Confirmed Speakers

• Alec Levenson, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Center for Effective Organizations, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California
• Alice Muellerweiss, Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Human Resources and Administration, Dean, VA Learning University
• Allison Anderson, Learning Innovation and Technology Program Manager, Intel Corporation
• Andrew Deutscher, Senior Facilitator, The Energy Project
• Armando Lourenzo Moreira Junior, Corporate University Director, Ernst & Young
• Art Dobrucki, CPCU, Director Learning Strategy & Performance, University of Farmers -Farmers Insurance Group of Companies
• Barbara Dirks, Chief Learning Officer, Institute for Learning, BMO Financial Group
• Carey Bradshaw, Corporate Manager of Learning and Development, CBRE
• Carol Hama, Manager, People Development, City of Richmond
• Cory Colton, Manager of Learning Technologies, Cox Communications
• Daniel McLinden, Ed.D., Assistant Vice President, Education and Training Department, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
• Dave Mancl, Global Learning and Development Delivery, HR Operations, Rockwell Automation
• Domenica Santiago, Director of Strategy, Learning and Development, United Healthcare
• Dorothy Martin, LearningLINK National Program Manager, Verizon Wireless
• Dr. Reginald Vance, Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Human Resources and Administration, Director of Infrastructure, VA Learning University
• Jason E. Jones, PhD, Director, AT&T University, Executive Development, AT&T
• Jeffrey S. Gill, Director, Talent Management, Valerus
• Jill Zimmerman, Vice President of Talent Acquisition and Development, Human Resources, Discover Financial Services
• Jonathan Jones, Manager of Analytics and HRIS, General Parts International Incorporated
• Judy Whitcomb, SPHR., Chief Learning Officer, Vice President, Human Resources and Learning and Organizational Development, Vi (formerly Classic Residence by Hyatt)
• Karen Barley, President, Corporate University Enterprise, Inc.
• Kenneth Woodard, Chief of Education and Training, Hill Air Force
• Lauri Romano, Manager of Training and Organizational Development, Actavis
• Lynn Schmidt, Director of Learning & Talent Management, Raytheon
• Maura O’Brien, Director, Center for Learning and Innovation, North Shore-LIJ Health System
• Michael E. Echols, Ph.D., EVP, Strategic Initiatives and the Human Capital Lab, Bellevue University
• Paul Reevs, Director of Organizational Development, Triumph Group, Inc.
• Rachel Rosenblum, Organizational Development Specialist Center for Learning and Innovation, North Shore-LIJ Health System
• Robert Werner, Program Director, Siemens
• Russ Flett, Manager of Technology Training Curricula, Cox Communications
• Samantha Cicotello, Dean, The Motley Fool
• Saynur Onen, Yapi Kredi Banking Academy Vice President, Yapi Kredi
• Tenesha Batiste, Director of People Development, Singing River Health System
• John Aquilino, Director of National Accounts, Ashford University
• Sara K. Van Wagoner, VP, Corporate Growth Strategies, Edcor Data Services Corporation
• Emanuel McCrainey, Director of Human Resources, Farmland Foods Inc.

Andrew Deutscher
Senior Facilitator
The Energy Project

Armando Lourenzo Moreira Junior
Corporate University Director
Ernst & Young

Armando Lourenzo, director of Ernst & Young University in Brazil, is Doctor of Business Administration and Master in Human Resources from FEA/USP, a visiting professor of FIA and PUC and a professor of Faculdades Rio Branco. Lourenzo also authored business books and articles and is a researcher on corporate governance and education.

Art Dobrucki, CPCU
Director Learning Strategy & Performance
University of Farmers -Farmers Insurance Group of Companies

As Director of Learning Strategy and Performance for Farmers Insurance, Art has been a significant member in the University of Farmers leadership. Art’s work has focused on broadening learning measurement practices in the organization to demonstrate the value of learning to the business. He leads a team focused on Learning R&D, measurement & evaluation, learning technologies, and corporate university administration.

Art’s efforts have been instrumental in bringing numerous industry recognitions to the University of Farmers, most notably, the 2011 #1 ranking awarded to Farmers Insurance by Training Magazine. Additional industry recognitions have been received from the American Society for Training and Development, Corporate University XChange,

Prior to joining the University of Farmers team, Art held numerous positions within the Farmers Insurance Group of Companies including Marketing Consultant, Market Research Manager, Customer Advocacy Manager, and Personal Lines Underwriter.

Art Dobrucki is a graduate of California State University, Northridge with a B.A. in Economics and an M.B.A. He has also earned the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter designation.

