Contractor Highlight - Catherine beall

Meet Catherine Beall, one of our incredible York & Yours contractors! With a passion for learning and development, Catherine partners with us to create engaging and effective training solutions. Read on to learn more about her expertise, insights, and a few fun facts!

For this first team member highlight, it makes sense to feature Catherine Beall.

Catherine began contracting for York & Yours in 2022. At the time, she was actively building her instructional design skillset, getting ready for the big career leap from K-12 education to full-fledged instructional designer. She found Allie via LinkedIn and began making a more solid connection through the IDLance Slack community. 

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Allie started by assigning small tasks to her - generating VO, making text edits to Rise courses, and other straightforward things. Through these trial opportunities, Catherine absolutely blew us away with her critical thinking, stellar organizational skills, attention to detail, and her ability to clearly communicate questions and project statuses. Catherine absorbed every bit of actionable feedback she was given. She showed that she was dependable, a quick learner, and consistently delivered incredibly high-quality work. 

Fast-forward to 2025. Catherine is a key player in most projects here at York & Yours. Because she and Allie have worked as a tight-knit team for nearly three years, she knows exactly the level of quality we aim for in learner and customer experience. She has an adventurous spirit and is always down for the roller coaster ride of whatever comes through York & Yours. She sits with Allie in the trenches of projects with challenging timelines and budgets and jointly works through problems as they balance the needs of the learner and the customer. 
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Now that you can see why Catherine is truly awesome, let’s hear from her! We asked her to answer a few questions about herself, and to share some tips and tricks for the instructional design community!

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What inspired you to pursue a career in learning and development?

I started my career as an IT consultant for a global firm before discovering the Montessori philosophy, which inspired me to open a Montessori school. As Head of School and Lead Teacher, I earned my Montessori certification and a Master’s in Education. In 2022, a Facebook ad for transitioning teachers introduced me to Instructional Design. After researching the field, I realized it was the perfect blend of my tech and education backgrounds! Having a mentor like Allie has truly reinforced that this is the right career path for me.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone new to the field, what would it be?

Use every free minute to upskill and network! If you're transitioning from another field, you likely have valuable transferrable skills, but they’re usually not enough on their own. Invest time in learning industry-specific tools and adult learning theory. I strongly suggest Google’s Project Management Certificate, too!

Network and build genuine connections with people in the field. Engage on LinkedIn and join industry-specific Slack groups. When you connect with someone, send a personal message and include something about yourself that makes you unique!
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So that was two pieces of advice! (We can call it one plus a bonus.)

If you weren’t in L&D, what career would you love to try?

If I could go back in time, I would pursue an engineering degree and work on designing Formula 1 cars! The technology, mechanics, and aerodynamics fascinate me!

What is one book, podcast, or show you’ve enjoyed recently?

Historical nonfiction isn’t usually my go-to, but I recently read The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson and loved it! I picked it up while preparing for a trip to London, where we planned to visit the Churchill War Rooms. It was the perfect way to learn more about the history before seeing it firsthand.

​You can learn more about Catherine by visiting her LinkedIn profile, or catching her in the IDLance Slack community!