ZenMation is a leading-edge interactive multimedia company that applies the latest technology to creatively solve clients’ adult learning, communications and marketing challenges through:
- Interactive e-learning websites and blended learning solutions;
- Creative video productions;
- Dynamic multimedia presentations and computer animation;
- A variety of other electronic media using today’s latest technology.
Since its founding in 1997, ZenMation has helped organizations such as Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, Midwest Special Services, the Commission of Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans, Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities, numerous agencies at the State of Minnesota, including the Department of Human Services, Department of Administration, Office of the Secretary of State and the Office of Enterprise Technology, numerous subsidiaries of Wells Fargo & Company and OptumHealth Financial Services to leverage technology to maximize their learning, communications, and promotional initiatives.
ZenMation has been a master contractor with the State of MN since 2012 (Vendor ID 0000237454).
The ZenMation Team
Each member of the ZenMation team is selected based on their unique talents and expertise and their commitment to providing excellent customer service and delivering high quality, innovative solutions.
Project Manager and Multimedia Producer
Peter Zenner founded ZenMation in October 1997 to maximize his experience as a marketing technologist in the financial services industry. Since that time, ZenMation has earned a reputation for creativity, exceptional service and delivering innovative solutions on time and with the client’s budget. A key to Peter’s success is his ability to understand client needs, his passion for using technology creatively, and insider’s view of how companies work. Prior to forming ZenMation, Peter managed Database Marketing at Norwest Corporation.
Peter brings an impressive array of technical skills to the business challenges of ZenMation clients. His skills include extensive knowledge of programming languages, database design, photo and video editing, vector-based illustration, simulation tools and computer animation.
As executive producer, Peter specially selects and manages a team of highly-skilled professionals to deliver innovative projects on time and on budget.
Peter is an expert at creating interactive videos, websites and training programs that are fully accessible to people with disabilities. In recent years, ZenMation has worked extensively with the Deaf community to create videos that are presented in ASL or incorporate ASL interpretation into the solution. He is also a certified trainer in 4th Generation Report Writing Languages and has a deep understanding of assistive technology. Peter holds a master’s degree in Business Management and an undergraduate degree in Investments, Banking and Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Instructional Designer and Writer
Julie Lillie has over 15 years of experience in diverse settings and began her career as an elementary classroom teacher and a secondary literacy interventionist, later moving into curriculum and assessment roles and instructional coaching of PreK-12 teachers across all content areas. Julie is also an instructor with the University of Arizona Global Campus.
Julie was the lead instructional designer for designing and writing a new 7-hour e-learning training on Mental Health Wellness. This training is part of the Caring for LIFE curriculum that teaches caregivers how to care for seniors and people with disabilities and includes topics like:
- Introduction to Mental Health Wellness
- National and Community Resources for Mental Health and Illness
- Caregiver Self-Care
- Strategies for Supporting People Living with Mental Illness
- Overview of Psychotropic Medications
- Suicide Awareness
- Responses to Mental Health Crisis and De-escalation Techniques
Julie holds a B.A. in Elementary Education from Arizona State University and a M.S. as a Reading Specialist from the University of Wisconsin, River Falls. Additionally, Julie has coached, designed and facilitated professional development around a wide array of topics, including: trauma-informed practices, social-emotional learning, mindfulness, literacy, culturally relevant pedagogy, equity and anti-racism education.
Instructional Designer and Writer
Jean Maher has nearly 30 years of experience in writing and communications, including 15 years as a freelance technical writer and instructional designer of eLearning and facilitator-led courses. Her passion is to ensure that messages are clear and framed in a way that resonates with and engages the intended audience.
During her career, Jean has assisted a variety of corporate and public sector clients with solving their challenges in communications and learning, clarifying objectives and goals, understanding the audience and developing creative tailored solutions.
Jean’s broad experience in instructional design and writing includes sales training programs, product features and benefits, company initiatives such as sustainability and safety, healthcare, new software systems manuals, business ethics and email etiquette, intranet and internet website content; to designing, newsletters and magazine articles, brochures, and impactful presentations.
