Coline loves and collects hats. So, it’s no surprise she wears them literally and figuratively. Some of the hats she’s worn include au pair, tutor, retail manager, production manager, procurement and logistics manager, coach, software analyst, trainer, business owner, and project manager.
As a quality analyst at a software development company, Coline’s acute attention to detail caught the glitches and bugs before they found the customers. Wearing her hard hat in her role as procurement and logistics manager, she was there to make sure that everyone had what they needed just-in-time during the construction and commissioning of the $500M Titan Methanol plant, which at completion was the world’s largest capacity plant of its kind. Coline was there for civil engineers, hospital administrators, academic professors, training directors and construction managers to bring their projects home and guide their success, wearing her project manager hat.
Of all these, learning strategist and instructional designer are, by far, Coline’s favorite hats. These hats let her explore her creativity. She loves to use social media to expand her skills, as well as extend training programs into the virtual community. With her love of technology, she’s always exploring creative ways to introduce its use in the classroom, helping to bridge the gap between learners and content. Since turning all of her talents and experience to workplace development, she has helped local, national and global organizations discover new processes, new skills and new successes.
Coline, originally from Trinidad, is an island girl who has made Southern California her home. She loves to share her island culture by cooking traditional Trinidadian cuisine and playing steel pan and calypso music for her friends. Coline also dabbles in photography and loves to travel. Her quirky hobby of collecting hats – baseball hats, driver caps, sombreros and fedoras – always has her on the lookout for a new one to add to her collection.
Coline is currently general partner of Everest CS, a consulting company that provides workplace learning support, such as strategic analysis of training programs, learning needs analysis and instructional design for classroom and online learning. She works with global Fortune 500 organizations to deliver programs that are fun for the learners and hit business objective targets.
Diane is happily accident prone. She began her career in learning and performance as an “accidental” trainer over twenty years ago while working for a city government. From that moment, she was responsible for developing training programs for law enforcement officers, 9-1-1 dispatchers and even the State Attorney’s office. In that environment she rolled out training in topics such as hostage negotiations, verbal judo, as well as handling criticism in stressful situations. No wonder Diane can keep her cool in the most challenging moments. She was accidentally thrust into project management when she was selected to manage the quality and acceptance criteria for a citywide enterprise computer systems rollout.
Since her “accident-prone” days, Diane holds certifications in project management and workplace learning and performance - she is PMP and CPLP. Diane is principal consultant and partner at Everest CS, a workplace performance consulting firm located in Orange County, California, specializing in instructional systems design and project management. In this capacity, she has managed projects for enterprise systems rollouts in South Africa, Europe, Great Britain, the United States and Canada.
Diane loves being involved in outreach programs, bringing project management and CPLP awareness to university students and working professionals. She has designed and presented study preparation courses for PMP and CPLP candidates, and participated in writing test questions for PMI at one of their Exam Item Writing conferences. She extends her volunteerism through her local ASTD chapter – ASTD-OC, where she holds key leadership positions.
In her spare time, Diane is a photography enthusiast. Her images have been exhibited in California art galleries. She also enjoys travelling and eating foods from all regions of the globe.
Lou Russell is president and CEO of Russell Martin & Associates, a consulting and training company focused on improving business results. Lou and her staff deliver learning experiences that are fun, flexible, fast and measurable. She focuses on project management, leadership, and organizational learning problems.
She is the author of The Accelerated Learning Fieldbook, Project Management for Trainers, IT Leadership Alchemy, Leadership Training, Training Triage, and the newly released 10 Steps to Successful Project Management. She is a frequent contributor to Computer World, Cutter Executive Reports, and Inside Indiana Business, among others, and publishes the monthly Learning Flash electronic newsletter. Lou is also the author of The People Side of Project Management, part of the Villanova Advanced Project Management certificate program. A popular speaker, Lou addresses national and international conferences such as the Project Management Institute, Project World, LotuSphere, ASTD, and the Society of Information Management (SIM). She has been the chair of the Shared Insight's Project Management Reality conference. She holds an (expired) computer science degree from Purdue University, where she taught database and programming classes, and a master's degree in instructional technology from Indiana University. Her career has included positions as a programmer, database administrator, help desk implementer/manager, technical trainer, and manager of technical training. She has experience consulting in IT, sales, operations, and human resources process improvement.
Igniting, affirming, and sustaining learning is a personal mission, evidenced by Lou's activities outside the company. In addition to work with children's charities and the Indianapolis SIM organization, she coaches and plays soccer, and teaches religious education. Lou is also a senior consultant with the Cutter Consortium and has served on the High Tech Task Force in Indiana, as well as the boards of ITT Technical Institute and Butler University. She was elected to "Who's Who in Indiana Technology" in 1995 and named "Women of the Year" in 2000 by Women & Hi Tech.
Nadine Martin has had many different aspects to her career including being an automobile insurance adjuster, trial preparation assistant for the Manhattan and Bronx District Attorneys, a rock climbing and backpacking salesperson and a member of the U.S. Women's Judo Team. She has spent the majority of her career in the technology learning field. She also has been the technology training manager for Northeast Utilities (a New England-based utility company),the IS learning manager for LL Bean and the e-learning manager for Bean. During her corporate career she helped to introduce the accelerated learning methodology at both companies as well as help to redesign the way in which learning was done at the company. She is certified in the usage of the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument and has been utilizing technology to deliver learning for most of her career.
Nadine has bachelor's and master's degrees in education as well as having done post graduate work in counseling. She is currently an independent consultant as well as the supervisor for instructor development for the Eastern Division of the National Ski Patrol.