own experiences.

Luis Malbas  
Wow, is it okay, if I post like your LinkedIn URL into the chat? So

Star Peterson  
I'm connecting, make the connections on LinkedIn.

Luis Malbas  
I love it. Okay. So there it is, I, I posted stars LinkedIn profile there in the chat, everybody so so connect with with star if you'd like and Friday is going to be fantastic. I can't wait to have you there. Thank you so much for filling in, because I actually haven't mentioned this really, to anyone, but we did have a cancellation. And and, and you graciously were able to help fill that spot. And I really, really appreciate that. So yeah, and I think it's just, it's gonna be a good thing. Yeah, total rockstars.

Star Peterson  
I'm always grateful for the ability for the chance to talk with like minded people. And so we can all geek out about our shared interests. And again, to try to shine a light on communities that I feel like are often overlooked in the DIA community. So I'm, I'll talk to anyone at anyone who will listen, you just gave me a platform to talk about what I want to talk about. So thank you.

Luis Malbas  
No, it's great, I am sure that we're going to be talking again, because I know a lot of my own interests have really started to, to, to sort of channel in, in this direction, just as a person of color and somebody that is a community builder. I'm really having to ask myself a lot of questions that I never really thought I'd be asking myself before and so and it's, it's, it's, it's kind of empowering for me to you know, to sort of come to more to be more honest with about certain things. And, and so, yeah, I'm really feeling good about this event coming up and I can't absorb enough information about about dei at this point. So I'm really looking forward to hearing more from you and learning more from you and and we'll see you on on Friday.

Star Peterson  
I'm so looking forward to it. Thank

Luis Malbas  
you. Alright everybody, thanks so much for for jumping in today. And we'll see you next time. Hopefully see you on Friday. If you haven't already registered, yes idea for learning calm, you can find the website. It's free registration. Get as many people as you can to show up for this one. I think that we're the gateway like lnd really is kind of the gateway for a lot of folks to be you know, to, to pass on this kind of knowledge and so, so this one's important for us and for this community shortly. Alright, everyone, thanks a lot. We'll see you later. Thanks. Bye bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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