XR for LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT: 2021

Kristina Francis is the executive director of JFFLabs. In this role, she oversees advisory, acceleration, data, and investing initiatives that connect traditional systems with systems disruptors to enable equitable economic mobility. Kristina has more than 20 years of experience in corporate operations and entrepreneurial ventures focused on management consulting, business development, software and data integration, and impact investing competencies. Before joining JFF, Kristina served in a variety of roles of escalating authority with EsteemLogic, Booz Allen Hamilton, SAIC, General Dynamics, and American Institutes for Research.

Eli Weisman is the Chief Client & Growth Officer at Talespin. Eli pairs his deep understanding of our clients’ businesses with key opportunities for transformation in the evolving spatial computing landscape. Eli’s current focus includes growth strategy and engagement with clients and platform partners. He brings 25 years of experience in client engagement, strategy, and technology delivery. Eli has led multidisciplinary teams to the successful launch of products for major brands such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, Apple, RedBull, Microsoft, Facebook / Oculus, Google / YouTube, NBCUniversal, Sony, and Citi across the digital landscape.

Chris Taran, RSE, started his career in the electrical industry in 1995. He obtained his Certificate of Qualification with Red Seal Endorsement in 2000. After several years working at his trade his focus shifted to teaching as a trade’s instructor and in 2012, he was appointed the Directors of Apprenticeship and Training IBEW Local 2085. As a leader in the apprenticeship field he is responsible for curriculum, training delivery, staff and organizational partnerships. He is a member of NETCO’s National Training Committee. Chris is a graduate of the Technical Vocational Teacher program from Red River College and is currently completing his Business Management degree from the University of Winnipeg.

Greg Sullivan is director of communications and a 30-year Microsoft veteran who has been involved with XR since 2015. Sullivan works closely with the engineering teams building Microsoft HoloLens and mixed reality platform, along with the marketing and business development personnel bringing these technologies to market. Greg has held a variety of roles at Microsoft including network systems engineer, national account manager and product manager. He studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Illinois Chicago and lives in the Seattle area.

Tim Stutts (he/him) is a product design leader drawn to challenges involving interaction, user experience, prototyping, sensory feedback, data visualization and spatial computing. He is an ethical technologist who values data privacy and inclusive design. Tim is currently Principal Augmented Reality Product Designer for Vuforia Work Instructions at PTC. He previously served as Director of Product Design at Faceware, a leading developer of facial motion capture software and hardware. Prior to that he worked at Magic Leap and IBM.

Tomissa is the Director Kellogg North America Sales Learning & Development at Kellogg Company and has more than 30 years of diverse experience in L&D, Retail Sales, Supply Chain, HR, Sales Finance, Customer Service and DSD. She created a high-performance team to build Sales Capabilities; developed a Sales Learning & Development Value Proposition; and designed, developed, and implemented a Customer Engagement platform, a 3-year strategic collaboration for mutual sustainable growth with priority initiatives and Customer engagement roadmaps. She has a passion for creating a culture of Learning, emphasizing capability building and collaborating across the organization to drive impact.

Crystal Pena is the director at Quad YouthBuild. Through her work with Quad YouthBuild over the past 12 years, she has been able to assist underserved youth in reaching their full potential through education, training, and leadership development services. Crystal started her work in alternative education as a teacher. Since then, she has devoted the last 19 years working in various alternative education programs. Her experience includes grant writing, grant management, and contract monitoring with social service, state, and federal programs. This experience has been able to generate transformative and sustainable opportunities for underserved youth.

David Nedohin, co-founder and Chief Customer Officer of Scope AR, brings more than 20 years of experience in business development and supporting customers at all stages of the customer journey to drive the company’s vision to revolutionize the world of industrial training, maintenance, manufacturing and field support with AR technology. In this role, David manages key relationships with industry partners and works with some of the world’s leading global companies including, Lockheed Martin, Johnson & Johnson, and Aggreko, among others. He also is an industry thought-leader, often presenting on some of the most practical use cases and AR success stories across industries at leading industry events.

Audrey Mickahail is senior director of corporate solutions at JFFLabs. She is responsible for developing the strategy and scaling the impact of JFF advisory services for organizations looking to become impact employers. Before joining JFF, Audrey was a senior director at Gartner, a research and consulting firm, where she played many roles in a more than 20-year career. Most recently, she worked with multiple research teams to develop insights that she presented to clients globally at executive retreats and Gartner events. Before that, she led an advisory team. Earlier in her career, she led research teams at CEB and Meta Group, both of which were acquired by Gartner.

