Christopher M. Kelly was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where his ancestral home enjoyed the distinction of being a launch point for rescue rafts during the 1972 flood from Tropical Storm Agnes. Growing up he always had a book of some kind in his hands, dreamed of creating an aerospace engineering firm, developed a love of wordplay and language, fell in love with Jesus, and played tabletop roleplaying games into the wee hours of the morning.
A generalist to the core and avid storyteller, Christopher loves to pass along a love of learning. Weaving through his varied pursuits is a thread of the joy of developing and delivering content to those who need or want to know. He has primarily focused his career pursuits on instruction and educational materials design, although he also wanders the corridors of computer programming, video development, game theory, and human psychology.
Christopher specializes in tailoring learning experiences for better understanding and in mentoring others to strengthen individual instructional acumen. He advocates learning environments that enable the participants to interact with and explore the material and has been known to develop gamified and cross-departmental learning experiences with or without the aid of technology. A firm believer in the powers of iterative development and collaborative thinking, Christopher regularly holds sessions to both assist and learn from others in practical design and engagement techniques.
He has achieved a BA in Psychology from Nyack College, and an MS in Instructional Design from Full Sail University – where he graduated with a 4.0 GPA as class valedictorian. He spent a decade in Japan where he honed his craft for developing materials to connect learners to the English language and learned a deep reverence for the patience of God. One of his proudest achievements is the piloting of an evaluation model for trainers of electronic healthcare records software. Inspired by the works of Charlotte Danielson, John Hattie, and Robert Marzano, the heart of this model is the coaching of delivery and engagement strategies.
Currently residing in South Central Pennsylvania, Christopher enjoys family time with his beautiful Japanese wife, two brilliant and creative children, and their quirky orange cat. He can often be found behind the covers of a good book, scatters puns indiscriminately, and drinks far too much coffee for his own good.