Mary Bruno
Associate Vice President, Administration

Mary Bruno is an accomplished leader with 10+ years of success in developing and implementing strategic plans for learning and development. Throughout her career, she has maintained a record of discovering training needs and developing training programs to address requirements. Employers recognize Mary for her expertise in maintaining positive partnerships with executive leadership to develop training programs in diverse areas such as leadership development and conflict resolution.

Mary’s skills in delivering detailed guidance and counseling to employees on personal development issues related to career planning and goal setting, sets her apart from the crowd. Her capabilities in conducting performance reviews to evaluate employee performance and recommend ways for improving performance, are second to none. She has been successful in managing employee performance through coaching, counseling, training, and discipline, while creating organizational culture through communication strategies that align with company values.

Mary’s signature accomplishments include, but are not limited to:

• Developed and executed advanced learning solutions and training courses/workshops that meet business objectives of Home Depot Measurement Services for field/service center.
• Established leadership development programs that maximized efficiency and achieved desired target metrics.
• Spearheaded Challenger Sales Training and subsequent follow-up sessions for 500 salespeople across the US.
• Achieved a 3% lift in overall client advertising spending.

Staci Taustine
Associate Vice President, Programs

Staci Taustine has a background in Urban Education and Leadership having trained educators/ policymakers/organizational leaders to design inter-generational processes for inclusive decision making. She works to ensure stakeholders impacted most are at the table any time decisions are being made. With more than 10 years of experience across the public and private sectors, Staci has trained more than 10,000 people in core leadership skills and coached 2,000+ people to and through their top career moves at companies like Rivian, IPSY, Chief, and Facebook.

Staci brings her human-centered approach to workplaces through experiential workshops and coaching. She works at the intersection of the personal and professional to advocate for authenticity, engagement, and inclusion at work. She helps teams work more productively, collaboratively, and sustainably across lines of difference.  Staci is living her "bonus life" in New Jersey with her partner Keith and pup Wander Pickles. She values laughter, friendship, her Nespresso machine, and a good surprise.

Associate Vice President, Technology

Paul Nichols is a seasoned instructional designer with 30+ years of experience in designing and developing training solutions in the consulting and cloud-based Human Capital Management (HCM) / Payroll industries. He brings the knowledge and perspective of numerous years as an instructional design professional who specializes in designing and developing attractive and instructionally-sound training solutions including self-paced eLearning, microlearning, blended instructor-led training, instructor-led conference workshop sessions, publications, and job aids.

His background includes designing and developing training solutions for the sales, client, and associate training divisions of ADP, Realogy’s ZAP CRM app, the STAR (System for Tracking and Administering Real-property) space management software for the Public Buildings Service (PBS) / US General Services Administration (GSA), the sales divisions of Schering Plough Pharmaceuticals, IMS America (now known as iQvia), and Energy Transportation Corporation. Currently, Paul is employed as an Instructional Designer for the New Jersey Child Support Institute (NJCSI),  which is part of the Institute for Families (IFF) at the School of Social Work, at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

Paul’s areas of interest include fully leveraging technology in training solutions, integrating social media into training deliverables, and designing and developing training deliverables so they can be utilized in multiple ways for multiple audiences. Paul earned a B.A. in History with a minor in Political Science from Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts and an M.A. in Communication and an M.S. in Instructional Technology from Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Paul also holds the Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) certification designation from Payroll.org (formerly known as the American Payroll Association (APA)).

Nancy Cattle
Member at Large 

Nancy Cattle has enjoyed a career in Learning and Development, IT, and software implementations.  As Director of Training at several fast-paced software companies, she helped those companies grow by training staff and customers.  She then led a 6-year global training program at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to increase productivity using IT tools such as SharePoint and social tools. Currently, as VP of Learning Services at ValGenesis, she continues to make learning enterprise software easier to learn and use. Her enthusiasm for the industry has led her to serve on the board as VP Membership, VP Technology, VP Administration and in 2016 and 2020 as President.

Tony Irace

Member at Large

Over his 30-year career, Tony Irace has held positions in instructional design, project management, and people leadership. He has extensive experience in business transformation initiatives, including building and restructuring learning organizations, learning system selection and procurement, and rollout of large corporate initiatives.

Tony has a clear mission – helping others improve their performance at work. He has spent his career designing, delivering, organizing, and implementing learning solutions aligned to his clients’ business objectives. He is a strategic, collaborative, and innovative business partner who works with Senior Business Leaders to help them achieve their goals.

Tony is a founding member and was recently co-chair of the NNJ ATD Executive Advisory council. He is a long-time member of the NNJ ATD chapter and served as President Elect in 2018. Tony earned a B.A. in English Literature and an M.A. in Linguistics from New York University. He has completed graduate work in Adult Education and Workplace Learning at Teacher’s College, Columbia University.