Stan Skrabut is a card carrying lifelong learner who has spent his career helping people and organizations achieve improved performance. He is a scholar, teacher, author, veteran, martial artist, and avid reader. Throughout his working life, he has changed roles and responsibilities countless times. He worked as a guard, organizational trainer, instructional technologist, webmaster, systems programmer, lecturer, and director. He uses informal learning, especially reading, as a way to improve himself and subsequently his teams. His interest in informal learning inspired his dissertation topic, Study of Informal Learning Among University of Wyoming Extension Educators.
He lives with his wife and two dogs in Rhode Island. Nomadic in nature, he loves to travel and has lived in Germany, Belgium, Holland, Turkey, and various locations across the United States. His number one passion is helping others achieve their goals. He has been a member of ATD for over ten years and this is his third chapter.
Ryan is a Senior Learning & Development Partner at UNFI where he helps individuals, teams, leaders, and organizations achieve their goals through effective learning, development, and engagement. His main focus areas include leadership development, enterprise learning solutions, and organizational development. He provides a range of services in these areas including leadership program development and management, in-person and virtual training facilitation, instructional design, consulting, team effectiveness, and more.
Ryan holds a Ph.D. in Applied Organizational Psychology and a Master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Hofstra University, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Gettysburg College. He also holds a certificate in training from the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and is an Insights Discovery Certified Practitioner. In his spare time, he enjoys a variety of hobbies such as reading, music, concerts, coffee, podcasts, exercise and spending time with family and friends.
Kara Wiersma is a Talent Development professional passionate about developing managers, employees, and teams so they have the clarity and confidence they need to excel in their career and contribute to the success of the organization. She currently holds the position of Vice President, Colleague Engagement and Development at Fidelity Bank in Leominster, MA, where she is responsible for onboarding, learning and development, performance management, leadership development and employee engagement. Kara has a Bachelor of Science in Management Studies from Boston University and an Associate in Applied Art in Graphic Design from Quinsigamond Community College. In 2019, Kara was recognized as a Worcester Business Journal 40 Under Forty Honoree. Kara is actively involved in the community, serving as a student mentor, teacher, and soccer coach for various organizations. Kara lives in central MA with her husband and two daughters. She enjoys spending her free time with her family playing sports, going to the beach, and camping.
Kwaku is a dedicated Instructional Designer with a passion for technology. He believes that being an Instructional Designer is the perfect career for him because he loves being creative and learning new things. Kwaku joined CMATD in 2019 and has enjoyed immersing himself in all things related to learning and development.
In his leisure, he enjoys relaxing and spending time with family. Kwaku's hobbies include photography and video editing.
He is a proud alumni of the University of Akron where he graduated with a master degree in Communication.
As a strategic HR partner focusing on learning, talent development and talent management, Amol Mandalaywala has partnered with corporate and educational leaders as well as individuals to develop initiatives that have shaped organizational culture through the professional development of individuals, leaders and teams. He started his career in talent development and management as an external client-facing learning consultant and facilitator at Kaplan, Inc. He is skilled in identifying talent gaps and root causes of curriculum gaps to design, develop and deliver learning strategies and journeys to develop employees’ capabilities, skills and competencies to maximize talent, engagement, experience and performance, which, in turn, positively impacts organizational effectiveness. Recently, Amol has transitioned to an internal client-facing role at EY (Ernst & Young, LLP) as an Assistant Director of Learning for the Strategy and Transaction (SaT) practice.