Alec Levenson, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist, Center for Effective Organizations, Marshall School of Business
University of Southern California

Dr. Alec Levenson is a Research Scientist at the Center for Effective Organizations, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California.

Dr. Levenson's research and consulting work helps optimize job performance through organization design, job design, and human capital analytics. He has more than ten years of experience working with leading companies including Capital One, Chevron, Cisco Systems, PepsiCo, Pfizer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Royal Bank of Canada. His research has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, CNN, U.S. News and World Report, Los Angeles Times, and Fox News.

Dr. Levenson received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Chinese language from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and master's degree and Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University.

Alice Muellerweiss
Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Human Resources and Administration, Dean
VA Learning University

Allison Anderson
Learning Innovation and Technology Program Manager
Intel Corporation

Allison Anderson has served in a variety of roles over the past 20 years, in both higher education and the corporate sector. Prior to her current role at Intel, she created first technical training program for faculty and staff at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Over her 14 years at Intel Corporation, she has designed and managed learning in the product, sales, and HR areas. She is currently a Learning Innovation Program Manager; she focuses on user experience, with an emphasis on collaborative and social learning. She has also spent the last 10 years leading Intel’s Learning Community of Practice – a cross-functional , global group of 400 global learning & development professionals from across the company. She is a frequent presenter and has presented at events such as the Social Learning Boot Camp, the CLO Innovation Network, the Brandon Hall Innovations in Learning Conference, and The Wharton Executive Program for Work-Based Learning Leadership. Allison is also a veteran of Elliott Masie’s Learning Conference, where she has presented and facilitated numerous sessions on a variety of topics related to learning in the corporate world. Her work has been highlighted in CLO Magazine and industry publications, such as The New Social Learning (by Marcia Cross and Tony Bingham), Learning Perspectives 2010 (edited by Nigel Paine and Elliott Masie), The 2020 Workplace ( by Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd) and Next Learning, Unwrapped (edited by Nick Van Dam).

Barbara Dirks
Chief Learning Officer, Institute for Learning
BMO Financial Group

Carey Bradshaw
Corporate Manager of Learning and Development
CBRE

Carey Bradshaw is the Corporate Manager, Learning and Development with CBRE. Her position includes working with the CBRE University team to design and implement a targeted training curriculum that enables professionals to achieve the strategic objectives established by the Board of Directors and executive management.

Previously, Carey was Manager of Talent Development for Spectrum Health, one of the nation’s top integrated healthcare systems and prior to that she was a management consultant for Goldman Sachs in New York City, where she implemented and oversaw a strategic Workforce Management Program for the firm. Carey has spent her career focused on strategizing and implementing innovative learning solutions, talent development initiatives and succession plans.

Carey and her husband, George, a filmmaker, currently reside in Grand Rapids, MI with their puppy, Buttercup, a therapy dog-in-training. Carey (producer) and George (writer/director) also recently showcased their short film, “Public Museum,” at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner.

Cory Colton
Manager of Learning Technologies
Cox Communications

Cory Colton is Manager of Learning Technologies at Cox Communications, the third largest cable and internet company in the US. Cory manages Cox’s learning platforms including the Learning Management System, Virtual University, Testing and Assessment tool, Contractor Training solution, and the relationships for off the shelf Web-based content.

Formerly a Vice President at Citigroup in their Employee Services function Cory was senior analyst on global team deploying the SumTotal LMS to 425,000 employees across 103 countries. Cory has his masters from Georgia State University and his undergraduate degree from Penn State University and is a former opera singer and chef.

Carol Hama
Manager, People Development
City of Richmond

Carol Hama, Manager, People Development for the City of Richmond is a learning professional with over 23 years in the business of Adult Education. Her passion is connecting people to the career of their dreams. Carol and her team have redesigned Richmond University to deliver bottom line business results, with great success. Carol has been a multiple award winner at Corporate University Week, and has been helping others by participating as a CUBIC judge for the last number of years. Carol loves connecting, networking, sharing her learning, and learning from others.

Dave Mancl
Global Learning and Development Delivery, HR Operations
Rockwell Automation

With a background in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Dave Mancl has focused his career in the Human Resources and Organizational Development/Learning fields and has spent the last five plus years working as part of these functions in two, prominent Fortune 500 organizations in the Milwaukee area; Harley Davidson and Rockwell Automation. Currently, as the Manager of Global Learning and Development, Dave focuses the delivery of learning and development initiatives globally. In the past year, Dave has lead a global initiative to centralize the delivery of training from a single learning management system, enabling the decommissioning of multiple, disparate systems, thereby reducing support costs while centralizing administration activity, saving Rockwell over $500,000 yearly and driving the overall quality of learning and development globally.

