Lisa Gaylord

We continue our quest of meeting new faces in the Imagine! community. Lisa Gaylord, Day Program
Counselor at Imagine!, teaches a handful of classes in the CORE/Labor Source (CLS) department. Earning her BFA degree at Adelphi University in Long Island, she brings her theater experience to her role as a teacher.

Lisa creates her curriculums to allow the participants to take control in the classes. “Listening to and understanding our clients can be one of the most challenging things about this job,” says Lisa. “But also the most rewarding, because you let them have their voice.”

Mark at Estes Park
during Explore CO class

Giving her students a say in the matter is exactly what she has done. When Lisa was given a new time slot to teach a class, she immediately surveyed the group. "We can do whatever you, go wherever you want," she told them, and so they spent a class period making a list of places to visit. The Denver Aquarium, Estes Park, and Molly Brown Museum are among the places they have explored. 

“They’ve been to so many places in Boulder time and time again that it’s cool they get to travel to Denver or Estes for the day," said Lisa. The class has been appropriately named Explore CO, while they engage in scavenger hunts to learn about the places they visit.

Lisa records Robert reciting a poem

Another project that empowers the students is the Podcast Class, where Lisa and other instructors assist the students in preparing written material and then sing, rap, or speak into a microphone.

Using her personal equipment, Lisa records their voices onto a laptop and edits their tracks into short clips. Click here to view some poetry the class has created.

Lisa spends her time teaching outside of Imagine! as well. Pursuing her passion in theater, she has partnered with Rocky Mountain Theater for Kids and instructs workshops for youth, ranging from five years old to middle school. “The goal is to teach a set of theater skills and then from there the kids implement it into a full on production,” says Lisa. They have performed the likes of Little Shop of Horrors, Winnie the Pooh, and Fiddler on the Roof. This instructional background came in handy when she helped direct Imagine!’s 2017 CLS Art Show at the Dairy Center in Boulder.

Moving forward, Lisa sees a potential for increasing theater opportunities for the clients: “There’s a professional theater company in Denver that prides themselves on only hiring actors with disabilities. Creating a mentor relationship between those actors and our clients would be very empowering.”

Both in and outside of Imagine!, Lisa has a knack for empowering others, directing her students to take the spotlight and use their own voice. The Imagine! community is grateful to Lisa for her work in creating a world of opportunity for all abilities.