Christine Grazio

President

Christine Grazio is a Northern NJ Chapter member since March 2018.

She started her career in higher education, followed by 10 years in yearbook sales with Herff Jones. She transitioned to a training and development role for the Herff Jones, where she focused on sales training and implementing a blended learning strategy. She designed, developed and facilitated sales, product, and account management training, and rolled out a new mobile learning platform.

Since 2020, Christine has been a part of the global Quality Compliance Learning team at Philips, moving from her initial position as eLearning Instructional Designer into a Learning Program Manager role, where she provides end-to-end project management support to the training development and delivery process.

Christine is passionate about lifelong learning and has experienced first-hand how valuable an engaged professional community can be to career development and professional growth. She’s eager to give back to the NNJ ATD community and to help others connect and discover the value. She brings a BA in English, River University, Nashua NH and certificates in Instructional Design and Project Management for Learning Professionals, ATD.

David Presley

President Elect

David’s professional back ground is in Learning and Training Development Operations. David has successfully led teams in the creation of strategic learning solutions that help business develop the necessary skills to achieve their goals and improve performance.  He has provided leadership in problem-solving, financial forecasting, operational streamlining, and program management and has led numerous transformation and change initiatives.  Formerly with Alcatel-Lucent where he has held a variety of leadership positions including, Senior Director - Americas Region- Alcatel-Lucent University, Director Customer Business Strategy, Director Alcatel-Lucent University, currently supporting businesses consulting. I am honored to have the opportunity to serve in leadership capacity for an organization dedicated to the performance of workplace learning professionals. ATD provides an opportunity to be involved with an organization that helps further my development in learning and provides an opportunity to network and learn with likeminded professionals.  Board volunteerism history :  Regional Treasurer - Alliance/ABLE Greater North East Region.  Credentials and Degree(s): Bachelor of Science (BS), Management Science.

Scott Gingold

Past President

As an Enterprise Partner at WJM Associates, Scott combine an uncompromising commitment to customer service with a sweeping knowledge of coaching theory, research and practice. A continuous learner, Scott’s clients appreciate his contagious enthusiasm as a thinking partner. Scott partners with internal and external teams to deliver customized solutions to meet client’s strategic objectives, which has resulted in building and maintaining long-term client relationships. During his 20 years in the industry, Scott has been fortunate to work with national and global organizations across many industries. Since joining NNJ ATD approximately 15 years ago, it has been a major force in his career development. As talent development was a second career for him, Scott found the relationships he formed within the chapter extremely valuable to his personal and professional development. Early on, some of the more seasoned members were informal mentors to him, and he greatly appreciated their guidance. Scott wants to ensure that this support is available to the next generation of talent development professionals. Scott’s first role was a volunteer on the Finance team. Then, he served on the Marketing team, eventually becoming VP, Marketing. Credentials: B.A., History, Cornell University; M.A., Organizational Behavior, Fairleigh Dickinson University; Executive Coaching Certification, Columbia University; TypeCoach Certified Professional

Maurice Ford, an L&D professional has held the position of Instructional Designer for several global pharmaceutical companies in the tri-state area. He has held the position of Lead eLearning Developer for the City of New York on an L&D - Change Management project involving 83 NYC government agencies, encompassing over 90,000 users (employees).  He has also held the position of Senior Instructional Designer for Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. \ MOL-IT (America). Mr. Ford currently holds the position of Senior eLearning Developer / Instructional Designer at Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., a national law firm with a primary focus on health care and life sciences; employment, labor, workforce management, litigation and business disputes. At EBG Mr. Ford develops eLearning products designed to help employers in jurisdictions with mandatory training requirements, as well as those in locations without them, encourage behaviors that foster a work environment free from discrimination and harassment.   Mr. Ford holds a Master’s degree in Information Technology from Mercy College(NY), a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Baruch College, and an  Associate's degree in Marketing from Bronx Community College.  Mr. Ford has also worked as a Adjunct Professor for the City University of New York teaching web design and development. He also served as a Communications and Logistics Officer in the US Army.
Website: www.mauriceford.com

Paul Nichols

VP Communications

Paul Nichols is a seasoned instructional designer with experience in 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, job aids, and social media. 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 and IMS America (now known as iQvia), and Energy Transportation Corporation.