Daniel McLinden, Ed.D.
Assistant Vice President, Education and Training Department
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Dan McLinden, Ed.D. has spent his most of his career involved in education and has experience in multiple roles, including; measurement & evaluation specialist, teacher, management consultant, education manager, professor and education executive. He has a special interest in human capital measurement and regularly shares his experience and expertise on this topic. Dan regularly presents at national conferences and authors articles for both professional and peer-reviewed publications. He has also authored several book chapters on measurement including the recently published “Estimating the future value of training investments” in the ASTD Handbook for Measuring and Evaluating Training. Currently, Dan is an Assistant Vice President in the Education & Learning department at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center where he is responsible for evaluation and measurement, distance learning and broadcast technology, learning systems and the library. He is also an Assistant Professor in General and Community Pediatrics where he teaches in faculty development workshops, consults with other faculty, advises physicians in the Master’s Degree program in Medical Education, and conducts research in education.

Domenica Santiago
Director of Strategy, Learning and Development
United Healthcare

Domenica Santiago, serves as Director or Strategy, Learning and Development. She has been employed by UnitedHealth Group since 2006, and in her current role since mid 2011. In this role, she interacts with business and line leaders to understand key trends and recommend strategic, cross functional solutions. In addition, she provides guidance around forecasting, planning and management of projects associated with key business metrics and objectives.

Prior to this role, Domenica was Director of Instructional Delivery for UnitedHealth Group, with oversight of all Instructional Delivery for Call Customer Service, Tele Sales, Field Sales, Billing, Reconciliation, Enrollment, Claims & Collections. Before coming to UnitedHealth Group, Domenica led the Patient Access area for a Private non-profit Hospital, located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in a range of arenas, including management, development, employee recruitment and retention and customer satisfaction.

Domenica earned her BS Degree in Health Care Administration from San Francisco University. Her continuing professional passions are motivational leadership and innovative learning solutions.

Dorothy Martin
LearningLINK National Program Manager
Verizon Wireless

Dorothy Martin has 38 years experience in designing and implementing learning and development programs within the telecommunications industry and the private education sector. Her background includes computer operations management and training as well as human factors engineering consulting with major system development projects.

For the past 18 years Dorothy has been involved in workforce training and development and has successfully managed several corporate tuition assistance programs. To meet key business strategies at Verizon Wireless, Dorothy established opt-in customized onsite and online certificate and college degree programs that are available to the company’s 84,000 employees and funded through tuition assistance. She combines deployment of these programs with rigorous measurement techniques to validate effective business impact.

Dorothy completed her BA degree in Social Science using her employer-provided benefit program and will complete her MBA studies in September, 2011 through an onsite college degree program she started at her worksite in Bellevue, Washington.

Jason E. Jones, PhD
Director, AT&T University, Executive Development
AT&T

Jeffrey S. Gill
Director, Talent Management
Valerus

Over the past 20 years, Jeff has pursued a singular goal: to help organizations maximize shareholder value by building the most engaged, committed and fully developed workforce, aligned to achieve business strategy. He has acquired this capability while serving in key learning and development roles at Waste Management, Coca-Cola, Amoco and Unocal. In November 2009 the learning and development organization for Waste Management was recognized by the International Quality &Productivity Center for “Corporate University Best InClass – New Start Up University.”

June 2011, Valerus was named the “Best Place to Work in Houston” for medium sized companies.

Jeff has a master’s degree in Human Resources Development and I/O Psychology from the University of Minnesota.

Jill Zimmerman
Vice President of Talent Acquisition and Development, Human Resources
Discover Financial Services

As an accomplished executive, Jill Zimmerman has a demonstrated record of success derived from more than twenty years of experience assisting organizations align their human resources and business strategy while leading the people aspects of complex organizational change.

She is known for her leadership in developing comprehensive, cost effective and best practice talent acquisition, development and management strategies and solutions that drive people towards the accomplishment of critical organizational goals.

