Meet 10 Rising Stars Shaping the Future of L&D

The Learning Leadership Conference has selected the 30 up-and-coming learning leaders that will participate in this year’s Thirty Under 30 program! If you missed the first reveal, see the article here.

The second group of 10 Thirty Under 30 honorees features everything from professionals who’ve been interested in L&D since undergrad to those who jumped into the role with no prior experience:

Lexi Danos, Sr. Manager Content Design, 7 Brew Drive Thru Coffee

Lexi has maintained a high-impact onboarding program with a 95% success rate, delivering both live and virtual sessions. She also created a development program for recent college graduates to support early career growth and retention, achieving a 98% retention rate in participants’ first year. She founded and led a Young Professionals Employee Resource Group focused on professional growth and networking to support ongoing development. Her contributions were recognized with the Mile Marker Award (Employee of the Quarter) in 2019 and the HOPE Award in 2021 for fostering inclusivity and living company values.

Ryan Gootar, HR & Training Specialist, National Beverage Corp.

Ryan recently rolled out a new HRIS and training platform at his company. This system allowed Ryan to reimagine how the company delivers training and supports employee growth to build a training strategy that actually worked for people at every level. The new platform has simplified compliance, made learning more accessible, and allowed employees to follow more personalized development paths. Ryan also curated content, created easy-to-follow guides, and ran live training sessions to ensure the transition went smoothly.  

Haley Lewis, Training and Quality Assurance Supervisor, Sky Zone

Before entering L&D, Haley recognized a significant gap in her company’s training process. She had no formal background in training at the time, but started creating training while learning the most effective training methodologies. When the pandemic hit, her company was unprepared for remote work. Haley researched available tools and trained the entire organization on using SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and the remote phone system. That experience led her to earn a Certificate in Instructional Design from the University of Utah in 2021. Since then, she’s built and implemented training programs from the ground up in every role she’s held.

Julia McLane, Learning Experience Designer, Dick’s Sporting Goods

Julia stepped into her first official instructional design role at a company with almost no existing learning framework. There were no course templates, standardized processes, or even consistent documentation for learners. She took the lead in building all the materials needed from the ground up, everything from learner-facing materials and internal documentation to a full course development workflow. She also collaborated closely with subject matter experts to shape content that was both accurate and accessible.  

Isabelle Merlin-Madrigal, Content Specialist, Genentech

Isabelle created a hybrid training model for new hires, which reduced in-person classroom time by 67% while enhancing training effectiveness for over 6,000 students. She created home-recorded modules, uploaded them to the LMS, and monitored completion rates. She also trained Large Language Models (LLMs) to provide precise answers to internal queries to train individuals on their roles, reaching 700 individuals and significantly increasing their knowledge and daily application of AI. Additionally, she championed the launch of innovative AI features in existing internal platforms to enhance efficiency and productivity.

Ana Olivares, Instructional Designer, Pandemuerto

Ana started as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in Mexico, then transitioned to leading one-on-one sessions with adults and young adults. This allowed her to develop a more personalized teaching approach that paved the way for her transition to instructional design. Although she initially didn’t plan to be a teacher, that experience helped her discover a passion for building meaningful learning experiences. In her current role as an instructional designer, she has contributed to the design and development of soft and technical training skills for major companies in Monterrey, such as Cemex and Arca Continental.  

Sydney Oliver, Sr. Learning and Development Specialist, phData

During undergrad, Sydney worked as a research assistant with Dr. Marissa Schuffler, assessing leadership and teamwork issues in virtual teams for NASA, which helped to inform the design of training interventions. After that, she took a gap year with AmeriCorps, serving with the Goodwill Job Connection and United Way of Easley, SC, where she designed financial literacy curricula for children and adults alike. The following year, she pursued a Master’s in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, with an emphasis on organizational development. After completing graduate school, she has gone on to work in talent management, training, and learning and development.

Corryn Rau, Instructional Designer, Northrop Grumman

Corryn taught for 6 years at a progressive school, which did not utilize a standard curriculum. Therefore, she was tasked with creating her own multi-year, project-based curriculum that highly engaged students and went on to perform well on a variety of standardized exams. At the end of the last school year, Corryn transitioned from teaching in the classroom setting to an L&D role in the corporate setting. In her new role, she has developed effective “train the trainer” materials that provide technical subject matter experts with best practices and tools for leading effective and engaging training sessions.

Lexi Redmond, Manager, Organizational Development, Dine Brands Global

Lexi’s graduate school research findings have been shared in articles, conference presentations, and online blogs. She has also consulted in the organizational learning and development space for various industries. While part of the Maternal Telehealth Access Project in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked to address research gaps with underrepresented populations and highlight the importance of including people with lived experience and utilizing storytelling in medical training. In her current work at Dine Brands, she helps cultivate an environment where our team members can grow and thrive through engagement, belonging, and organizational development efforts.

Gabriella Roman, Community Programs Manager, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

Gabriella has been in the education field for more than 11 years in roles such as serving as a virtual educator for international students and managing educational programs within museums. Her primary mission has been to develop accessible educational resources tailored for students and community members in museum settings. Gabriella has also presented at the Florida Association of Museums on the topic, “Outside Museum Walls: Community Outreach and Education” which emphasized the importance of museums reassessing their educational tools and resources, while fostering creative strategies to build meaningful connections with community members.

Congratulations to these 10 winners! Be on the lookout for one more article that will announce the final 10 honorees.