Curated Collection Of The Best Interviews From Learning Insights
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Chris Whitaker/Aptean
Chris Whitaker has 15+ years of success in L&D, with an emphasis on sales performance improvement. He’s played both roles successfully, sales consultant and sales development professional. He’s worked with leading organizations like AchieveGlobal, PDI Ninth House, and Rollins. He is currently the Director of Training & Development at Aptean, a software company specializing in ERP, CRM and SCM solutions.
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Crawford Educational Services has developed a very successful virtual classroom which combines both self directed eLearning with live, online instructor led classes, focused on practical application of the eLearning topics as they are completed. The result is lower expense training (no travel) and a higher retention of information. The trainee is also able to immediately apply new knowledge at their work station, as they continue to work on their existing cases.
Bruce Stauf/Crawford and Company
Bruce Stauf is the Director of Training with Crawford Educational Services (CES), a division of Crawford and Company. Bruce has 37 years with Crawford & Company (13 years handling multi-line claims and claim supervision, then 24 years in the Training Department as Trainer and now Director.
Bruce earned his Associates degree in Construction Engineering from Illinois Central College and his BS in Business Administration from Arizona State University. He has an Assoc. in Claims Designation (AICPCU – The Institutes) and property technical certification. Bruce has conducted several years of on-site and off-site Casualty Adjuster Training programs, both classroom and conference sessions to Crawford employees and clients. Some of the client programs were developed specifically for those clients. Bruce personally developed the first formal insurance fraud awareness and investigation program for Crawford in 1991. He also has provided training consulting services for client training departments.
For the past 9 years Bruce has been the Director of Training, responsible for managing the technical training of Crawford & Company employees, as well as clients. During this time, CES has evolved from a traditional classroom only type training program, to a multi-dimensional program including self-directed eLearning programs, webinars, and virtual classroom. CES continues to leverage the new technologies to broaden the learning opportunities.
Rick Charles/Crawford and Company
Rick Charles is a Training Specialist with Crawford Educational Services (CES), a division of Crawford & Company. Rick earned his Bachelor of Science in Management from Miami University. His professional designations include an Associate in Claims (AIC). Rick has been a member of the Atlanta Claims Association since 1981, and a member of Southern Loss since 1995.
Rick joined Crawford in 1989 as a Property General Adjuster, and has worked as a Training Specialist since 1995. Prior to Crawford, Rick worked as a Property Supervisor with Aetna Insurance Company and owned and operated an Atlanta contracting company.
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Terri Maske and Lisa Edmondson/Infor
How do you ensure that your channel partners are proficient in selling, implementing, and providing service for your product? You certify them! In this discussion, Terri Maske of Infor and Lisa Edmondson – a consultant for Infor through TrainingPros, discuss what goes into creating a certification program for your partners.
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David Adelman with TrainingPros and Susan O'Connell with Habitat for Humanity
Susan O’Connell/Habitat for Humanity International
Susan O’Connell is a fifteen year veteran in the learning field, leading and advising on strategic and cost-effective learning programs that develop staff skills, enhance productivity, and support organizational change.
In 2009, she successfully transitioned from the Fortune 50 business setting to the international non-profit sector where she played a key role in increasing online course enrollments by 50% over a one-year period. Susan serves as the Learning and Organizational Development Manager with Habitat for Humanity International. She holds a Master of Education in Human Resource and Organizational Development from the University of Georgia.
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Tom Karl and Adam Alexander/Mastery Works
Tom Karl and Adam Alexander with Mastery Works discuss how companies with great career development initiatives have been able to gain a strategic advantage over their competitors by engaging and retaining employees, and by aligning talent with future business needs.
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Russ Simpson/Acuity Brands Lighting 
Russ Simpson is the Director, Talent Management and Human Resources Shared Services with Acuity Brands Lighting. As the leader of the HR Shared Services department, Russ is responsible the following areas:
– Talent Sourcing
– Organization Development
– Payroll
– Human Resources Information Systems
– Employee Communication
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Candy Williams/Atlas Roofing Corporation 
Candy Williams is the Manager, Talent & Organizational Development for Atlas Roofing Corporation. Candy is a Talent Management / Human Resources Professional with 20 years of experience and proven success working with cross-functional leaders in banking/finance, manufacturing, sales and marketing, IT, finance, public relations and supervision and regulations, administrative services. Her areas of experience include talent acquisition and development, workforce planning, performance coaching, succession planning and career development, organizational design and development, and change management.
She started her HR career at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta as an HR intern and was promoted through the ranks to Organizational Development and Training Manager. She joined Atlas Roofing Corporation in Jan 2010 where she is responsible for talent management and organizational development.