Jill joined Discover Financial Services in 2006 as Vice President Talent Acquisition and Development. In this role, she is responsible for talent development and management strategy across all functional and organizational levels. Jill and her team provide the strategy, programs, processes and tools designed to attract, hire, develop, assess, motivate, engage and retain the company’s people resources. Jill also partners with Discover’s Officers and the Executive Committee to provide strategic consulting around a variety of business needs, including leading talent reviews, succession planning, and establishing development actions for the Executive Committee and Officers. Jill holds both an MS degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and BS degree in Psychology and Business Administration from the University of Illinois - Urbana, and has completed doctoral work in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Illinois - Chicago.

Jonathan Jones
Manager of Analytics and HRIS
General Parts International Incorporated

Judy Whitcomb, SPHR.
Chief Learning Officer, Vice President, Human Resources and Learning and Organizational Development
Vi (formerly Classic Residence by Hyatt)

Judy Whitcomb is the Vice President, Human Resources and Learning and Organizational Development for Vi (formerly Classic Residence by Hyatt). In this role, she leads the corporate human resource function as well as the organization’s learning and organizational development including employee training, leadership development, 360 degree feedback, succession planning, and organizational change initiatives.

Karen Barley
President
Corporate University Enterprise, Inc.

Karen Barley is the President of Corporate University Enterprise, Inc. (CUE) and a CUE co-founder. In her tenure with CUE, Karen has taken the company from a start-up consulting agency to a major player in corporate university design space. Karen has more than fifteen years experience developing and implementing strategic learning programs in public organizations and commercial business, with a clientele list of over 100 that spans four continents. Karen is recognized by many as an expert on the corporate university concept and development speaker circuit. She holds the copyright on one of the only corporate university planning models and is an international speaker on the subject.

Karen’s work with various learning programs has been published and highlighted in the New Corporate University Review, HR Recruit, and Employee Benefit News, and she is a contributing author to The Corporate University Handbook: Designing, Managing, and Growing a Successful Program as well as The Next Generation of Corporate Universities.

Prior to launching CUE, Ms. Barley directed the award-winning U.S. Patent and Trademark Office University. Her recent client list includes UPS, Pearson, Capital One, and KPMG. Many of her clients have made the prestigious Training Top 125 List, several of which are the in Hall of Fame, won Corporate University Best In Class awards, and earned ASTD Best distinctions.

Karen earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Dickinson College and a Master’s Degree in Adult Learning and Human Resource Development from Virginia Tech. Karen’s graduate studies included an independent research project and thesis on conceptualizing the corporate university.

Kenneth Woodard
Chief of Education and Training
Hill Air Force

Ken Woodard is chief of the Education and Training Branch at Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base UT. Responsible for education and training in support of 10,500 civilian employees who perform life-cycle management of aircraft and weapons systems from initial fielding and continuing through decades of field operations. The diversity of training Ken is charged to execute ranges from science and engineering, worldwide supply and logistics management and execution of technically complex depot overhaul of air force aircraft, missiles and commodities. Ken’s experience includes 30 years maintaining and flying aircraft, which includes 20 years on active duty and the last 10 years in the learning and development arena.

Lynn Schmidt
Director of Learning & Talent Management
Raytheon

Lynn Schmidt has twenty-six years of experience as a leadership and organization development professional in Fortune 500 corporations. Currently, she is the Director of Learning & Talent Management for Raytheon Missile Systems and has responsibility for integrating and implementing learning & talent management initiatives across the business.

In previous roles Lynn has created corporate universities and led enterprise-wide learning and development functions. She has also had responsibility for succession management, development of high potential candidates, diversity, coaching and mentoring programs, as well as executive development.

She is a chapter author and editor of the ASTD In Action series book Implementing Training Scorecards and co-author of The Leadership Scorecard. Lynn has B.S. in Business Administration, an MBA, an M.A. in Human and Organizational Systems and a Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Systems.

Lauri Romano
Manager of Training and Organizational Development
Actavis

Maura O’Brien
Director, Center for Learning and Innovation
North Shore-LIJ Health System

Michael E. Echols, Ph.D.
EVP, Strategic Initiatives and the Human Capital Lab
Bellevue University

Mike Echols is a significant force in corporate learning. An internationally known thought-leader on evaluating and improving the ROI on human capital, Mike’s three books on the subject, ROI on Human Capital Investment, Competitive Advantage from Human Capital Investment, and Creating Value with Human Capital Investment have been widely read in “C-suites” around the globe.

In 2007, Echols was named one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals in the U.S.” by Training Industry, Inc. His work with Bellevue University’s corporate clients has garnered the University several prestigious honors and awards including a CUBIC (Corporate University Best In Class) Award for “Most Innovative Corporate Resource” in 2005. Bellevue University was ranked in the Top Leadership Development programs nationally by Leadership Excellence magazine.