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 BA in History with a minor in Political Science from Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts and an MA in Communication and an MS in Instructional Technology from Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Paul also holds the Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) certification designation from the American Payroll Association (APA).

Kristen Illes

VP Programming

Kristen brings over 25 years of management and leadership development experience, providing her clients with in-depth industry knowledge and a full scope of tools and processes based on best practices. For the last 10 years, she served in a senior executive role at Coro New York Leadership Center, a premier leadership development organization. She earned her M.A. and B.A. in psychology from Marist College and is a Certified Professional in Talent Development. Kristen is passionate about supporting the development and success of individuals, teams, organizations and ideally contributing to the greater social good. There is nothing she loves more than partnering with clients to design and implement innovative solutions that engage their people in the work and create the desired impact and results desired from their change initiatives. Kristen also has a special interest in supporting the growth of more inclusive workplaces and addressing gender imbalance on executive teams.

In her spare time, you will find Kristen having fun with her family and friends, taking long walks, reading, or relaxing in the sun.

Pamela C. Sammarco

VP Leadership & Talent Development

Pam has deep experience as a strategic leader of complex training strategy to execution, leadership, future readiness capabilities, organizational development, culture change, sustainability and STEM professional development. Pam's strength is to transform learning into business impact with extensive expertise as a solution architect. She designs performance-based learning experiences using a cognitive science-based model.

Pam holds her Certified Professional in Talent Development (2007) demonstrating her lifelong dedication to advancing people's performance. Pam is an NNJ ATD Past President and Board officer since 1999. Past President 2004 (executive 2003-2004-2005); VP, Programs 3 years; current role VP, Leadership & Talent Development where she creates a thriving volunteer community that connects people with activities to run our organization. She joined in 1985 to talk with professionals who are passionate about the work we do. Our community is filled with terrific friends and colleagues.

Pam’s training career: Citicorp, American Express, Alcatel-Lucent and Medco Health Solutions. For leadership development and succession planning, certified to deliver Hogan Leadership Assessment Systems. Pam earned her M.S. degree in Applied Psychology, HR Management, Stevens Institute of Technology; B.A. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, math and statistics minor, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Psi Chi Psychology National Honor Society, Douglass College, Rutgers University.

Maria T. Rivera

VP Marketing

Maria Rivera has over 15 years of Management, Sales and Technology Training, Project Management, Web Development, Video Production, and Training & Development experience in Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, and professional service organizations. She is currently the Director of Continuing Education at Berkeley College. She led strategic initiatives at NYU The School of Professional Studies as the Associate Director for the Management and Systems Graduate Degree Program & the Management & Technology Continuing Education Programs.

Maria has produced a variety of blended digital media training solutions for various organizations/industries and has spoken at conferences including AT&T's HACEMOS Leadership conference, HISPA.org Youth Conferences, Trenton Computer Festivals, mLearning conference, the 2019 ACE Women's Network Women of Color Conference at Vaughn College. She recently spoke about "The Reality of Extended Reality" at the 2021 International Institute for Learning - Innovation and Leadership conference. In addition, she was a speaker at the ATD Suncoast Event in March 2021: "Women Making a Difference in Talent Development." She co-authored the paper “Using Coding Competitions to Develop STEM Skills in Graduate Education” with Andrés Fortino, PhD . This paper came in second place for the "Best Paper Award"-2021, which was announced at this year's IEEE conference.

Maria is currently teaching an Immersive Media course for NYU SPS Preston Robert Tisch Institute for Global Sport. She is the co-organizer of the XR Learning and Training Meetup.
Her industry affiliations include the Association for Talent Development (NYC & Northern NJ), the Project Management Institute (NYC), The Society for Human Resource Management (National & NYC), and the National Speaker Association. Giving back to the community is something that she always makes time to do. She has participated in HISPA.org's Role Model Program and helped design and delivered an App Development Training Program for middle school and high school students in NY & NJ.

