Hello! I’m Jacky Gray.
Instructional media • Team leadership • Accessible online learning
Higher-education media and creative-services leader with 20+ years of experience supporting faculty, instructional designers, and online learning programs. A hands-on, mentor-manager who develops talent and works alongside the team, translating complex subject matter into engaging learning materials across graphic design, instructional media, video, animation, and digital course assets.
Specialty: Visual Design | Instructional Media | Video & Animation | AI-Assisted Production
Higher-education media and creative-services leader with 20+ years of experience supporting faculty, instructional designers, and online learning programs. Experienced in hiring, training, and supervising multidisciplinary creative teams, as well as guiding managers and complex projects. A hands-on, mentor-manager who empowers colleagues, develops talent, and works alongside the team — demonstrating processes and modeling best practices through practical examples.
Skilled in translating complex subject matter into engaging learning materials across graphic design, instructional media, video, animation, and digital course assets. Experienced with UDL, WCAG, and Section 508 considerations, institutional brand standards, Adobe Creative Cloud, and AI-assisted production tools.
Bilingual in English and Spanish and proud of a Colombian heritage, I bring a multicultural perspective to collaborative environments — working alongside faculty, program directors, executives, and creative teams to communicate powerfully and inspire audiences.
An active mentor-manager, not solely a project administrator. In my Director-level role at Old Dominion University, I hired, trained, and supervised three multidisciplinary creative teams, managed projects, and supervised managers. In my manager role, I hired, trained, and supervised staff.
Student assistants supported the teams with simpler production tasks. The positions listed above describe the structure of each team I led — they are not individual credentials.
Setting clear goals and building trust through feedback, coaching, and growth opportunities — so designers, videographers, and editors own their work and develop their craft.
A mentor-manager who demonstrates 'how it's done' with practical examples — staying hands-on across design, multimedia, and video production while leading.
Implemented a peer-review system in which colleagues identify issues, improve work, and learn from one another — extending the quality-control procedures I established as Director.
Building effective collaboration among designers, videographers, editors, programmers, instructional designers, faculty, and other partners.
Balancing creative exploration with timelines, accessibility considerations, brand consistency, quality, and course goals — applying the institutional brand standards I upheld across university materials.
Staying current with emerging tools and encouraging continuous learning across the team, including the AI-driven visual content workflows I pioneered in my Assistant Director role.
Most of my career has been spent inside universities — working in ongoing communication and collaboration with instructional designers and faculty to learn and apply the elements needed to create effective educational materials.
ODU Global
Digital Innovation - Old Dominion University
Center for Learning and Teaching - ODU
Center for Learning and Teaching - Old Dominion University
NASA / Hampton University
A small, focused selection of higher-education instructional media and digital learning projects, with my specific role labeled for each.
Faculty and online students in a systems engineering course
Faculty across the university
Students and faculty using the university learning management system
Online students beginning the course
AI tools are part of my creative and media-production workflow — supporting, not replacing, instructional expertise.
AI-assisted outputs are reviewed for accuracy, accessibility, brand fit, and appropriate use.
Additional selected works across video production and graphic design.
Challenge: Maintaining personal connection in an online environment.
Solution: Broadcast-style video with motion graphics for warm faculty presence.
Challenge: Local business needed professional-grade marketing content.
Solution: Custom animation with professional audio mixing and motion design.
Challenge: Distilling complex tax information for a general audience.
Solution: AI-avatar led instructional video with captions for accessibility.
Challenge: Low student engagement in online course openings.
Solution: High-energy intro with strategic b-roll and dynamic pacing.
Challenge: Faculty knowledge gap regarding available CLT resources.
Solution: Hybrid live-action/graphics explainer video.
Challenge: Low awareness for Faculty Summer Institute.
Solution: Dynamic animation and branded design campaign.
Challenge: Lack of cohesive visual identity across the LMS.
Solution: Branded series highlighting student diversity and inclusion.
Challenge: Generic "cookie-cutter" course images across departments.
Solution: Flexible, scalable graphic design templates per discipline.
Challenge: Impactful identity needed for ODU AI Symposium.
Solution: Premium marketing suite using manipulated stock imagery.
Challenge: Increasing foot-traffic awareness for CLT services.
Solution: Strategic environmental marketing posters for campus spaces.
Challenge: Translating dense research data into visual presentations.
Solution: Core design principles applied to academic data visualization.
Challenge: Text-heavy, unappealing institutional documents.
Solution: Overhauled design with custom graphics.
Challenge: Faculty presentation slide decks lacked visual cohesion and student engagement while failing to meet critical ADA accessibility standards.
Solution: Developed engaging, ADA-compliant templates. These created flawless downloadable resources that successfully doubled as visual video scripts, significantly reducing multimedia production time while ensuring all resulting content seamlessly met accessibility requirements.
Bachelor in Advertising & BFA Visual Design — Universidad de Caldas, Colombia
Microsoft 365 Copilot for Executives & Organizational Leadership in the Era of AI (2024)
Supervisor Essentials — ODU HR & Data Visualization Professional (2025)