Jean spent 15 years as an independent technical writing and instructional design consultant. She joined Andersen Corporation’s Learning and Development team in 2007 as an instructional design professional on many development programs.
She then managed Andersen’s Internal Communications team for over 5 years, where she worked with groups across the company on their strategic and transformative communications, led the corporate intranet replacement project, introduced live streaming to leader meetings, as well as provided coaching on professional presentations. She continued to work in Communications as the digital asset specialist on special communications projects, producing corporate videos with broad appeal and use, worked with IT to pilot digital communications in production areas, and developing the framework for digital asset identification and storage.
She resumed work as an independent consultant in communications, instructional design and video production in 2017.
Jean has an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Minnesota – Duluth.
Videographer
Josh Zenner brings over 20 years of experience as a videographer and television news reporter to the ZenMation team.
Josh began his career as a news reporter for WDIO in Duluth in 2003 before being promoted to Sports Director. During his career at WDIO, Josh was able to experience all aspects of video news production, including acting as cameraman, writing scripts, editing news stories, and appearing as on-air talent.
In 2012, Josh embarked on a career as a freelance videographer where he uses his television news experience to tell engaging stories through video technology. One of his most successful projects was a video spotlighting the Mill District area of Minneapolis including interviews with the people who play, live and work in the area. Based on its popularity, the Guthrie Theater has spotlighted the video on its website.
Josh uses state-of-the-art 4k video and lighting equipment for every ZenMation project including:
- Role-plays of people with disabilities interviewing for a job with a focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).
- Instructional videos on teaching Video Remote Interpreters (VRI) how to interpret within the deaf community.
- Courtroom scenarios on teaching parents how to participate in Child Protection hearings.
- Video interviews with legal experts teaching State of the MN judges how to work with people involved in sex trafficking.
In addition, Josh produces videos for Hospitality Minnesota and the National Restaurant Association including being a cameraman for the Taste of NFL for Super Bowl LII and other sporting events.
Josh graduated from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications.
Web and App Developer/SCORM Programmer
Scott Lindberg has been developing sophisticated and engaging e-learning and web applications for over 25 years. His advanced programming skills include:
- Frontend web development with HTML, CSS and JavaScript.’
- Creating interactive experiences with JavaScript frameworks.
- Developing hybrid mobile apps for distribution in both the Apple and Android ecosystems.
- Designing interfaces that adhere to accessibility standards.
- Using design tools to design applications from wireframes to interactive prototypes with a strong emphasis on usability and user experience.
- SCORM 1.2 & 2004 for eLearning courses in Learning Management Systems.
Key ZenMation projects that Scott contributed his programming expertise include:
- eTrac Just-in-Time Learning App – 20 hours of vocational training to teach people with disabilities how to successfully find employment. The app is available on the App Store and Google Play and can be installed on smartphones and tablets.
- Caring for LIFE Online Curriculum – Due to the discontinuation of the Flash plug-in, 13 hours of certification training was converted from Flash animation to HTML5 to continue to teach caregivers how to serve seniors and people with disabilities.
- Vision and Hearing Loss Simulator – This video-based tool provides caregivers and other health professionals with the means of simulating varying vision/hearing loss to better relate to the conditions of their clients.
In addition to being a custom programmer for many e-learning applications, Scott has extensive knowledge of a variety of e-learning development tools designed for a more rapid development environment, including tools such as Adobe Captivate and Articulate Storyline. He is highly skilled at integrating advanced interactivities into these state-of-the-industry tools.
ASL Resource Consultant and Certified ASL/English Interpreter
Patty Gordon brings a unique combination of skills to the ZenMation team. As an experienced instructional designer and a nationally certified ASL interpreter with nearly 30 years of experience, Patty brings an in-depth understanding of deaf culture and the learning needs of the deaf community. She has worked in a wide range of mental health settings including individual and family therapy, inpatient care, group homes, addiction groups and with offender groups in correctional facilities.
Patty also is an adjunct instructor in the ASL Interpreting Department at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota where she has developed and taught workshops on ASL linguistics, interpreting process strategies, mentoring and performing arts interpreting. She is a regular ASL interpreter for performances at the Guthrie Theater and other venues.
