Stephanie Hill

Learning and Capacity Development Consultant | Curriculum Specialist

I design gender-responsive and human rights-based learning that strengthens how practitioners respond to vulnerability and inequality, understand the intersecting factors shaping people’s lives, and build on their strengths and resilience.

My work spans law enforcement and border management, humanitarian response, sustainable development, and health and social care in the UK and internationally.

I work with UN agencies, international NGOs, government and public bodies, and voluntary and community-sector organisations.

View examples of my work →About my work ↓

25+ years in adult learning and international development

Some of the organisations I’ve worked with

View examples of my work

For 25 years, I have worked internationally in adult learning, mainly across humanitarian response, sustainable development, international law enforcement, and health and social care. I specialise in gender-informed and human rights-based learning and capacity development for practitioners working in complex human contexts.

I began my career as a psychology graduate with a Postgraduate Diploma in ESOL Adult Learning and then worked internationally. This gave me a strong grounding in participatory adult learning and in designing for different linguistic, cultural and educational contexts.

I later led an education programme in Ethiopia, where I was introduced to sustainable development in practice. This, together with my personal experience of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Thailand, inspired me to complete an MSc with Distinction in Disaster Management and Sustainable Development, leading me into a career in learning and capacity development within humanitarian response and sustainable development.

I went on to manage international learning and capacity-development programmes across humanitarian response and sustainable development, working with UN agencies, international NGOs and practitioners in complex operational settings. I also trained and continue to practise as a therapist and coach, deepening the psychological and trauma-informed foundations of my work.

Since 2015, I have worked as an independent Learning and Capacity Development Consultant and Curriculum Specialist with UN agencies, international NGOs, governments, public bodies, and health and social care organisations in the UK and internationally.

Alongside my consultancy, I founded Happy Headwork, which develops psychologically informed programmes for personal development, team development and workplace wellbeing. I also established Happy Headwork Community CIC, which takes a human rights-based approach to community wellbeing and sustainable development.

These three areas of my work continually inform one another: international learning and capacity development, workplace psychology education, and community-based practice.

The sections below explore my approach, while the next page highlights examples of my work. Please contact me directly to discuss a project or request further information.

Technical experience

Gender-responsive and human rights-based mainstreaming
Trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants
Humanitarian response and disaster management
Sustainable development and community resilience
Health and social care
Supported housing
Monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning

How I work

Learning and capacity development

Every project is different. My role may cover one stage of the process or the full learning and capacity-development cycle, depending on the people, purpose and context.

Throughout, I take a gender-responsive, human rights-based and intersectional approach, creating learning that is trauma-informed, accessible and psychologically safe.

Capacity and learning needs assessment

Consultation with commissioning teams, technical specialists, country offices, implementing partners and intended learners
Review of relevant legal, policy, technical and programme frameworks
Capacity assessment, learning needs analysis and competency mapping
Analysis of existing knowledge and practice, learner roles, operational challenges and organisational context
Identification of linguistic, cultural, accessibility and inclusion requirements
Definition of capacity priorities, learning outcomes and intended results

Learning strategy, design and development

Co-development of competency-based learning grounded in relevant legal, policy and technical frameworks
Design of face-to-face, live online, self-paced digital, blended and simulation-based learning
Development of curricula, facilitator guides, participant resources, case studies, simulations, assessments, job aids and technical toolkits
Integration of experiential learning, skills practice, facilitated reflection and workplace application
Development of theories of change, results chains, results frameworks, indicators and measurement plans
Design of accessible digital learning, including course architecture, storyboards, scripts, interactive content, audio and video resources, LMS requirements, testing and handover

Facilitation, piloting and adaptation

Facilitation with multidisciplinary and inter-agency groups across professional, cultural and linguistic contexts
Delivery in complex and sensitive operational settings, including facilitation through interpreters
Pilot delivery and user testing with learners, facilitators and technical stakeholders
Analysis of feedback, learning data and emerging implementation needs
Contextual adaptation, technical validation and quality assurance before wider delivery or scale-up

Monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning

Design and implementation of proportionate, inclusive and results-focused MEAL frameworks
Development of evaluation questions, indicators, baselines, competency assessments and mixed-method data-collection tools
Measurement of changes in knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviour, professional practice and organisational capacity
Participatory and qualitative enquiry, follow-up studies, learning reviews and reflective evaluation
Analysis and reporting to support accountability, adaptive management, learning and decision-making
Independent evaluation of programmes and projects, using appropriate evaluation criteria and methods

Through Happy Headwork, I collaborate with university research partners to develop academically robust approaches to measuring learning, wellbeing and sustainable change.

Capacity transfer and sustainability

Training of Trainers and facilitator development across the learning cycle
Coaching, mentoring and continuing professional support
Development of adaptable curricula, implementation toolkits and knowledge products
Facilitator competency frameworks, observation tools and quality-assurance processes
Peer learning, communities of practice and knowledge exchange
Handover of editable resources, implementation guidance and systems for continued review and adaptation

Digital learning and evaluation tools

Experience includes Articulate Rise and Storyline, Moodle, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Miro, Mural, Mentimeter, Canva, Adobe Creative Cloud, SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, Microsoft Forms, KoboToolbox, NVivo, SPSS and Power BI.

Discuss a learning or capacity-development assignment

Contact Stephanie

stephanie@happyheadwork.com →