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“Prioritize the voices of the learners we serve.” This is one of the guiding principles behind the University of Colorado System Employee Services learning design team, led by School of Education & Human Development alum Deborah Lowe (EdD ‘24). Lowe and her team use differentiated instructional design techniques and equity centered practices to customize payroll and benefits training sessions to suit the unique learning styles and languages of CU faculty and staff.

Lowe’s undergraduate degree in developmental psychology with an emphasis in education, the lens she gained by fostering the developmental milestones of her own children, a master's in educational administration, and progressive leadership experiences in educational settings including time as an assistant principal at a K-12 school, all fueled her focus and passion for learner needs and learner-centric design. Seven years ago, she landed at CU System’s Office of Payroll and Benefits to problem-solve and improve learning experiences for new hires. Now, she empowers a team of four who design inclusive educational experiences around employee compensation, pay and benefits. They create everything from in-person presentations to digital courses and educational assets on the employee website, many of which feature Spanish translations thanks to a 2020 Diversity and Inclusive Excellence grant.

“A couple of years into my work at CU, our team’s research indicated that our training sessions were missing employee populations where race, culture, language, and socio-economic status intersect,” said Lowe. “It’s the key reason I entered CU Denver’s Doctor of Education degree program focused on educational equity. My work since then has been around the development and implementation of an innovative approach to team development resulting in a team culture of advocacy and change agency for all learners. In our design practice, the team utilizes needs analyses, best practices in design, and self-reflection to help us remove assumptions about employees within our diverse workforce of approximately 28,000 employees across CU’s campuses.”

“Getting my doctorate at CU Denver gave me the opportunity to focus on creating research-informed, empathetic, action steps that lead to equitable solutions,” she said. “The knowledge I gained helped me fine-tune what we are calling a transformative needs assessment for diverse learning populations. I am so proud of the changes we have made because of this work.” Last fall, Dr. Lowe and her team presented her dissertation work about design justice at two conferences: Colorado Department of Higher Education’s Equity Day of Action and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) International Convention in Kansas City.

Recently, Lowe was asked to take on an evening/weekend role as an instructor for CU Denver’s School of Education & Human Development where she is inspiring Learning, Design and Technology master’s and doctoral students. Her students describe her as caring, thoughtful, intuitive, genuine, and a deep thinker.

I am enjoying the students 100 percent,” she said. “I especially love demonstrating how design practices intertwine with equity and inclusion work. My students are so diverse and come from a variety of fields: medicine, military, K-12 education, higher education, as well as nonprofit and government organizations. What ties them together is their passion for teaching, learning, collaboration, and humanity.

Whether she is leading instructional designers or teaching higher education classes, Lowe finds inspiration in what she sees happening to move CU’s mission forward. “A clear focus on my learners’ voices motivates me to do better in my work for the university,” said Lowe. “This, in turn, inspires my hardworking and compassionate design team and students in my care to create better learning experiences for all.”