Marc is an experienced senior executive in XR, software, mobile, and consumer electronics, working in general management, product, marketing, and investment leadership roles to drive innovation. He is Vice President of HTC’s Vive business unit, where he heads XR Enterprise Software including strategy and software development and founded and runs the industry leading Vive X accelerator. He serves on the Board of Directors of the XRA industry association. Previously he was CEO at Digital Chocolate. Prior to that, Marc headed marketing and ecommerce for flash memory leader SanDisk, and was VP of Global Brand Management at games industry leader Activision.

Kevin is the Program Manager for ACS Learning & Development with Delta Airlines. He began his career with Delta as a part time ramp agent more than 25 years ago, advanced into Airport Customer Service Learning, and later moved to the world headquarters operation in Atlanta taking on the challenge of Project Leader overseeing all of Delta’s new station startups. Because of his longevity with the airline in a variety of roles, he recently designed the online mentor program in response to the safety needs of above and below-wing employees throughout the Delta system. In addition, Kevin conceptualized and rolled out the first-ever virtual training program for Delta below-wing ramp agents.

Ayreann Luedders is currently Sr. Director II, Walmart U.S. Academies. In this role, Ayreann and her team are responsible for the operation, communication and standards review for the 200 field-based training Academies which includes the training of associates from the role of hourly supervisor through market manager. The Academies were introduced to Walmart in 2016 and are focused on training Walmart associates to perform their roles using a hands-on approach along with integrating technology. She holds an undergraduate degree in Accounting from the University of Central Oklahoma and a Master’s in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Kansas State University.

Stacy Holliday is an Associate Director at JFF who leads digital transformation initiatives for partner institutions and organizations, ensuring new technologies are implemented effectively and sustainably, aligned with JFF’s social impact goals toward the equitable success of learners and workers at scale. Her recent projects focus on implementation of innovative technology including immersive learning solutions at educational sites and small businesses, and institutional transformation through guided pathways as a strategic advisor for the national Student Success Center network.

Cortney Harding is a global thought leader, published author, and speaker on emerging technology and the role of virtual and augmented reality. She is the founder and CEO of Friends With Holograms, a transformational VR/AR agency focused on creating innovative, powerful, and effective experiences for training. Clients include Walmart, Verizon, Accenture, PWC, Coca-Cola, and Lowe’s. She is also the winner of multiple awards, including “Best VR/AR” at Mobile World Congress, SXSW Innovation Award Finalist, and Top HR product by HR Executive.

Dan Guenther is a Managing Director at Accenture and leads Extended Reality globally. He oversees Accenture’s extended reality business strategy and ecosystem relationships, and is responsible for incubating, prototyping and scaling extended reality solutions to help our clients drive continuous innovation at scale. Mr. Guenther has been at Accenture for more than 16 years and has extensive experience scaling digital technologies for our clients in Utilities, Health, Medical Technology, Retail, and Consumer Goods & Services.

Chike Aguh is the Chief Innovation Officer at the United States Department of Labor. He leads efforts to use innovative technologies, partnerships and practices to accelerate the Department’s mission of delivering a future of work that includes and dignifies every American. Previously, Chike was the inaugural Head of Economic Mobility Pathways at the Education Design Lab, Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Venture Partner at New Markets Venture Partners, member of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Future of Work Taskforce, Lecturer at Columbia University and guest speaker at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy.

Lorne Fade is an entrepreneur and co-founder for VR Vision Inc, a Toronto-based virtual and augmented reality technology company that enhances immersive training outcomes for some of the world’s largest brands. He is also a partner in Reality Well, a VR platform providing bucket-list experiences for senior living, long-term care, and the healthcare sector. Additionally, Lorne is the founder of Fade Digital, a data-driven AI-enhanced digital marketing consultancy that provides a data-driven approach to digital advertising across all major platforms (Google/Facebook/Instagram/YouTube/Amazon/LinkedIn) as well as detailed conversion analysis to enhance ROI.

Meryl Evans is an author and a digital marketing consultant with over 20 years of experience who happens to be born hearing-free. Previously, she worked for two Fortune 500 companies and the FAA. She’s a highly regarded speaker on accessibility and disabilities. She has spoken at AccessU, ID24, Content Marketing World, Accessibility.com’s AccessibilityPlus, #A11yTO Conf, WordPress Accessibility Day, and others. Her most recent forays include delving into accessibility in virtual reality where she has recently joined XR Access and the W3C Immersive Captions Community Group.

Cornelius Dowdell is the President of the ATD Great Atlanta chapter; Talent Development & HR Strategist at The Nelius Strategy; and Lead Spice Curator for Nelius Spices. Cornelius has managed education and learning for institutions and collaborates with Fortune 500 companies over the past decade. In addition, he has more than 15 years of experience in leadership and managerial roles, encompassing operational and program management teams, human resources, corporate learning and career planning.