Previously, Echols worked as a corporate executive in three senior executive roles with the General Electric Company. He earned his undergraduate degree from Carnegie Mellon University in physics, his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh, and his Ph.D. from the College of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Paul Reevs
Director of Organizational Development
Triumph Group, Inc.

Paul has a diverse background in the learning and development field having served as trainer, instructional designer, corporate change agent and organizational development project manager. He has created learning experiences in a variety of modalities and consistently achieves results by bridging company’s culture with strategic initiatives and employee development.

Paul has built corporate learning programs for government and private entities and is currently “The Dean” at Triumph University. He is a member of ASTD, a college instructor, author and professional speaker and a lifelong learner.

Russ Flett
Manager of Technology Training Curricula
Cox Communications

Robert Werner
Program Director
Siemens

Rachel Rosenblum
Organizational Development Specialist Center for Learning and Innovation
North Shore-LIJ Health System

Rachel Rosenblum has been the Learning and Organizational Development Specialist with the Center for Learning and Innovation since 2008. She received her Masters of Science degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Baruch College in New York City. Her focus during her graduate studies was employee engagement and organizational development which has guided her career from professional recruitment, to corporate human resources to learning and development over the last six years.

Much of her work and research has focused on employee satisfaction and effectiveness of learning approaches and strategies. In addition to organizational development, Rachel is also responsible for assessment and evaluation and instructing several classes at the Center for Learning and Innovation.

Dr. Reginald Vance
Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Human Resources and Administration, Director of Infrastructure
VA Learning University

Dr. Reginald E. Vance serves as the Director for Learning Infrastructure at VA Learning University (VALU). Learning Infrastructure has a primary responsibility for the management of the VA-wide education, learning and training system of record. The VALU Learning Infrastructure Directorate is responsible for operations and systems support, quality assurance (QA), and reporting and analysis related to the VA enterprise-wide automated learning systems and learning support systems.

In May 2003, Vance’s team launched the VA Talent Management System (TMS), which is currently the largest non-DoD national learning management system in the United States Government serving nearly 400,000 end users.

Dr. Vance has been with The United States Department of Veterans Affairs since February of 2009. Prior to joining the VA, Dr. Vance served as the Chief of Business and Finance for the National Park Service (NPS) Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO).

Samantha Cicotello
Dean
The Motley Fool

Sam Moore Cicotello is the Dean of Motley Fool University and is responsible for all of The Motley Fool’s learning and development initiatives. She has 10 years of experience in marketing and product strategy and was shocked to find her passion in learning and leadership development. She embraces her marketing background in her current role and is constantly testing and learning within Fool U. She persistently encourages Fools to “try it” and “top it.” She was awarded the title of Chief Rabblerouser of the Highest Order by her peers in 2006 and still holds the coveted position.

Sam has a BA in Psychology and Communications from Vanderbilt University. She and her husband Tom reside in Washington, DC with their two children.

Saynur Onen
Yapi Kredi Banking Academy Vice President
Yapi Kredi

Saynur Onen, Head of Yapi Kredi Banking Academy, is responsible for Turkey's one of the biggest banks' all learning & development initiatives. She worked in various big companies like Turkcell, AXA, Eczacibasi Holding and took responsibility in establishing learning systems, organizational development projects, talent management, building coaching and mentoring structures, performance management, succession & career planning and finally corporate academies, she has led successful initiatives and gained extensive experience on human resources area. She has been working for Yapi Kredi Bank, a joint venture company between Koc and UniCredit Groups with 17.000 employees, with a strong vision and enthusiasm to contribute to bank’s strategies that help the vision of being the best in the sector. She had a masters degree on Human Resources Management after Psychology education. Through her professional career, she also pursued her personal development on her area, completed Psychodrama Group Therapy and Executive Coaching Trainings.

Tenesha Batiste
Director of People Development
Singing River Health System

Tenesha D. Batiste is the Director of People Development for Singing River Health System in Jackson County, MS. Tenesha graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English/Journalism with a concentration in Public Relations from Tougaloo College. She also holds a Masters of Business Administration in Human Resources Management from American Intercontinental University.

Tenesha’s career began in 2004 as the Director of Human Resources for the City of Moss Point. Currently, she leads the People Development Department at Singing River Health System (SRHS). Tenesha has served as the People Development Manager-Elect under the guidance of SRHS’ first People Development Manager, Lena M. Crain. Then, she served as People Development Manager and was recently promoted to Director of People Development.