Dr. Ashley Hodge, Senior Director of Learning Services at Siemens Digital Industries Software, joins us to talk about building learning services that keep pace with constantly evolving software. Ashley leads the global learning services organization responsible for the content and platforms that help Siemens customers adopt and use its software with confidence.

Ashley explains why learning content is a product that has to be maintained, how her team ties training to adoption and business outcomes, and why learning is becoming continuous, personalized and built into the work itself. She also shares how leadership coaching reshaped her confidence and why the right mix of learning design and technical depth is so hard to hire for.

Sarai Jacko, Regional Director of Training and Development for Southern California of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, joins us to talk about why learning and development has earned a seat at the business table in luxury hospitality. Sarai shares how training investment shows up in guest satisfaction scores, why personalized learning means meeting each colleague where they are and how a Lobby Ambassador initiative keeps non-guest-facing leaders connected to the operation.

Sarai also explains why flexibility and emotional intelligence matter most right now and how she built a quarterly luncheon for fellow luxury hospitality L&D leaders.

Nicole Kramer, Senior Manager of Capability Building at Mars, joins us to talk about how L&D is shifting from content creation to enabling performance. Nicole shares how a career that began in sales led her into learning and development, why AI is accelerating the move toward business transformation roles and the three boundaries she believes L&D can break down in the next five years.

She also explains why you don’t have to wait for the next title to start thinking at the next level, how to build a disciplined curiosity and which books she recommends for up-and-coming L&D leaders.

Nick Borey, Senior Manager of Learning, Design and Technology of Best Buy, joins to talk about what actually gives a corporate training career staying power. He traces his path from training and facilitator roles into instructional design, explores what it takes to make learning work at scale, and shares his take on where AI genuinely changes the work, and where it doesn’t.

Lan Tran, Founder and Principal of Wysora, joins us to unpack what it really means to be a learning technology strategist, the emerging role sitting at the intersection of learning, technology and business strategy.

She traces her path from software developer to learning designer to enterprise learning technology leader, and shares how that combination shapes the way she now advises organizations on their learning ecosystems, their learning culture and the mistakes that quietly undercut both.

Ashley Corcoran, Director of Learning Design and Development of The Home Depot, joins us to talk about what it takes to reinvent a learning and development team at scale while AI reshapes how the work gets done. Her team builds learning experiences for 450,000 associates across retail stores, outside sales and service, and supply chain.

Ashley shares why the business is her lead indicator for where L&D is headed, how she separates problems to be solved from tensions to be managed, and why leaders need “stagility” — a balance of stability and agility — to help teams adapt without losing their footing. She also shares how The Home Depot’s internship program gives early-career talent meaningful work and opportunities to make a real impact from the start.

Jennifer Baker, Director of Talent and Leadership Development at Foot Locker North America and Founder of Jen in AI, joins us to talk about how learning and development is changing as AI reshapes what people need to learn, how they learn it and the value an L&D team brings to an organization.

Jennifer shares how she built her way into L&D, from running two fashion boutiques and leading a retail store to creating her own training program before anyone asked her to. She explains why learning is moving closer to the work itself, why judgment is becoming one of the most important L&D skills in the AI era, and why learning agility, adaptability and curiosity matter more than trying to predict exactly what a job will look like five years from now.

Alicia Turino-Sheppard, Director of Learning at Cognizant, joins us to talk about the shift happening inside L&D as AI takes over content creation and facilitation. Alicia leads a lean, consultative team supporting Cognizant's global Workday practice, and she makes the case that the professionals who stay relevant won't be the ones who build the best slide decks; they'll be the ones who think like business consultants.

She also explores the difference between change resistance and change exhaustion, why she reads historical fiction instead of traditional leadership books, and the mentor lesson about asking for what you want that still shapes how she leads her team.

Brad Ulmanu, Director of Learning Experience at Expedia Group, joins us to talk about why storytelling is one of the most important skills in learning and development. Brad started his career as a journalist before moving into L&D, and he ties storytelling to instructional design, eLearning content creation, and learning experiences people want to finish. A useful frame for any learning leader rethinking corporate learning and development.

Join Melissa Kruminas, VP, Learning Experience and Enablement of Litmos, as she shares her path from asset management to leading learning at a learning company, and the moment a Six Sigma project taught her to tie training to a measurable business outcome.

