Sean Stowers
Sean Stowers is the founder, Chief Learning Officer and CEO of WeLearn. Sean started WeLearn with two things in mind – the first to build better humans through learning and the second – to get up every day and work with people he loved to work with and do really cool things.
That is what WeLearn is all about.
Prior to starting WeLearn, Sean worked at a global education consulting and publishing firm, were he held a number of roles and worked across a number of industries – working with clients to launch global customer training programs, implementing multi-year strategic outsourcing initiatives for learning platforms and content development, leading teams responsible for the creation of awarding winning learning experiences and advising corporations on their educational assistance and workforce development programs.
Sean began his career in learning with IBM Learning Services which is where he credits having some of the best teachers in the world in understanding how to envision services – and to sell the invisible.
Sean aims to be a thought partner to all of the clients he has worked with. He is adept at identifying the dots that need to be connected – and helping those around him to see that as well.
Sean lives in Chicago with his partner, and their two dogs – two incredibly bossy shih tzus.
Katie Evans
Katie Evans is the Chief Creative Officer of WeLearn. Katie combines her background in entertainment, video game design, creative writing, and education to create immersive online learning experiences that delight and inspire learners. She has won many awards for her course designs, including three Catalyst Exemplary Course Awards and two Brandon Hall Awards. In 2014, she was a top-ten finalist for Florida’s Innovator of the Year. Her instructional design success also supports her teaching habit—she celebrated her 20th year teaching in fall 2018.
Diane Gaa
and Program Management
Diane Gaa is our Vice President of Learning Strategy and Program Management at WeLearn located in Peoria, Illinois. As SHRM- Senior Certified Professional and Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Diane is an expert in building high performing global teams and executing transformation strategies for human resources and learning & development functions. Diane is a life-long learner currently studying for her Lean Six Sigma Black Belt designation and SHRM Inclusive Workplace certification.
Jarell Fox
Learning Experience and Design
Jarell Fox is a Director of Learning Experience Design for WeLearn. Jarell is an award-winning learning experience designer with more than ten years of experience creating tech-savvy courses for corporations, higher education, and K-12 institutions. She is an expert in LMS administration and authentic assessment design, with multiple Catalyst and Quality Matters awards and recognitions.
William "Bill" Beers
William "Bill" Beers specializes in enrapturing learners in unexpected, yet completely relevant, learning media experiences. His designs have won several awards, including multiple Catalyst Exemplary Course Awards. When he's not designing media magic, Bill teaches career planning courses for community college students.
Katie Garcia
Katie Garcia is the Chief Marketing Officer at WeLearn! For more than 10 years, Katie has served in a senior capacity in strategic planning, community and traditional media relations, content creation, digital strategies and social media. She has worked on both the client and agency side and has deep experience in learning and training. Katie holds a social media certification from Sprout Social and has received many accolades from PRSA. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and Spanish from the University of Kansas-Lawrence.
David DiBella
David is responsible for the technical implementation and strategy behind all things digital. Leveraging experience from a career that has spanned 3 decades and 47 countries, David is a continual learner. He enjoys implementing solutions that are fun, engaging and elevate brand awareness. David enjoys the outdoors, traveling and spending time with his family.
Michelle Sanger
Michelle Sanger is a Remote Environment Producer at WeLearn. Michelle helps bring learning to life through virtual (remote) engagement interactions while giving excellent support to her facilitators and learners. As a learning and development professional working with global teams, she is also adept as a strategic thought partner skilled in learning implementation and quality assurance.
Michelle is an expert in anticipating customer needs. She strives to design the perfect remote environment for participants to effectively learn.
Sean McConnell
Sean McConnell is a writer, designer, and learning solutions architect with over a decade of experience in higher ed and corporate design.
With expertise in course development, education, multimedia development, game and narrative-based design, web content development, mobile-first design, human resources, and business management, Sean is an experienced innovator who can collaborate with diverse organizations to develop solutions that achieve goals and exceed expectations.
Laura Smith Dunaief
Laura Smith Dunaief is a WeLearn Strategic Partner with over two decades of experience developing and facilitating engaging custom learning solutions to employees and leaders at all levels for Fortune 500 companies, associations and non-profit organizations.
As a learning specialist, she leverages her former corporate career as a “serial specialist,” where she led sales, operations, call centers, organization-wide culture change initiatives, project teams, equities trading, and training organizations. This broad business perspective drives her emphasis on practical learning application and on measurable results.
Programmatically, she focuses on communication, leadership, management and technical skills oriented around products, services and sales. While she has specialized expertise in the financial sector, she has also worked extensively with pharma, media and non-profit organizations.
