About KDL
The team behind the training.
KDL is a Calgary consultancy built on 25+ years of teaching English and literacy to adults. It’s led by Katrina Derix-Langstraat and delivered by a growing team.
A growing team of associates.
Katrina assembles the team your project needs, drawing on a network of skilled associates, each bringing a distinct area of expertise. The KDL team is known for being approachable and capable, focused on practical work that delivers measurable results.
Katrina Derix-Langstraat, M.Ed.
Katrina Derix-Langstraat, M.Ed. (TESL), leads KDL. She has spent 25+ years teaching English and literacy to adults, training the teachers who support them and leading the programs behind the learning.
She’s endlessly curious, with a talent for breaking a complex problem down to its basic parts and connecting ideas other people miss. That curiosity has taken her deep into a John Deere platform, a concrete plant’s blueprints, project management workflows, and the needs of rural Alberta communities—whatever it takes to understand a context well enough to build training that fits.
Known for her practical approach, Katrina’s areas of expertise include:
- Needs and capacity assessments for businesses and community organizations
- Language assessment that shapes program design and teaching
- Fast, accurate translation of technical or industry knowledge into teachable content
- Training and materials design
- Program development and leadership
Ask anyone who’s worked with her, and they’ll tell you the same thing: she shows up, she listens, and she follows through.
Katherine Anderson, M.Ed.
Katherine is the founder and principal consultant of Saffron IMG Services, supporting internationally trained physicians as they prepare for licensure in Canada, from CaRMS preparation to residency and fellowship interviews.
At KDL, she leads the Calibrate: Cohort program. Her background is in adult education, with 15+ years of experience teaching English and communication across Calgary’s post-secondary institutions. She brings analytical thinking and creativity to her work, and a familiarity with what it takes to build a career in Canada as a newcomer.
Known for her attentive approach, Katherine’s areas of expertise include:
- Medical licensure exam preparation for internationally trained physicians, through Saffron IMG Services
- Language assessment and IELTS test preparation
- Academic writing
- High-level, professional English communication instruction
- Confidence-building coaching for clients at intermediate and advanced levels
Katherine’s clients describe the same thing: sessions that feel structured, but never stiff.
Glen Cochrane, M.Ed.
Glen is a longtime educator who listens first. Over 20 years, he’s taught English and led projects across post-secondary and private settings, in Canada and abroad.
At KDL, Glen leads digital systems and operations, keeping projects organized and on track. His specialty is making complicated systems workable. He’s spent over a decade building digital courses and free, publicly available textbooks used across Alberta, including one built specifically for food service workers learning English on the job. He’s also coordinated large national conferences bringing together hundreds of people, and currently optimizes the systems and develops the training behind a full academic department. Whether it’s a learning platform or a room full of people, Glen’s instinct is the same: find what’s overcomplicated, and make it workable.
Glen’s areas of expertise include:
- Nimble content creation and problem-solving
- Learning management system design, made simple for everyone who uses it
- Digital curriculum and textbook development
- Corporate training on workplace cultural competency
- Approachable technical support, at whatever pace someone needs
Glen is known for being approachable, dependable, and quick to make things simple, no matter how complicated they start out. His goal is always the same: elevate the people around him.
Our approach
How we work.
What we build changes with every project, but the process behind it stays the same.
We start with your workplace and your team.
Every engagement begins with discovery: a site visit, a needs assessment, time spent understanding your workplace and your people before anything gets designed. Communication gaps aren’t always what they look like on the surface, so we pinpoint what’s driving them and address the highest-priority areas first.
We build on what’s already working.
Nobody learns well when they’re stressed. We create space for people to feel comfortable, and design training around existing strengths.
We check in, adjust, and stay in touch.
Priorities can shift once training is underway, so we check in and adjust along the way. Once the sessions end, we’re still here, happy to answer questions, troubleshoot, and offer support.
What clients say.
Work with KDL.
A discovery call is short, and there’s no cost to book one. Prefer to start smaller? Send a note and we’ll reply by email.
