Our Team

How it started

Simmi and Symon have been radical collaborators since 2017, working together to design professional learning for learner-centered educators and school systems while at AltSchool (now Learner Centered Collaborative) and the Neurodiversity Alliance (fka Eye to Eye).  They quickly recognized that they share a set of core values about the promise and potential of learner-centered ecosystems for both adult and younger learners. These values underpinned a shared passion for supporting learner variability through their collective expertise of learning and experience design, facilitation, educational leadership, and systems thinking and design.   Joining together to co-create Inclusive Learning Design Co. is Simmi and Symon’s answer to ensuring they can continue to collaborate for good.

Meet Simmi Goomer

Simmi is a learner and leader who has worked at the intersections of technology and learning for almost 20 years, with her roots firmly planted in the NYC specialized public school that she first began her special education career in. She has led classrooms, schools, and networks across the nonprofit, public, and private sectors.

Before co-founding Inclusive Learning Design Co, Simmi was the Chief Operating Officer at edsUP, PBC and the Chief Learning and Impact Officer at the Neurodiversity Alliance, leading the national nonprofit’s research, program, impact, and overall strategy to support neurodivergent students in K-16 organizations.

Beyond that, Simmi has served in a variety of roles at ed+tech companies Kunskapsskolan and AltSchool/Altitude Learning. Simmi delights in, and is deeply committed to, collaboratively shaping deliberate and emergent strategy, designing and facilitating impactful experiences, driving for operational cohesion, co-constructing communities of care, and stewarding innovative evolution.

  • My two daughters and I are taking virtual Punjabi classes to up our speaking game and connect on a deeper level to our heritage and cultural core. It’s always joyful to learn alongside them!

  • Beekeeping, honey production, and honey sales. I would love to do my part in safeguarding our environment, our flora and our food, and share some yummy honey with my loved ones along the way!

  • “We are each other's business; we are each other's harvest; we are each other's magnitude and bond.” - Gwendolyn Brooks

Meet Symon Hayes

With over 30 years in education (in the UK and USA), I have experience as a classroom teacher supporting special education and general education students, as an instructional coach at the school and district levels, and as a designer and facilitator of professional learning that includes workshops and coaching both in-person and virtual.

I have deepened my understanding of learning and learning design through roles held at Expeditionary Learning (EL Education; focus on project based learning), Envision Learning Partners; focus on performance assessment, Learner Centered Collaborative, and the Neurodiversity Alliance as Senior Director of Learning Design.

I have expertise in Project Based Learning, Learner-Centered Education, Universal Design for Learning, Understanding by Design, and Design Thinking and learner variability, neurodiversity and I embrace these as fundamental to the design of professional learning.

I am grateful for the opportunities to have worked/work alongside great thinkers in education, from whom I have learned so much and continue to learn. With this knowledge and understanding, I advocate for students to ensure they can engage with their learning in a relevant and motivating way, reflecting their identities in what, how, and where they learn, and for educators and school leaders, encouraging them to grow in their understanding of creating meaningful and accessible learning experiences, so they feel confident in helping all their students succeed. 

As Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

Originally from England I live in the Bay Area, California, with his family.

  • I really enjoy pottering around in the garden; trying my hand and growing vegetables and other plants. It brings a calmness to the moment, and it’s good to eat what you grow, even though it’s not very much.

  • Pottery or woodwork. Particularly the skill of wheel throwing or using a lathe for wood. I love the idea of using hands for shaping and creating something new from natural materials. 

  • “Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better. “  -Maya Angelou. 

    “There are no rules here, we are trying to create something.” -Thomas Edison