Meet Jackie

Name?

Jackie Miller.

Credentials?

A BFA in Creative Writing for Entertainment and a master’s in Instructional Design and Technology.

Why creative writing?

I wanted to learn how to tell stories so I could use storytelling inside learning experiences.

And the master’s?

That taught me how to turn a good story into good learning.

What do you do?

I design learning experiences.

For whom?

People who are usually left out of the design process.

More specifically?

Justice-involved learners.

Why them?

Because they need education. And they’re not getting enough of it.

What did that teach you?

That “hard to reach” and “poorly served” are not necessarily the same thing.

Why do you care?

Because I know what it’s like to have a system decide who you are before you get to introduce yourself.

Personal experience?

I have a 15-year-old felony conviction.

And you’re an instructional designer?

Exactly.

Does the conviction go away?

Nope. The record stays.

So does it define you?

Only if I let it.

What does the research say?

Correctional education is directly correlated with reduced recidivism.

So education fixes crime?

No. Humans are more complicated than that.

Then what can education do?

Open doors.

What makes your approach different?

I’ve been on both sides of the locked door.

Your superpower?

Turning complicated things into opportunity.

Your mission?

Build learning that gives people a reason to believe there’s something on the other side of their past.

What makes a learning experience good?

It respects the learner’s time, intelligence, experience, and reality.

So what happens when the learner has experienced trauma?

You design differently.

How?

You reduce unnecessary cognitive load. Build psychological safety. Give learners control where possible. Use clear language. Create predictable structure.

And that matters in instructional design because…?

If a learner struggles with a course, I want to ask what we designed badly before I ask what the learner did wrong.

What do you bring besides lived experience?

Storytelling. Visual design. Instructional design. Technology. AI. Research. And a slightly obsessive interest in making complicated things make sense.

AI?

I use it as a tool, and to automate. Not a substitute for judgment.

Meaning?

It can analyze, organize, and quality-check content. But I still decide whether something is accurate, useful, accessible, and actually worth teaching.

What kind of designer are you?

A builder.

What does that mean?

I don’t just want to make the course. I want to figure out how we can make the next ten courses better, faster, and more consistently.

Last question: what’s your unfair advantage?

I understand the system from the inside. And I know how powerful it can be when we design a way through it.