As an educator, Patty has designed and facilitated a variety of programs, including creating and administering a series of courses through Utah State University designed to enhance the ASL interpreting skills of K-12 interpreters in 14 states. She also helped to design and implement mentoring programs for K-12 interpreters in Minnesota and developed ASL training and consulting services for interpreter mentoring programs in five states and Canada. She has worked as an interpreter educator for the Educational Interpreter Certificate Program (EICP), a blended learning program, and has helped to develop and deliver summer educational interpreter institutes in Minnesota, Oregon and Kansas.
Patty is the co-author of “The Mentor’s Companion,” a resource text for interpreting mentors. She has a B.A. in Linguistics from Metropolitan State University, a Master of Liberal Studies from the University of Minnesota and holds Teaching ASL and Master Mentor certificates from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Minnesota Translator and Interpreter Cooperative, MNTIC
Jenny Finden is the President of the board of MNTIC and has worked as a professional Spanish translator and interpreter for over 20 years. She is certified by the MN State Courts, and Immigration Courts and has completed the Southern California School of Interpreting Court Interpretation Program.
MNTIC is collectively owned and run by qualified and professional interpreters and translators with decades of experience in offering translation services in a number of languages:
- Amharic
- Arabic
- Bosnian
- Burmese
- French
- Hmong
- Japanese
- Karen
- Mandarin
- Oromo
- Pashto
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Somali
- Spanish
- Swahili
- Ukrainian
- Vietnamese
- Yoruba
As a key partner of ZenMation, MNTIC provides ZenMation with quality translation and voiceover talent to convert any e-learning or video project into other non-English languages. For example, ZenMation used interpreters from MNTIC to create a series of videos for the MN State Court Administrator’s Office in Hmong, Spanish, Somali and Karen. This video series teaches parents how to participate in a Child Protection Hearing. Here is a sample in Hmong: https://youtu.be/P0R-aV0VB5Y.
Spanish Interpreter and Translator
Andrés Díaz, originally from Veracruz, Mexico, has decades of experience and expertise in his field of Spanish interpretation and translation. He graduated from Universidad Autónoma Chapingo in Mexico as an agro-industrial engineer and later went on to get his master’s degree in Food Science from the University of Minnesota.
ZenMation is focused on developing e-learning courses in multi-languages to reach as many people as possible. Andrés is a key resource to interpret and translate ZenMation’s Caring for LIFE online curriculum into Spanish in order to certify Spanish-speaking caregivers on serving seniors and people with disabilities. Some of the courses currently under development in Spanish include:
- Do No Harm
- Person-Centered Planning
- What to Do in an Emergency
- Rights and Responsibilities
- Medication Basics
- Ensuring Health, Wellness and Safety
- Preventing Insurance Waste, Abuse and Fraud
- The Importance of Documenting
- Workplace Safety and Infection Control
- Mental Health Wellness
In addition, Andrés worked on a large initiative to narrate, translate, and edit the Spanish version of K-12 standardized tests used in several states. Currently, Andrés works primarily as a conference and court interpreter. He is a certified court interpreter on a federal and state level, and is also certified by the American Translators Association.
Somali Interpreter and Translator
Osman M. Abdulle is a Somali language interpreter and translator based in the Twin Cities. With extensive experience in Minnesota’s court system, he provides translation services for federal and state courts and various agencies. He has received a certificate of excellence from the U.S. State Department and occasionally conducts cross-cultural diversity training on Somali culture. His clients include the Minnesota Department of Human Services and law enforcement agencies.
Originally from southern Somalia, Osman completed high school there in 1988 and attended college in Ontario, Canada, where he graduated from Humber Polytechnic College in 1995 with a degree in Applied Chemistry.
Osman is a key resource to interpret and translate ZenMation’s Caring for LIFE online curriculum into Somali in order to certify Somali-speaking caregivers on serving seniors and people with disabilities.
Osman currently resides in Maplewood, Minnesota, with his family.