Welcome & Introductions

• Hello everyone! My name is Jerome and I'm located just outside Vancouver BC on the beautiful west coast of Canada. I am blessed and proud to lead the Learning and Development team at Best Buy Canada. Our day to day involves training and educating our teammates from onboarding on their first day to developing leaders & executives. We assess, investigate, develop, design, create, animate, code, film, facilitate and administer our LMS. I've been a disruptor in this space for 30ish years, and I love learning as passionately as I did on my first day as a teacher/developer. 
• I look forward to learning more about the enhanced toolset in the 360 platform and hearing about innovative ways you all are using 360.
• Meet Loki 😁He's our 6th rescue/rehome/foster doggo ( and demi-god of mischief).

Hi, my name is Valerie Weber, and I work as a Learning Designer in Pennsylvania. My primary office is in Arkansas, so I travel there occasionally. On a daily basis, I update existing programs while also creating new self-guided eLearning courses. I am looking forward to learning new AI tips and tricks to help expedite my work.

Hello Fellow Education Professionals!!! 

My name is Pat McKinnon. I am an Instructional Designer and Excellus BCBS in Syracuse, NY.  Past ID life was in Higher Ed at Syracuse University and before that I worked at English language learning schools in Guiyang, China.  I am originally, from Rochester, Michigan (love seeing all the Michiganders posting below - One Pride!).  I am super pumped to be in this cohort expanding my Articulate 360 knowledge, learning more about AI integration into design, and most importantly meeting some likeminded individuals who love learning. 

And our pup Bailey is adored by my entire family. 

Hi Everyone! I'm Kristin Sleeper from Fort Worth, Texas - howdy!  I'm a Senior Program Manager for Learning at Electronic Arts. I've been with EA for 4 years, but 20+ years in the learning field. I plan, design, and develop learning experiences for our employees and use Articulate tools for online training solutions. I am taking every opportunity to learn how AI can support my work and excited about this cohort!

Meet my dog Indy - he is a black German Shephard. He is attached to my hip and never leaves my side! 

Hello! I'm Jenn Harrah and I live in Baltimore, MD. I work for ICF as a Learning Technologist Specialist. I regularly use Rise and Storyline to develop training products for a variety of clients. 

I joined this cohort to learn about Articulate's AI capabilities and how the AI Assistant can help streamline our instructional design and development processes. I'm excited to learn how to incorporate the AI capabilities into our workflow and help us create innovative products!

Hi everyone, I am Robin Wright and I live and work in a small town in Florida, US, called Dunedin. It is just north of Clearwater, FL. I work remotely as a Learning Designer for a company out of the UKI called Sage. The team I am on creates training for our products as well as topical. This is my cat, Lucky. He loves to keep me company while I work. I love learning and this is great way to learn from people who so the same job using the same tools. .

Hi everyone!

My name is Nate Schickling and I am from Rochester, NY, the home of Kodak, Genesee Beer and garbage plates (a true delicacy). I work for Excellus BlueCross BlueSheild as the Instructional Designer for HR. My day-to-day work consists of consultations with team leads of potential trainings, design, development, implementation and evaluation of learning content into our LMS system, Workday Learning. I am currently working on an audit/update of our full HR learning content catalog to ensure all offerings adhere to our HR Learning Style Guide standards and guidelines and also are 508 Accessibility compliant.

I joined the Cohort to expand my knowledge and skill using the AI tool kit within Articulate to offer an elevated learning experience to our employees.

This is my 11 year old Pit/Pointer nanny dog Joy with my 4 year old Ruth and 2 year old Maeve.

And our 9 year old kitty Pidge who kept showing up lost, skinny and cold on our doorstep for a week or two this October before we took her in and tried to find out who she belonged to. (We have officially adopted her now)

Hi, all! I'm Mary Ann Williams, a Salesforce Service Cloud Release & Training Operations Specialist with Thomson Reuters. I've been with the company almost 24 years and have worn many training hats, going back to classroom training for our customers, evolving that to virtual and self-paced training, and managing global training teams. I previously used Adobe Captivate and am a big fan of software simulation for hands-on learning.

I support the delivery, adoption, and enablement of our CRM platform across our Customer Service & Support organization for release communications, training materials, and documentation. I just completed migration of our training content to Rise (as phase one) and am excited to start learning Storyline to modernize our team's courses. I've played with the AI tools in Rise quite a bit, but am just starting to learn Storyline.

I work from home in beautiful southwestern Colorado, where our only pet  is Phoebe, an affectionate barn cat who came with the house when we bought it. She prefers being outside (even in the snow), but is definitely a lap cat! She loves rolling in dirt (the softer and dirtier the better!) and follows me around outside having long meaningful (to her) conversations. So far, she hasn't provided useful solutions to any challenges at work, but I'll keep trying.

PS - I see several of you are from AZ, where my husband and I lived for almost 30 years (and may be back soon). I do miss the beautiful mild winters there, but not the heat!

Hey there, Katie H from Philadelphia, PA. Very excited to be a part of this learning experience. I am a Sr. Instructional Designer with over 15 years of experience in Learning, Development, Design and LMS Administration. Looking forward to gaining knowledge from articulate and through my peers. 

Hi! 

I am Susan Sampson and I work remotely from Cleveland Ohio at Frontline Education. I help educators confidently use the tools designed to support their work. Through instructional videos, interactive courses, feature articles, and live webinars, I turn complex software functionality into clear, practical guidance. I’m excited to learn more AI techniques and tools to make customer education more scalable, engaging, and effective. I am looking forward to meeting everyone.

My co-workers, Stella, Lola and Luna are always ready for a snack break!