Shannon Swift has been in the field of training and development for over 25 years. Currently, she is an Organizational Development Consultant at Lockton Companies. Her role includes designing and delivering Lockton’s leadership programs, building talent acquisition tools and training, managing the assessments used for hiring and coaching, and competency identification and career development. What she enjoys most about her role at Lockton is not only helping Lockton’s associates grow, but also establishing the infrastructure necessary for Lockton to grow exponentially in the coming years. She has held training and development roles at Empower Retirement (formerly J.P. Morgan), Infinium, H&R Block Financial Advisors, and American Century Investments.

Shannon earned a bachelor’s degree in music-vocal performance from Rice University and a Masters of Education degree with a focus on adult learning from Park University. She is an ATD National member and has been a member of ATDKC off and on throughout most of her career. Outside of work, Shannon enjoys spending time with her family, watching birds, collecting vintage clothing, reading, and dabbling in the arts.

presidentelect@tdkc.org

Christy Rogers is the founder and lead instructor at Training Umbrella, a company that specializes in teaching Microsoft and Google Applications along with providing computer lab and event space rentals. She has been involved in the planning and training of multiple software migrations in the Kansas City area and across the United States. Christy is a Google Certified Individual and Microsoft Office Specialist. She believes that "Knowing the technology is not the same as knowing how to teach it.”

A degree in education from Kansas State University has supported her career path that included time educating students in a high school classroom, teaching for ExecuTrain, a nationwide technology training company and opening the doors of Training Umbrella in January 2011.

Christy served as the ATDKC President in 2016 and enjoys investing her time in the learning and development world.  She enjoys summer weekends at the lake, reading and discovering new walking trails.

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Roland “Mike” Edwards currently serves as the Training Officer in the Kansas City District office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Prior to assuming those duties, Mike spent 3 years as an instructor and curriculum developer with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Mike began his professional career when enlisted in the U.S. Army while still in college. Mike’s military career allowed him to live and work in far flung locales such as Germany, Korea, Kuwait, Angola and Iraq. 

Mike has held various positions within the military from jeep driver to instructor. It was while serving as an instructor and coach that sparked Mike’s interest in the learning profession. In addition to his bachelor’s degree in Humanities, Mike’s academic background includes a master degree in International Relations and a doctorate in Educational Leadership.

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Heidi Matthews is Training Manager for Terracon Consultants Inc., a national professional services firm headquartered in Olathe, Kan. Heidi has more than 20 years of experience in the learning and development field. Her professional background includes roles in management, instructional design, eLearning development, and facilitation building effective training and performance support tools. A former VP of Marketing & Communications of the Association for Talent Development (ATD) Kansas City chapter, she is also a member of the eLearning Guild.

Heidi earned a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education, Social Studies from Purdue University.  

Outside of work, she spends time reading, doing art related activities, watching soccer, curling, and spending time with her friends and family.

vpprograms@tdkc.org

Nibal currently serves as the Director of Training at New Directions Behavioral Health where she is focused on talent development, training strategy and delivery, as well as building out a leadership development program for this fast growing company.

Nibal’s core mission and calling is to help people. She helps people in her role as mother, wife, sister, daughter, and friend. She shares her messages of transformation through her speaking and coaching. As a certified life and business coach, she works with clients to discover their goals and to build a roadmap to reach them. She helps clients navigate the path from dreams to reality. She loves to teach and speaks to audiences about the importance of having a growth mindset and the role of self-talk in achieving success.