As the VP of Client Solutions at Roundtable Learning, Nick oversees the sales team’s development and growth, including business development and account management. Nick works with learning and development leaders from Fortune 500 companies to solve their business challenges by redefining What’s Possible in Learning with AR/VR. With a passion for learning technologies, Nick travels across the US as a featured speaker for VR training projects and meets with learning and development professionals about building blended learning programs

Walter is the Head of Talent & Learning Technology and has been with Aggreko for 8 years and held roles based out of Aggreko Dubai, UAE and Houston, TX locations. He has more than 10 years’ experience leading teams with focuses in Learning Content Development, Translation/Localization, Technology and Innovation. Walter’s primary focus at Aggreko is in developing and implementing new technologies to support skilling and developing talent for key roles across aggreko as well as leading the strategy and deployment of Immersive Technologies such as Augmented Reality across the organization.

Bill Curtis-Davidson is a Co-Director and Sr. Emerging Tech Accessibility Consultant at the Partnership on Employment and Accessible Technology (PEAT). In this role, he works to advance the accessibility of emerging workplace technologies, including XR and AI, to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities. He is a key advisor to XR Access and partners with the disability community, tech companies, and the public to advance adoption of inclusive design and promising practices for tech accessibility.

Ashley Coffey is a Consultant on Emerging Technology Accessibility at the Partnership on Employment and Accessible Technology (PEAT). In this role, she works to advance the accessibility of emerging workplace technologies to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities. She is an active member of the XR Access Initiative and collaborates with industry stakeholders to further the adoption of inclusive design for accessible technology.

Laura Chadwick serves as the XR Association’s Vice President of Industry Relations. In this position, Chadwick leads membership, member and partner development, market research and oversees marketing and event strategies. Chadwick previously served as a director of corporate member engagement at the National Restaurant Association and as a federal lobbyist within its government affairs department. Additionally, Chadwick worked for the Consumer Technology Association as a federal lobbyist, U.S. Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-05) and U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff (CA-28)

Katie Booth is based in the SF Bay Area, joined SAP North America in 2013, and now leads Corporate Social Responsibility for the region. In this role, she is responsible for bringing to life the three global CSR pillars: connecting employees to purpose, accelerating best-run non-profits & social enterprises and building digital skills for underrepresented youth. She works closely to co-innovate with education partners, social enterprises, collaboratives, and community organizations. She spent her early career working within large organizations where she mobilized 100K+ volunteers and managed multi-million dollar corporate donations to improve communities and schools across North America.

Daniel Blair is the CEO and founder of Bit Space Development Ltd where he focuses on building innovation-focused research projects for clients exclusively from the planet earth. Daniel is an award-winning entrepreneur & software developer. Through initiatives and organizations, Daniel has been directly involved in the interactive digital media and entrepreneurship ecosystem by sitting on boards and committees that align with a singular goal, to create the best possible ecosystem for hacking and building. Daniel is well known for being a tinkerer, mad scientist, and lifelong learner.

Clare Bertrand is a director at JFFLabs. She leads efforts to integrate technology and innovative best practices to ensure that young people can make well-informed decisions about their education and career pathways. Clare focuses on innovating and scaling career pathway decision making for young people who are over-age, under-credited, and low-income. She leads a team that works with communities, networks, and districts to identify and take advantage of career pathways for young people using technology. Her achievements include launching JFF’s first web and mobile platform, MyBestBets.

Dave Beck is the founder and managing partner at Foundry 45, an immersive technology company that develops enterprise-level virtual reality training experiences. His company has built hundreds of experiences for notable clients such as Delta Air Lines, Chevron, and UPS. A passionate advocate of his industry, Dave is a frequent speaker on topics related to technology and the future of learning. Before starting Foundry 45, he held leadership positions in both training and technology. Dave also serves on advisory boards at Georgia Tech, where he earned his MBA, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and the MAK Historic District.

Samuel Akey is the manager of renewables training and innovation at Avangrid, a global energy services and delivery company. He is an experienced operations training manager with a demonstrated history of working in the renewables and environment industry. Samuel is skilled in power plants, management, strategic planning, project management, and energy. He graduated from the University of Louisville, College of Education.

Alex Swartsel is deputy director of acceleration at JFFLabs. In that role, she helps build and grow JFF’s emerging Impact Accelerator, which is transforming U.S. workforce and education systems by expanding access to innovative technologies that have the potential to revolutionize how Americans work and learn. Before joining JFF, Alex served as chief of development, finance, and external affairs for Teach for America’s Washington, DC, region, a role in which she oversaw fundraising, finance, and communications for a 22-person team supporting more than 3,000 educators and leaders.