ATD-Los Angeles upcoming events

Virtual Networking: Organizational Development Strategies for L&D Leaders (06/03/2026)

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 19:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the launch of our new Virtual Networking Series designed to help talent development professionals connect, grow, and sharpen critical workplace skills.

Each session features:

A focused spotlight topic

An expert presenter

Structured networking time with peers

JOIN US THIS SPRING:

March 18 – Establishing Your Value in Every Way You Communicate
May 6 – Cultural Competency in the Workplace
June 3 – Organizational Development Strategies for L&D Leaders

These sessions are interactive, practical, and built for professionals who want both insight and connection.

Organizational Development Strategies for L&D Leaders

Join us for an interactive networking session featuring a spotlight from Annie Liao on how Organizational Development (OD) strategies can empower L&D leaders to become true strategic partners.

Rather than responding reactively to “Can you build a training on this?” requests, OD frameworks help uncover root causes, diagnose what’s really happening in the organization, and determine which interventions will meaningfully move the needle.

Annie will introduce practical, approachable ways L&D professionals can apply OD thinking in their everyday work—regardless of title or org size.

After her short segment, participants will engage in guided discussion and networking focused on applying these insights, sharing experiences, and strengthening their strategic influence as talent development professionals.

Participants will:

Gain insight into how OD mindsets and tools help L&D leaders operate more strategically
Explore practical ways to diagnose organizational needs beyond “training requests”
Reflect on their own influence and decision-making within organizational systems
Network with peers to share OD-related challenges, insights, and applications

This session aligns with our Member Value Proposition pillars to:

Sharpen Your Skills – expanding the use of OD frameworks and diagnostic thinking
Build Your Network – structured peer interaction and AMA discussion
Advance Your Career – strengthening strategic capabilities essential for L&D leadership

ABOUT THE PRESENTER:

Annie Liao is an L&D and OD leader with over a decade of experience designing training programs for large, distributed teams. At Dine Brands Global (IHOP), she led enterprise L&D programs on everything from pancakes to POS systems. Now in her consulting work at Corbel Collective, she works with organizations to build practical, people-centered systems for the future of work. As work becomes more automated and transactional, she is determined to build workplaces where people can still feel like people. In her free time you'll probably find her trying to grow a salad in her kitchen, or brainstorming the theme for the next film festival with her friends.

ATD Capability Model

Building Personal Capability

Collaboration & Leadership
Communication
Emotional Intelligence & Decision Making

Developing Professional Capability

Evaluating Impact
Career & Leadership Development
Consulting Skills / Training Facilitation (through peer exploration and applied discussion)

Impacting Organizational Capability

Organization Development & Culture
Performance Improvement
Business Insight
Change Management

Photography and Video Waiver

By registering for this event, I do hereby give ATD Los Angeles and and its associates or assigns, or anyone acting under its authority or permission, the irrevocable and unrestricted right and permission to: capture the image, audio, and content via photograph, videotape, audiotape, transcription, or other means now available, copyright in its own name or otherwise, and use, reuse, publish, and republish any and all material of which I presented, or may have been included in presenting, in whole or in part. I consent to the use of all media now or hereafter known for illustration, promotion, art, editorial, advertising, trade, or any other purpose whatsoever. I hereby waive any right that I may have to inspect or approve the finished product or products and the advertising copy or other matter that may be used in connection therewith or the use to which it may be applied. If I do not provide permission, I understand that I will not activate my web camera during virtual sessions.

Please click here for cancellation and refund policies. We cannot guarantee that webinar/Zoom recordings will be available.Save

Creating Clarity Around Career Transition and Fit - Career Transition SIG (06/11/2026)

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 01:30:00 GMT

A move into Learning & Development
is more than a job change.

It’s a chance to choose work that fits how you think, what you’re great at, and the kind of impact you want to make!

Right now, L&D is changing fast: New tools, new skills, and new ways of working are opening doors across corporate, non-profit, academic, and consulting spaces.

In this session, you’ll get a simple, practical way to make sense of it all. We’ll briefly walk through where L&D roles show up and the kinds of roles that exist today, but the real focus is on helping you build a repeatable way to evaluate any role as the field evolves.

You’ll learn how to:

1. Understand your own strengths and preferences,

2. Define what “fit” looks like for you, and

3. Spot where your experience creates real value.

Learning Objectives

1.      Assess personal strengths, constraints, and preferences to determine role and organizational fit

2.      Define their target L&D roles with specificity, including scope, expectations, and success measures

3.      Differentiate between surface-level “transferable skills” and true functional alignment

4.      Reframe prior experience into clear, value-driven narratives aligned to L&D roles

5.      Evaluate job opportunities more strategically, using fit criteria instead of keyword matching

By the end, you’ll have a clear, usable approach you can apply again and again, so you can move toward roles with confidence, not guesswork.

About the Presenter

Sara Hounshell (formerly Stevick) is a Director of Product Strategy & Design at Huron, and product owner for the Huron Learning Digital Platform (HLDP)—an enterprise program that upskills and reskills the healthcare workforce.

Throughout her career, she has blended methodologies from digital transformation, change management, product management, process improvement, project management, and organizational design to bridge learning and development with organizational integration—delivering measurable adoption, retention, and performance outcomes.

A former educator turned L&D and product leader, Sara builds CE‑accredited, role‑aligned pathways at scale and equips talent development professionals with practical playbooks for skills frameworks and analytics.

About the Career Transition SIG

This SIG is a joint effort of the ATD-Orange County and ATD-Los Angeles Chapters and provides support and education to professionals making the exciting transition into the L&D field.

About Your Co-Leaders:

Kesha Thomas Clark is an experienced professional currently working to transition into the learning and development field. Recently, Kesha worked with UCLA’s Office of Undergraduate Admission and the Association for Talent Development—Orange County chapter to facilitate leadership workshops to executive staff and senior managers. Driven by a desire to help people, Kesha is interested in leveraging her unique experience in business and the nonprofit sector to create impactful strategies and learning experiences that support professional growth and organizational success.

James Oakley is an Instructional Designer and eLearning Developer who specializes in the electrical, engineering, and technical spaces. He started out his career as a High School English Teacher and then took his passion for education into adult learning. Most recently, James developed a comprehensive curriculum of eLearning and Instructor-Led training courses for Critical Facility Engineers in Meta Data Centers across the globe. In this space, James makes meaningful and results driven training experiences for Fortune 500 companies.

Earn Professional Professional Development Points

This program is worth 1 Professional Development point.

Find out more about APTD/CPTD Certifications here.

ATD Capability Model

Each ATD-OC Learning Event will be aligned to at least one Talent Development Capability, as identified by ATD National.

This program aligns with:

Building Personal Capability:

Developing Professional Capability:

Career and Leadership Development

Impacting Organizational Capability:

Disruption via technology will continue to be a reality for organizations and talent development functions. Talent development professionals must have the ability to identify, select, and implement the right learning and talent technologies that serve the best interests of the organization and its people. Practitioners should be able to identify opportunities to adapt and leverage the right technologies at the right time to meet organizational goals.

To find out more about the ATD Capability Model for the Training and Development Profession, visit http://tdcapability.org.

Photography and Video Waiver

REFUND/CANCELLATION: Please click here for cancellation and refund policies. We cannot guarantee that webinar/Zoom recordings will be available.

All ADA accommodations require a 21-day advanced notice by email to office@atdla.org (use Subject line: ADA Accommodations Request) so that we can reasonably search for and secure accommodations. ATD-LA cannot guarantee that accommodations can be reasonably secured with shorter notice. ATD-LA will cover costs for accommodations as required by law, for the published duration of the event only.