She also breaks down the "assumptive yes," a tactic she uses to drive training attendance and buy-in without waiting for permission, and explains why L&D teams don't need a five-star program when a fast, good-quality solution will do.

Allyson Roote, VP, Learning and Organizational Development of The Bonadio Group, joins us to discuss why training shouldn’t be the default solution to every performance problem. After building Bonadio’s learning and development function from a team of one to a team of nine, Allyson shares why she starts with diagnosis, not design, and how that approach leads to more effective solutions.

She also explores how AI is making distinctly human skills even more valuable in L&D, and why adaptability and authenticity are among the most important workplace skills today. She closes by reflecting on the mentor whose approach continues to shape how she leads and develops her team.

Join Kara Kirby, Relationship Manager at TrainingPros, as she shares her career journey from sales training in the tire industry to corporate learning and development, and discusses the experiences and lessons that have shaped her role in relationship management at TrainingPros.

She also explains how the instructional designer role is moving towards analysis and strategy, showing organizations what custom corporate training can look like when personalized learning solutions are within reach. Learning leaders still need instructional design consultants who can organize training people will finish.

Kassy LaBorie, Keynote Speaker, Author and L&D Pioneer of Kassy LaBorie Consulting, joins us to talk about what a career built on noticing things, from people and patterns to vintage Barbie dolls, can teach the learning and development field about staying curious in the age of AI. Expert leaders know a lot, which paradoxically makes genuine curiosity harder.

Kassy, host of The Spark Konnect podcast, discovered that stepping into unfamiliar territory forces the kind of authentic curiosity that matters most in learning leadership. When you move beyond your expertise, you stop performing knowledge and start asking real questions. That shift transforms how you approach talent development and team learning.

We sit down with Joe Stoup, Director of the Learning Experience Group at RealPage, Inc., where he oversees content development, content management and content delivery for a team of 32. Joe shares how AI is reshaping instructional design, why curiosity has become his team's most important skill, and why the research doesn't back up one of L&D's longest-held assumptions: learning styles.

Josiah Owens, Program Manager of Employee Development at INPO, talks about what it takes to build a career centered on impact rather than title. Josiah traces his path from video production and instructional design work to leading talent development inside the nuclear industry, and shares why he believes curiosity, more than expertise, is the most critical skill for learning and development professionals today. He also discusses his upcoming term as president of the ATD Greater Atlanta chapter, the mentor who shaped his leadership philosophy, and the book he recommends to every aspiring learning strategist building a career in talent development.

Blair Bekker, Director of Global Talent Development of Chewy, joins us to discuss why L&D must trade perfectionism for speed, how entire workforces learning new skills at once is turning L&D into a strategic partner to the business, and why proving measurable impact is what separates the leaders who move fast from the ones who stay stuck.

Christina Castelli, Head of Learning Operations and Measurement of Accenture, makes the case that L&D’s credibility with the business depends on one thing: connecting learning to outcomes before the training ever runs — not after.

Christina shares how she built Accenture’s SKY model, a learning-measurement framework designed to answer real business questions rather than justify program spend. She also explores what it means to use AI as an augmentation tool rather than a replacement, why discernment is the differentiating skill of the AI era, and how L&D professionals can start seeing generative AI as the opportunity to finally deliver the personalized, outcome-connected learning they’ve always wanted to build.

Scott Switalski, Director of Enterprise Learning and Development of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, joins us to explore why leadership is the most critical skill in any organization, how L&D professionals can function as cultural tugboats, and what it really means to develop people with courage, curiosity and compassion.

Scott brings three decades of L&D experience across healthcare, human services, contact centers and Native American tribal government. He shares how his team at CHOP thinks about AI as an augmentation tool rather than a replacement, why participant-centricity is reshaping how learning experiences are designed, and how L&D teams can earn their seat at the table by speaking the language of the business.

Peter Plumlee, Talent Development Manager of Ball Horticultural Company, explores why human connection remains L&D's most essential competency in an age of automation, what it really takes to lead a volunteer organization and how vulnerability is reshaping what great leadership development looks like.

Dr. Katie Campbell, Senior Director, Learning and Talent Management of Equifax, shares how she approaches L&D strategy within one of the company's largest business units — bridging corporate vision and workforce execution across performance, succession planning and learning.

Katie shares how she thinks about AI's role in reshaping workforce capabilities, why the shift to skills-based models is making learning ROI less squishy, and what Microsoft's sweeping HR overhaul signals about where org design is heading.