In her spare time, Laura designs and directs educational programs that drive diversity and inclusion and prepare the next generation of leaders in financial services.
Kate Hixson
Dr. Kate Hixson is a WeLearn Strategic Partner who has been immersed in the adult learning and training field for over a decade. While she can design impactful learning environments across all fields, she specializes in human performance, teamwork training and interpersonal skills training. Dr. Hixson received her PhD in Educational Technologies, with her research and dissertation completed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where she developed a model for astronaut team training for long duration spaceflight missions. Since then, Dr Hixson has developed outcomes-based training for numerous high profile clients, including a Who’s Who list of Fortune 500 companies. She also is a successful entrepreneur, and is passionate about bringing her expertise to small businesses via coaching and consulting. She’s an avid writer, speaker, podcaster and life-long learner.
Heather Hutchens
Heather is a WeLearn Strategic Partner, who has joyfully worked within the intersections of learning and technology for more than two decades.
As a serial contractor and consultant, she helps organizations of all sizes and industries get ‘unstuck’ from just providing training into an operating framework of continuous improvement through strategic learning process and solutions management. Some that you might be familiar with are Amazon, Biogen, JLL, J&J, McKesson, NCR, PayChex, PwC and Takeda.
Heather also brings significant specialized expertise in highly regulated industries such as Life Sciences.
Bill Ryan
William J. Ryan, Ph.D. is the founder and Principal Consultant of Ryan Consulting, LLC and a Strategic Partner and Fractional Learning Strategist (FLS) at WeLearn. Bill’s background includes leading performance support and instructional design teams globally including government contracts (Department of Energy), high technology (IBM & Westinghouse), and health-related industries including home health care and insurance (Humana) and has served in positions as VP of Education/CLO, VP of Technology/CIO, and National Leader of Curriculum & Technology Solutions.
Kandice Kidd
Kandice Kidd is a self-professed learning management and design enthusiast. Having been a successful one-person eLearning team, she is passionate about providing small learning teams with practical, immediate solutions to optimize performance.
Kandice has worked in the association sector for the past 12 years overseeing the design and development of digital learning initiatives and programs, managing teams, operationalizing learning strategies, and streamlining workflows and processes. Kandice is also a recognized speaker on eLearning management. Kandice lives in Oak Park, IL, and is an unapologetic francophile, travel addict, and book lover.
Tami Wederbrand
For more than twenty-five years, Tami has designed, created, delivered, and supported customized learning solutions for colleagues and clients. From creating learning management systems to designing courses and customizing training and implementation plans, she has developed sustainable learning programs for global clients in the corporate, government, association, and higher education markets.
Since writing the first published instructor’s manuals for WebCT 1.0 and Blackboard 1.0, she has developed and delivered LTI and API courses, and provided training and support for administrators, instructors, and learners in national and proprietary learning management systems from Moodle to Canvas. Specializing in developing strategic plans, her visual templates and implementation plans drove continuous improvement for thousands of higher education institutions and chains, including Western Governors University, Kaplan, Northeastern, NYU, Bentley, United States Military Academy, and Villanova.
Her love of learning inspired her to develop the Professional Development Library, a global series of professional development courses used by associations and higher education institutions throughout the United States and Canada. Now living in Walpole, Maine, Tami uses her passion for storytelling to help Maine artists and writers share their stories online.
Claire Hunter
Claire Hunter is the Executive Assistant (EA) and Project Coordinator for WeLearn. Claire helps keep the trains running on time and everyone's schedule moving and organized. Claire provides support to all of WeLearn. She is also a performer specializing in singing, acting, and dancing. This has evolved into being a voiceover artist for WeLearn, which is such a passion! She is a proud alumna of James Madison University, where she met her husband, and they love taking care of their sweet rescue dog, Junie.
Barbara Ruziska
Barbara Ruziska recently graduated from WVU with a bachelor in Multiple Disciplinary studies with focuses in Public Relations, Business Management and Communications. Barbara is also a well-accomplished Equestrian (Horse sport) whom has traveled Nationally and Internationally to represent her State as well as her Country. Having spent many years traveling and networking in this industry, Barbara found her strengths in being able to network and functionally communicate with people of all different ethnicities and social backgrounds. Although a recent addition to the WeLearn team, Barbara shares the same goals and vision of creating better humans through learning and believes that this goal needs to be imbedded in our societies structure, now more then ever.
Favorite quote: “Change is not necessary, survival is not mandatory”
- E. Edward Demmings
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