About Me

My work lives where food, fire, and philosophy meet. It began in vineyards and tasting rooms, where I learned the power of gathering. A glass of wine, a shared table, a slow conversation—these things taught me how people open up, and how we begin to heal and grow.

Eventually, I stepped away from the wine world and into education. Not the kind found in rows of desks and test scores, but the kind that asks: Who are you? What do you care about? And how do you want to move through the world?

Now, I build projects that ask these questions out loud.

Wine With Pete is my offering to the world—a series of open-fire gatherings where people come together to eat, think, and remember what it means to be human. PMBaseline helps others rediscover clarity by checking in with their mind and body each day. And my work in education technology focuses on tools that restore agency, support reflection, and make learning feel alive again.

I care about stillness. I care about effort. I care about helping people listen to their own thoughts and then take their next step with confidence.

If you're curious, I'd love to hear from you.

My Approach to Instructional Design

My journey from wine education to learning design isn't as different as it might seem. In both worlds, I've learned that the best experiences happen when we create safe spaces for people to explore, make mistakes, and discover something new about themselves.

As an instructional designer, I bring the same philosophy that made my wine gatherings successful: learning should feel human, accessible, and transformative. My background in mentoring has taught me to listen first, design second. I believe confusion is not a barrier to learning—it's an invitation to grow.

I see myself as a bridge-builder in the ID community, someone who connects technical expertise with human empathy. My prior experiences in hospitality and education have shaped my conviction that the best learning experiences make people feel seen, supported, and capable of taking their next step with confidence.

I design with the belief that technology should restore agency to learners, not overwhelm them. Every project I create asks the same questions that guided my wine work: How can we help people slow down, reflect, and connect with what truly matters?

My Design Philosophy

"Opening doors to learning" means creating spaces where people feel safe enough to be curious, brave enough to be confused, and supported enough to grow through that confusion.

I believe the best learning experiences happen when we design for human vulnerability. When someone walks into a learning space—whether it's a wine tasting, a classroom, or a wellness app—they need to feel that it's okay to not know, okay to ask questions, and okay to take their time figuring things out.

My design principles center around three core ideas:

• Creating Safe Spaces: Learning happens when people feel seen and supported, not judged or rushed
• Designing for Human Growth: Every interaction should help someone become more of who they are, not less
• Technology That Restores Agency: Digital tools should amplify human capacity, not replace it

This philosophy guides everything I create, from wine gatherings that build community to educational tools that support reflection. It's not about making things easier—it's about making them more human.

My Design Journey

My path to learning design began in the most unexpected place: a wine tasting room. There, I discovered that education isn't about transferring information—it's about creating experiences that change how people see themselves and the world around them.

In wine education, I learned that people don't learn by being told what to think. They learn by being guided to discover what they already know, by being given permission to trust their own senses, and by being surrounded by others who are on the same journey of discovery.

When I moved into formal education, I brought this philosophy with me. I realized that the same principles that made wine tastings transformative—creating safe spaces, honoring individual experience, building community around shared curiosity—were exactly what was missing from most learning environments.

My personal projects evolved naturally from this understanding. Wine With Pete isn't just a wine club—it's a case study in designing learning experiences around community, curiosity, and human connection. PMBaseline isn't just a wellness app—it's about creating daily moments for people to reconnect with themselves and their own wisdom.

Now, as I study instructional design formally, I'm learning to articulate what I've been doing intuitively. The theory validates the practice, and the practice enriches the theory. I'm becoming someone who doesn't just create instructional materials, but who designs learning experiences that honor the full humanity of the people using them.

My Story & Experience