As you’re looking at the wide variety of material available from Pacific Crest, have you ever wondered who creates it all? Each project has a team of subject matter experts, writers, editors, designers and proofers. One of the independent contractors in the team is Heather Nehring, who lives in southern Germany. Heather grew up in the border town of El Paso, Texas and graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a BA degree in Linguistics, and a master’s degree in Intercultural Aspects of Business, Politics, Psychology and Communication. Since then

she has lived and worked in many different countries throughout Europe, learning as much as she can of the languages and cultures. Her work has spanned Europe and the United States as consultant, trainer, strategist and employee in settings such as the automotive sector, engineering companies and European Union institutions. She has written and taught cultural training courses, including workshops specifically designed for the “trailing spouses” of expats, to help them adjust to life in a new country.

Her work with Pacific Crest has spanned workbooks on chemistry, biochemistry and math, and she has proven instrumental with other projects through proofreading, creating layouts and presentations, marketing materials, and acting as a “sounding board.”

Heather appreciates her role at Pacific Crest because the work strives to integrate many different perspectives, experiences and theories. She says, “I am very fond of processes that help people discover that ‘knowing’ is first internal (and very rich) and then external, discovering new facets of their own potential along the way.”

When asked what she especially enjoyed about working with Pacific Crest, she answered, “I am involved with cutting-edge approaches to education.” She says that Process Education addresses many concerns which she had years ago as a student academic advisor, working with students who were struggling in class. The content of the courses, the students and the faculty did not seem to “meet” at a common point. “Pacific Crest was a wonderful find for me,” she says, “because I feel that the publications and the faculty and student development are an attempt to create that common ground. The POGIL approach, which shows students how much they already know when they work in a content area, encourages students to feel smart. This alone can make all the difference to a student.”

Having grown up in a border town, she enjoyed the exposure to many people who were bilingual and many who may have been classified as “different” academically. Some of these people struggled, and not because they were lacking in intelligence. “The strong connection between ‘different’ and ‘deficit’ was astounding,” she says. She became concerned about the impact of this struggle on people’s self-confidence, and she was inspired by the teachers who actively promoted the belief that everyone was smart and capable.

Through her experience with linguistics and cultural training, she helps people discover that there is very little they can do to change others, but they can make discoveries about themselves. She finds that Pacific Crest and Process Education fit nicely with this belief.