Testimonials

What’s it like to work with me?

Find out from these satisfied customers!

Cindy Church, Continuing Education Coordinator, Library of Virginia

Sonya’s incredible knowledge of Niche Academy and People Connect Institute have reaped phenomenal benefits for us. She has been working with the Library of Virginia to create effective, useful pathways to meet the training needs of Virginia library staff.  In identifying and publicizing these training opportunities, she has increased engagement in our Niche Academy greatly in just one month! We will definitely be continuing this relationship in the future and look forward to the fantastic opportunities she continues to identify in order to elevate engagement. 

Laurie DeYoung, Vice President of King Media

Sonya quickly brought our team up to speed on the important principles of instructional design, including accessibility in online learning modules and the importance of delivering material in accordance with best practices for adult learners. She is exceptionally knowledgeable and an excellent teacher, graciously sharing her expertise and empowering those around her to grow. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to work with Sonya on many projects during her time with the Library of Michigan and am a more well-rounded professional because of her guidance.

Lauren Douglass, previous IT Manager at the East Lansing Public Library

When our small public library was hit with an accessibility complaint from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, we were scrambling to learn how to respond to the complaint and how to ensure that our website was compliant and accessible to our community.  During that stressful time Sonya was a calm, knowledgeable expert who connected us to the resources and advice we needed immediately, as well as a trusted advisor over the coming weeks and months as we developed and implemented an accessibility plan. Sonya has accessibility advice for any level of user.  Whether you are a…

Jared Oates, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Niche Academy

Sonya Norris has been a cherished ally for years now. Her instructional design work has been exceptional and the impact for learners across two states has been measurable and dramatic. She has been a thoughtful and consistent contributor to the evolution of Niche Academy as well. She has pushed the boundaries of the platform and we’re better for it. She has been a welcome collaborator and a reliable touchstone for the quality of our own work. I can recommend Sonya’s work and Sonya herself without reservation or qualification.

Liz Breed, Assistant Director, Jackson District Library

Sonya is an expert project manager. She served as the co-leader of the Library of Michigan’s (LM) Instructional Design team and as a project manager on the Michigan eLibrary (MeL) team. Sonya has proactively taken on the management and development of LM’s subscription to Niche Academy and her efforts have really made our instance of Niche robust. What started as a tool to help support Michigan eLibrary users, she has evolved into a full training repository. She has curated content from Niche Academy’s Marketplace, and she has also developed her own content to help fill in gaps – three courses…

California Libraries Learn

As a Project Coordinator, Sonya was instrumental in the start-up of the state-wide continuing education program California Libraries Learn (CALL). Using her expertise and knowledge of Niche Academy, she helped us curate and create the relevant self-paced content for our audience, and established protocols and systems for ongoing maintenance and organization.  In addition to her work with Niche Academy, Sonya was part of the team that identified, organized and implemented the initial delivery of training and professional development for California library staff. This included processing relevant presentations from recording to the appropriate self-paced format for our Niche Academy. Her expertise…

Andrew Sanderbeck of PCI Webinars

Sonya’s expertise in Niche Academy and the interaction with the Articulate platform to create the Front Line Customer Service program for our clients which has received rave reviews for interactivity, navigation and the overall learning experience. Further, working with Sonya has been a positive and pleasurable experience as she is timely in her responses to my questions and needs, a wizard in working with the two platforms and she is able to work with my guidelines of keeping things simple and easy whenever possible.

Alan Runyan, CEO and President, Enfold Systems

Sonya Schryer Norris was a valued state library partner for over ten years. She managed the Ploud program in Michigan and trained library staff to operate their Ploud websites. In all, she trained over 300 staff at over 150 libraries – half of the small and rural libraries in Michigan’s lower peninsula and several in the upper peninsula. Using our distributed content feature, the base template that she created for Michigan libraries using Ploud includes a centrally updated list of free, statewide, online courses provided by Michigan State University Extension. She also uses that feature to provide a COVID resources…