She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources from Georgia State University and her Master’s degree from University of Georgia. She participated in a study abroad program as an undergrad and graduate at the L’Universite de Paris – Sorbonne and University of Manchester, respectively. She earned her PHR designation in 2011. She hopes to earn her CPLP within the next two years.
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John Gibbs and Mike Law/ISPI Atlanta
John Gibbs is President and Mike Law is VP of Programming for ISPI Atlanta.
The Greater Atlanta Chapter of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) was founded in 1980. Our diverse membership is composed of internal and external corporate training professionals (directors, managers, developers, and instructors), performance technologists, and consultants. ISPI members also work in organizational development/change management, education, human resources development, or are students.
Last year they experienced all the challenges and opportunities of a mostly new leadership team, and they took some time to reconsider their mission and methods before resuming regular meetings in January. ISPI’s third meeting for the year is next Thursday and they are eager to hear from their members and friends about what they want to learn more about and what formats work best for them.
Denise Traicoff/CDC
Denise Traicoff joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2002. As a specialist in curriculum design and development for CDC’s Sustainable Management Development Program, she provides technical assistance and consultation in public health management development for low and middle income countries. She also provides consultation in the selection of appropriate training delivery methods and is leading the program’s initiative in the design and implementation of online learning strategies. She has taught classes in various programs around the globe and been a requested speaker at national and international conferences.
Denise has coordinated and overseen curriculum development and course planning for public health management and field epidemiology training programs in Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South America; and she led the development of a standard curriculum which is being used as a guideline for field epidemiology programs around the world.
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In this show, Richard Fletcher and Doug Samuels will discuss what’s new in the programming offered by the Greater Atlanta Chapter of ASTD this year, along with what is staying the same.
Richard Fletcher/Zaxby’s
Richard Fletcher, CHT is Sr. Director, Learning and Organizational Development for Zaxby’s Franchising, a franchisor of gourmet chicken restaurants with 550+ locations and 20,000 employees throughout the Southeast. He has been with Zaxby’s since 2003. Richard has responsibilities for overseeing the structures, systems, and processes within the organization to improve organizational effectiveness and is also responsible for identifying, recommending and implementing short and long term strategy for design development and delivery of leadership, team-related, professional, and interpersonal skills development programs.
Richard has over 25 years of executive level experience in sales, operations, organizational development and training with other national companies such as Wolf Camera, Zaxby’s and Sprint PCS.
Richard is a national member of ASTD and President-Elect for the Greater Atlanta chapter. He is an active member of the Council for Hotel and Restaurant Trainers (CHART) and Regional Director for the CHART’s Atlanta Regional Training Forum.
Richard received a Bachelor of Science degree from Auburn University. He is a certified EQ-I, EQ-360 administrator and has received the Certified Hospitality Trainer (CHT) certification from CHART. When he isn’t busy developing people, he loves hitting the links and traveling.
Doug Samuels/Georgia State University
Doug Samuels is Manager, Organizational Development & Consulting Services at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. His focus is on developing leadership bench strength and improving employee engagement throughout the university and across the University System of Georgia (USG). He uses the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence as a process framework.
Doug’s professional career in learning and development has taken him around the world. After flying KC- 135s (Boeing 707) for many years, he served as a Master Instructor at the USAF’s Navigator Training School and later created and delivered the military’s first software engineering training program. He was selected to direct the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Ada Software Engineering Education and Training Program, created to ensure the Ada programming language was used in all mission-critical software development across the military. He received the DOD Meritorious Service Medal for his efforts.
Previously, Doug served as the Director, Training and Development in a Fortune 50 company and Director, Organization Development at a burgeoning Fortune 1000 company. He holds a BS in Mathematics from Valdosta State College, a BS in Computer Science from Chapman University, an MEd in Adult Education from the University of Southern Mississippi, a BA in Psychology and MS in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Valdosta State University.
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Beth Schumaker/BrightStar Leadership Consulting
Beth Schumaker is Senior Partner with BrightStar Leadership Consulting. BrightStar Master Coaches, Executive Consultants, and Expert Trainers work with leaders and teams to identify opportunities for improvement and to deliver business results. Beth has over twenty years of experience in training and organizational development in a variety of roles: training strategy leader, training consultant; performance coach, trainer, and line manager with many Fortune 500 companies, including BellSouth, AT&T, and Cox Communications. She is certified and master certified in over 50 leadership and sales courses, and has trained thousands of senior, mid-level, and front line managers. In addition, she has certified and master certified many trainers and provided on-going performance coaching. Beth understands the importance of the trainer in maximizing an organization’s return on training investment.
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