“The COE LTEC program has given me an entirely new perspective and opened my mind to what might be possible.”

Hometown

Honolulu, HI

Department

Learning Design and Technology

What degrees do you hold?
I have a BA in Zoology and an MEd in LTEC from UH Mānoa, and I earned my Mobile Intensive Care Technician (MICT) Certificate from Kapiʻolani Community College.

Where do you work?
I am a paramedic with the City and County of Honolulu Emergency Medical Services and am currently helping to develop their training section as a training supervisor.

How did you become interested in the field of educational technology?
I have always been interested in the systems design of things, but having such varied interests, I’ve never felt that I was a good fit anywhere. I happened upon the UHM LTEC website by accident and called to see if taking just one class for fun was a possibility. I absolutely loved the LTEC program and before I knew it, I had graduated with a master’s degree.

How has the program impacted or benefited your career path?
The COE LTEC program has given me an entirely new perspective and opened my mind to what might be possible. Whereas in the past I had avoided “teaching,” now I am excited to design instruction. I am grateful to have an opportunity to share with others what LTEC has shared with me and to see the good that will exponentially result.

Is there anyone in particular who inspired you to pursue this career path?
It would be impossible to choose just one person. The entire LTEC ʻohana has been absolutely amazing. I still hear within my thoughts the advice of the many brilliant professors and people that I’ve met within LTEC.

What are your future visions and goals?
I would love to help bring effective learning that is novel and engaging to Honolulu’s Emergency Medical Services personnel and to show future mentors some of what might be possible with instructional design.

Anything else you would like to include?
I wish the LTEC professors could see how sharing their knowledge has made profound differences in the quality of learning for Emergency Medical Technicians and thus improved the outcome and quality of life for many critically ill patients and their families.

Because of all of you at LTEC, we at EMS have implemented more innovative trainings in the past year than we have done in the previous thirty. We have designed instructions for a ton of new equipment and have verified skills online. This new equipment offers methods that keep us much safer during COVID and also offers better patient care. And we have actually managed to teach the basic life support (BLS) EMTs critical thinking and decision making that now allows them to work independently in two BLS rigs that are new to the EMS fleet. They’ve done amazing things in just a short time. We now also have a pilot hybrid course with KCC and the City, and this new EMT Academy is off to a great start. We are trying to mix and match in a lot of the theories as we train, and for the first time ever, I saw people engaged and laughing in an Advanced Cardiac Life Support refresher course. So thank you, LTEC, for helping to create what will be better paramedics!