"I think the thing about Lisa is that she can teach people things they are hesitant to learn and communicate things they are perhaps afraid to hear, in a way that makes them feel safe, respected, accomplished and successful."

Ed Decker, Executive Director, New Conservatory
San Francisco, California, USA

Lisa Heft offers consultation on your curriculum development to help make your workshop or program curriculum

• fulfill outcome objectives
• student-centered, participatory, interactive - engaging the learner

To do this, she can

• analyze your existing curriculum to see what amount is interactive and what is lecture-based
• recommend activities, materials, approaches, training flow and use of the room to more fully engage learners in whole-body learning
• eliminate information in the curriculum that does not fit the objectives, thus allowing more time for interactive methods

She can also help your subject matter experts create an interactive curriculum. Her specialty is in developing and writing material that is understandable to non-technical people, such as science, and in including learning on interpersonal skills and emotional awareness into technical material, such as for AIDS researchers delivering community education.

Clients have included:

Centerforce / Central California Womens Facility
Centerforce / San Quentin State Prison

Development of a week-long curriculum ("Each One / Teach One" funded by GlaxoSmithKline) training inmate peer health educators in state prisons, now available to all US state prisons and becoming the standard staff and inmate health educator training nationwide

Family Health International

Consultation on the design and materials for a week-long curriculum used by FHI to train local country trainers how to deliver information in a workshop that then trains NGO representatives from developing nations how to evaluate and monitor their own AIDS and HIV programs, projects and services

New Conservatory Theatre Center - Educational Touring Division

Development of student activities and study guides for teachers about leading discussions on sensitive issues following New Conservatory's touring productions of programs and dramas on social issues such as tolerance, teen-to-teen homophobic hate violence, young people in the Holocaust, AIDS, peer pressure, alcoholism, drug abuse and self-esteem/body image

Planned Parenthood Golden Gate

Consultation and curriculum development on adolescent health issues such as anatomy and physiology, sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS, self-esteem and body image, puberty, parent-child communication, peer pressure and sexual decision-making

San Francisco AIDS Foundation

Development of curriculum for four-day workshop training hotline health educator-counselors on epidemiology, immunology, virology, psychosocial issues, treatment, natural approaches, sexual transmission and prevention, crisis counseling skills, cultural awareness and breaking news

Contact Lisa Heft for more information about her services or to share ideas and feedback on your own curriculum design at lisaheft@openingspace.net