Instructional Design Consultant

December 2023 - Present

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Lead Instructional Designer

September 2020 - December 2023

 

My work at USAA allowed me to follow my heart and return to my instructional design roots as a:

Lead Instructional Designer (08/2022 – 12/2023)

• Consulted and collaborated with enterprise and P&C business leaders and SMEs to create and customize comprehensive learning solutions to target the necessary skill development such as empathy, leadership, communication, teambuilding, storytelling with data, and new employee onboarding for the entire enterprise.

• Directed the design and implementation of multiple Degreed pages to facilitate self-directed learning experiences including Skills for the Future, Simplicity, Data, Digital Maturity, Mentoring, and Skill Circles.

• Designed a comprehensive and gamified 12-month development program for agency that touched more than 100 learners working in both member and non-member facing jobs.

• Spearheaded the team that designed an in-person teambuilding experience for business leadership teams and their employees. This program included a degreed page for pre-work, the USAA-way behaviors, a mural board to facilitate activities, and a comprehensive presentation which included notes and directions for the facilitators.

Senior Instructional Designer (09/2020 – 08/2022)

• Partnered with lead performance consultants to design, develop, and implement three major organizational deliverables: the leader’s portal for New Employee Orientation, Eagle Academy (Degreed platform), and the P&C Learning Engine.

• Pioneered new prototypes for awarding badges through Degreed and sending emails to leadership from One Source Learning with their employee’s answers to targeted questions and assessments.

• Collaborated with the Professional Designations team to redesign the functionality and content of the entire internal site. The updated site served more than 2,200 unique users interested in obtaining their professional designations.

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Senior Director, Enterprise Learning Solutions

​July 2014 - September 2020

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My work through Dale Carnegie and Associates has allowed me to further enhance my learning and development skills through:

• Leadership and management of Virtual Training Delivery, Client Engagement, Custom Solutions and LMS teams. Responsible for the successful delivery of 30+ virtual training course each day.

• Achieved transformative results through development and launch of a Hiring, Onboarding and Sales Hiring Toolkit-a global Sales Talent Development Program for Dale Carnegie sales team members, managers, and franchise owners: +11% Net Revenue Gain for Participating Franchises, 30% increase in Sales Representative revenue.

• Led the design and implementation of a new in-house Assessment platform, saving the organization $75,000 per year.

• Developing best-in-class learning and talent development solutions which deliver rapid ROI and enable business growth in highly competitive markets. I'm an expert in identifying "quick wins" that can spark larger, sustained organizational change.

• Nurturing high-value staff, broadening their perspective and skill set, and turning them into company leaders. A mentor and coach who is unafraid to ask, "Is there a better way?"

• Navigating high-stress situations with ease and agility.

• Helping teams prioritize work based on critical business needs.

• Deploying proactive measures to expand training activities to address recent changes in law, regulations, policies and emerging industry trends/best practices.

• Leveraging technology as a means of optimizing performance behaviors and results.

• Building relationships throughout large, matrixed organizations and garnering the buy-in necessary to effect true culture change.

 

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Learning Project Manager and Instructional Designer

​2004 - present

 

My work through First Consulting, Inc., has allowed me to continuously build my skills through a variety of roles and responsibilities such as:

• Client

• Consultant

• Project Manager

• Instructional Designer

• eLearning Designer

• Technical Writer

• Training Delivery

 

 

Learning and Development Manager

​2005 - 2014

 

My work at ESL Federal Credit Union was a learning and development professional's dream. Expanded the budget from an expense to an investment and showed results.

 

During my nine years at ESL, we:

• Meshed Learning and Development with organizational strategy, and expanded the Training Department scope from single New Hire training class to comprehensive set of programs including Advanced Sales, Manager Effectiveness, Mentoring, New Employee Orientation, and Frontline Supervisor training.

• Recognized by Training Magazine as one of the “Top 125 Training Companies” for eight consecutive years and received ATD's Training Award in 2010 and 2011.

• Built a six-person, high-performance training team from the ground up. Collaborated heavily with Talent and Senior Management to address performance gaps.

• Cut staff turnover to record-low 6% through introducing advanced Sales Training programs and establishing new lines of communication and input.

• Developed and launched a new Learning and Development portal, incorporating classroom training, internal and external workshops, e-learning modules, and customized support materials.

• Devised an innovative “Meeting in a Box” training approach, yielding major performance and cohesion improvements across global workforce.

• Introduced a “Finding Teller Differences” workshop for bank tellers, reducing discrepancies by over 50%.