AI adoption & enablement
Human-centered support for nontechnical teams learning where AI can help, where human judgment must remain, and how new tools fit real work.
Cathy Drakes · Boston
Human-centered learning for an AI-enabled world.
I work across learning, design, and emerging technology—helping people make complex ideas understandable, useful, and actionable.
Working direction
Technology becomes valuable when people can connect it to the work they already understand.
My background combines education, adult facilitation, visual communication, program leadership, and hands-on exploration of generative AI. I am especially interested in the human side of adoption: confidence, resistance, translation, judgment, and learning that respects existing expertise.
Practice areas
Learning experience design
Live, digital, and hybrid learning shaped by adult-learning practice, clear facilitation, visual explanation, and respect for different starting points.
Visual communication
Information design, presentations, campaigns, and multimedia that make complex material understandable without making it simplistic.
Selected work
Evidence now.
New work in progress.
This page will grow as additional professional work is reviewed and selected. Concepts in development are labeled clearly and are not presented as completed client engagements.
Existing body of work
Teaching, facilitation & creative leadership
Selected evidence from curriculum design, professional mentoring, public programs, creative production, and technology-supported learning.Explore →
Existing body of work
Design & studio practice
Visual work spanning image-making, editorial thinking, storytelling, and the development of a consistent point of view.Explore →
Independent concept · In development
Human-centered AI adoption
An exploration of how organizations can support mixed-confidence workforces through workflow discovery, live learning, peer support, and responsible-use guidance.Explore →About
Educator. Designer. Facilitator. Creative technologist.
I bring more than fifteen years of experience designing learning, leading programs, mentoring practitioners, and translating unfamiliar tools for varied audiences. My work is grounded in curiosity, visual thinking, practical experimentation, and the belief that innovation works best when people feel included in it.