Angela Gilleland

I began my career as a K-12 social studies teacher because I've always been interested in education and the way people learn. I have a master's degree in history and went on to become a college professor, but I soon realized I was more interested in fostering the learning than I was in the subject itself of history. So I went back to get a PhD in instructional design. Simultaneously, I was pursuing a corporate career because I thought I wanted to be a college professor, and I didn't want to be one of those college professors who had never actually done the work. I took a corporate job focused on organizational development and leadership development. Having not grown up with leadership role models, I found leadership development research fascinating and life-changing, and I actually attribute all of my success to finding books like early books like Crucial Conversations. That really sparked this passion for leadership development in me, and I naturally gravitate to the latest research in leadership development. I design a lot of the leadership development myself and with a team of instructional designers. What really separates the stuff that we create from vendor content is that we root our content in research, and we don't just quote the research on a slide, we create experiences that allow our participants to apply what they've learned in the course. It's very practical, and they walk away from the training knowing exactly how they're going to apply it. I got to this place from following my passion for leadership development and displaying that on the job, and getting promoted, and moving my way through the system based on what I wanted to achieve with leadership development. I've worked in learning and development for my entire career, about 22 years in Adult Learning and Development.