Employers (past and present): Berkeley College, NYU The School of Professional Studies, CUNY The School of Professional Studies, Baruch College - The Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute, Burgdorff Realtors, ERA/Realogy, Prudential Douglas Elliman.

Her Passion: I believe in the Mission of the NNJ ATD Chapter, and I enjoy connecting and collaborating other chapter members.

                                                                                                                 

Christine Troianello
VP, Corporate Networks

Christine Troianello leads IQVIA Technologies Learning and Technical Writing Solutions, at IQVIA. IQVIA is a 11B life sciences firm, with more than 67,000 people in 100 countries, and a leading global provider of advanced analytics, technology solutions and contract research services to the life sciences industry. The company is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. In her current role, Christine has been standing up a new, best in class training and customer education business, that develops and deploys software training for IQVIA’s pharmaceutical customers, partners, and for IQVIA Technologies global delivery organization. She also manages their externally facing learning and certification management systems.

Prior to joining IQVIA, Christine held global executive roles in learning and talent development at Prudential, Research in Motion, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya and AT&T where she was responsible for major restructuring, learning transformation, global strategy, organizational development, managing global training development, delivery and technical writing operations, and outsourcing and off-shoring learning, translations and other operations.

Christine holds her MA in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, her BA in French and German and a Marketing Certificate from the Wharton School. She has been an adjunct faculty member and mentor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, New Jersey, worked as an executive coach and consultant at the Lead Life Institute and has been a facilitator in their women’s leadership program, WELL (Women’s Effectiveness in Leadership and Life). She is a contributing author of the leadership book, “How Women are Transforming Leadership” by Mary Lou Dècosterd. She is also a member and ATD Past President and long-time member of the ATD the Board of Directors.

Tom Glasscock

VP, Membership

Tom is an independent consultant specializing in helping HR and IT Departments implement Workday. He has been active in the Workday ecosystem since 2012 and focuses on Change Management, Training and Employee Communications. His previous clients include Barclays UK Retail Bank, Kimco, Environmental Resource Management, S&P Global, Dow Jones, Mylan, and Chewy.com. He has also worked for two top consulting firms, KMPG and TATA Consultancy Services. Tom started his career in HR with Lucent Technologies, performing a variety of roles and ultimately leading the HR function for Lucent’s operations in the Middle East and Africa.

Tom holds a BS in Business Administration from Ithaca College and an MA in Organizational Psychology from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He holds certifications as a PROSCI Change Management Practitioner, SPHR (Senior Professional in HR) and GPHR (Global Professional in HR) by the HR Certification Institute. He is also certified in the MBTI (Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator) Step II. He has frequently been a guest speaker for graduate and undergraduate programs at Rutgers University and Rider University.

Tom’s other volunteer activities have included helping HRCI develop its certification preparation materials and exams. He is also a volunteer with the Black River Theater Group in Chester, NJ.

Tim Tyler
VP, Finance

I pursued and achieved the Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) after ten years in the field because I came to see learning as more than just a corporate function. I believe learning is a profession, even a calling. Since then I have relentlessly developed my own skills and applied them to provide engaging and effective training for technicians, sales professionals, managers and entrepreneurs in manufacturing and real estate. 
I delight in learning challenges that involve organizational and transformational market changes, engaging a learner network that is either directly employed or independent and entrepreneurial.
As a corporate learning professional, I engage in conversations to both learn and share with like-minded learning professionals, sales and marketing professionals. As a mentor I have assisted younger colleagues to clarify their career  goals and take concrete steps to pursue them. As a local learning leader, I have guided NNJ ATD chapter to identify learning audiences and develop programming to attract a wide variety of learning professionals to the chapter, maintaining a focus on member value.

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 on the global learning team at IQVIA, she continues to make learning enterprise software easier to learn and use. Her enthusiasm for e-learning and micro-learning tools led her to create an online platform called GetYourselfStarted.com, where she created guidance for busy professionals on how to stay well while being a family caregiver. Her enthusiasm for the industry has led her to serve on the board as VP Membership, VP Technology, VP Administration and in 2016 as President.

Tony Irace

Member at Large

Over his 30-year career, Tony has held instructional design, project management and people leadership positions. 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.