Given the luck of good timing, the U.S. Army opened up many fields to women for the first time at the end of 1973. Seizing this opportunity is how Stephanie became one of the first women trained as an engineer by the US Army Signal Corp. Stephanie was training others by the time she was 19. Leaving the Army in 1976 she went on to work for Docutel in Georgia, Searle Diagnostics in Chicago and Techtronix in Los Angeles. She exited the corporate world in 1981 at first as a consulting trainer to organisations such as NASA, ABC-TV and others which led to the start of her own training company later that year. Stephanie was one of the first in the U.S. to specialise in teaching people to embrace the biggest change in work practices this century – the introduction of the desktop computer.

Out of this work with non-engineering-humans grew Stephanie’s fascination and deep curiosity for human behaviour in the context of learning for adults of all stripes. By observing the behaviour of thousands of adults as they re-entered a learning environment she saw immediately the need to help adults develop learning strategies and psychological frameworks about learning suitable to both the maturity of their adult brains and their growing need to re-enter the classroom. They were grown-ups and successful, but they had no real idea how to learn effectively.

In 1982, taking time away from her business during the summers, Stephanie began spending time teaching for the Supercamp organisation, broadening her work into the realm of teenage students. Later in 1985, Stephanie began working with Larry Wilson of “One Minute Salesperson” fame at the Pecos River Ranch and Education Centre, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There she became immersed in the question of whether media-based training could replicate the qualities and effectiveness of face-to-face classroom teaching.

During these years Stephanie made a complete transition from the computer industry to the human behaviour and education fields. Stephanie moved to Australia in 1987, created the Learning To Learn program, taught large groups of adult beginners to play guitar and began training trainers.

Over the past 35 years, driven by a constant curiosity, Stephanie has built a reputation as one of the leaders in adult learning, with her work produced in Canada, the U.S., Germany, Scotland and other countries. Tens of thousands of people have attended her “Learning To Learn” program in Australia and New Zealand, and over 2000 students completed her 6 month program for teachers, trainers and presenters.

Today, Stephanie is sought out for input and presentations on the challenges in relation to effecting change and development across diverse industries from Cisco Systems to the CBA in Australia. She is an expert at developing pathways to change when procrastination, anxiety, resistance and/or apathy are standing in the way.