Meet Some of the Experts Powering Learning Leadership 2026

Focus: Scaling Learning for Maximum Impact

Laura Bartus will share how large-scale learning strategies can connect programs, metrics, and leadership development to drive meaningful business and customer impact. She also focuses on how leaders can address resistance to change.

Focus: Strategic Learning for SMBs: Driving Impact with AI and Business Alignment

Becky Burke will explore how L&D leaders can partner with business leaders and SMEs, integrate AI into learning strategies, and build high-impact leadership development programs—with a focus on smaller organizations and teams and those with limited resources.

Focus: Leading with Intention: Scaling Values-Driven Leadership in a Changing World

Danielle Eisenach-Reichel will focus on values-based leadership, facilitating strategic conversations on growth and development, and helping leaders thoughtfully leverage AI. Her work centers on translating leadership principles into practical behaviors that strengthen decision-making, alignment, and leadership capability across organizations.

Focus: Positioning Learning as a Strategic Business Driver

Brandy Ford will explore how L&D leaders can elevate learning from a support function to a strategic partner by leveraging enterprise capability building, analytics-driven decision making, and scalable strategies that connect development directly to business outcomes and organizational transformation.

Focus: Leading with Data: Uncovering Influence & Building Future-Ready Leaders

Sarah Holywell will discuss how organizations can use data in smarter ways to identify leadership influence and design future-focused leadership programs, leveraging AI-enabled practice environments to help emerging leaders build key capabilities through repetition, feedback, and immersive scenarios.

Focus: Transforming Learning Through Strategy & Technology

Dr. Frank Nguyen will share insights from leading enterprise learning functions across multiple industries.  He will focus on on how L&D leaders can align business strategy with technology and individual and organizational performance, and drive organizational transformation in a rapidly evolving digital workplace.

Focus: The AI-Powered Skills Revolution

As AI accelerates change, traditional learning models can’t keep up. Skills are becoming obsolete faster than ever, requiring a more agile approach to talent development. Marci Paino will explore how AI can help organizations anticipate emerging skills, build future-ready programs, and enable teams to learn at the speed of innovation.

Focus: Leading the Next Era of Learning Innovation

Marc Ramos will draw on 25+ years of global leadership experience to share how learning leaders can scale innovation, align learning with business transformation, transition to a skills-based learning orientation, and position L&D as a strategic driver of growth in a rapidly evolving workplace.

Focus: Building AI-Enabled Learning Ecosystems

Andrea Scroggy will share how organizations can design AI-enabled, data-driven learning ecosystems that align with business goals, leverage emerging technologies, and foster cultures of feedback and psychological safety to help teams and leaders continuously learn, adapt, and excel.

Focus: Developing Leaders for an Uncertain Future

Dr. Karla Wesley will share how forward-looking leadership development, grounded in global experience, strategic foresight, growth mindset practices, and culture-building, can equip leaders to navigate complexity and unlock human potential with clarity, empathy, and impact.