Member Spotlight

Tell us about your experience in the Talent Development space, including places you've worked, roles you've held, and organizations you're a part of.

I absolutely love helping people get to the point from dreaming to accomplishing. This has been true throughout my career.

My career started in academia at Parsons the New School, where I taught in a program aimed at people switching careers, in my case the graphic design department. I taught technical design skills to get our students workforce ready in one semester.

I then went on to do a lot of community work with K-12 with the intersection of arts and technology, trying to help build up the STEM pipeline. I found myself wanting to realign more toward adult education during this time and enrolled in the Purdue Learning Design and Technology program.

While I was pursuing my masters with Purdue, I was able to present on the state of XR training in 2017 at Educause, I also was able to present at the Society of Information Technology and Teacher Education multiple papers on hands on STEM and arts integration for learning and development. This was also when I started to get involved with ATD of the Upstate, which helped me secure a job with the state of South Carolina organization ReadySC.

At this time I was also helping Mental Health America of Greenville county establish themselves as an Americorps site. I was able to take the students I was working with to our local ATD meetings and they were blown away that these types of resources and community existed.

About that same time, I was recruited to come to North Carolina and work on the NC FAST team as a content developer. The bridge between development and end user with a chance to use my content creation skills has always been my sweet spot.

At this point I started getting involved with ATD RTA, and helped co-lead the Learning Trends and Innovations SIG for 3 years. After my time at NC FAST, I moved on to the service maintenance organization Bell and Howell.

While I was at Bell and Howell as a Senior Instructional Designer, I was able to help make significant strides in their digital transformation activity. I was also in charge of our Training Magazine award application, which in the years I was part of this process we won a Best Practice award and went from ranking 71 to 15.

Subsequently, I was recruited to work at Uber Eats on the Global Sales Enablement team and helped with Salesforce rollout, Direct product documentation, and redoing the Global New Hire onboarding program. At this time I stepped back from ATD a bit as I had to refocus my energy on some family matters, but I was always and still am thankful for this chapter's ongoing efforts to help support local learning and development professionals.

I have recently taken a short term contract at Bio-Rad and have continued to do small projects (3D printing, electronics, commission art) and contracts (curriculum and L&D) through my company SuMo Design. I'm looking forward to getting more involved with ATD RTA again in the near future and I'm always thankful for the wonderful connections and professional growth I've been able to enjoy as part of this chapter.

What are some of your interests, strengths, and unique qualities that would help others get to know you better?
I'm able to translate technical concepts into understandable terms easily. I love making things, currently obsessed with how to integrate my 3D printers into other areas. I'm also always fascinated by XR and what it means for the future of our industry. 

Favorite quote:

“When human beings acquired language, we learned not just how to listen but how to speak. When we gained literacy, we learned not just how to read but how to write. And as we move into an increasingly digital reality, we must learn not just how to use programs but how to make them. In the emerging highly programmed landscape ahead, you will either create the software or you will be the software. It’s really that simple: Program, or be programmed.”

― Douglas Rushkoff, Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age

Are there specific people in the Talent Development space you follow and why?
Aleatha Singleton - I have never seen anybody break down the UX of VR as well as they have. They are always up to date and generous with their content. Cortney Harding - She is alway trying to figure out how to build the bridge between XR and L&D more effectively and efficiently. Similar reasons for Chad Udell.

Do you have a lesson you’ve learned in your career you’d like to share with others?

Be yourself, be professional and don't settle... Also know yourself, not every team is the right fit. It is ok to wait for an opportunity or move to a team that better aligns with how you work. There are multiple billions of people on this planet, it's ok for us to work differently to create value.

Do you have any favorite books or resources that you think others would find helpful?
Psychology of Learning for Instruction by Mary Driscoll and E-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning by Ruth C. Clark.

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-molnar/

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