Who moved my classroom? Going completely virtual for government trainers

Are you one of the hundreds of government trainers who had to shift all their training online in just a few weeks? Are you facing the challenge of helping your staff create and deliver virtual training? Are you learners suffering from "Zoom fatigue?"

Dr. Dana Sims and Dr. Bill Brantley, longtime government learning and development professionals, will help you navigate the new reality of government training. Dr. Sims will discuss the lessons in resilience she learned from her radical sabbatical. Dr. Brantley will share his experiences from helping a department of 13 learning and development professionals shift rapidly to moving all training online for all 13,000+ employees at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He will demonstrate how he managed a four-day leadership forum for nearly 1,300 supervisors/managers, four nationally-known keynote speakers, and 49 breakout sessions.

Dr. Dana E. Sims leads by example to promote courage and question conventional  wisdom. Dr. Sims is the CEO of Fedability, which aims to modernize the business of learning and human capital in the public sector to ensure they are a strategic partner. As part of the Federal workforce, Dr. Sims has served for over 10 years across several diverse agencies learning to appreciate the variety of missions within the government. In 2019, Dr. Sims took a radical break from her career to sail the eastern seaboard and the Bahamas to broaden and refresh her perspective. Little did she know, she’d be returning to the workforce to help navigate the workplace during and in the aftermath of a pandemic. Dr. Sims received her Doctorate (2009) in IO Psychology from the University of Central Florida, specializing in evaluation, teamwork, and trust. She also earned her SHRM-Senior Certified Professional in 2021.

Dr. Brantley is a scholar of leadership theory and development, organizational theory, project management, and communication theory. Along with a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Management, he has a Master’s in Political Management, an MBA in Project Management, and a Master’s in Education in Organizational Leadership, Performance, and Change. Dr. Brantley holds three project management certifications, agile coaching certification, five HR certifications, data scientist certification, and is working on Associate Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation. Dr. Brantley has been an adjunct faculty member since 2000 for the University of Louisville’s Department of Communication and taught project management communication from 2012 to 2018 for the University of Maryland’s Project Management Center for Excellence. He is the author of The Persuasive Project Manager: Communicating for Understanding (2019) and Four Scenarios for the Future of the Federal Government: Collected Essays on Transforming Government (2019).