UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Katrina Wehr, an instructional designer in the Penn State Smeal College of Business eLearning Design and Innovation Group (eLDIG), has been selected to participate in the Elliott Masie 30 Under 30 Learning 2017 Program, a prestigious honor within the learning community.
Masie is a futurist, analyst and speaker focused on the changing world of the workplace, learning and technology. He heads The Masie Center, a Saratoga Springs, New York, think tank focused on how organizations can support learning and knowledge within the workforce. He leads the Learning Consortium, a coalition of 230 global organizations cooperating on the evolution of learning strategies. He also is the editor of Learning Trends, an internet newsletter read by more than 52,000 business executives worldwide.
The 30 Under 30 Learning 2017 Program is part of the broader Learning 2017 conference, scheduled for Oct. 22-25 in Orlando, Florida. The goal of the 30 Under 30 Program is to provide support, visibility, voice and development for the next generation of learning leaders.
“This is a really big honor for Katrina, and by extension eLDIG and Smeal. Not a lot of higher education folks are selected,” said Matthew E. Mooney, eLDIG’s director of instructional design. “It’s a very competitive process among emerging learning leaders. Alumni have represented companies from the likes of Disney, PwC, Fidelity Investments, Bloomberg, Deloitte, IBM, NBCUniversal, Boeing and many more.”
Wehr will receive:
- 30 Under 30 sessions, led by alumni of previous programs
- Unique development and benchmarking activities with peers and learning leaders
- Interactive time with key speakers, including Masie
- Participation in mentoring activities
- Key roles at Learning 2017 as a leader and facilitator
Keynote speakers for Learning 2017 will include former first lady Michelle Obama, actor John Lithgow, Google’s Andrea Wong, and Christine McKinley, host of Discovery Channel’s “Decoded” and author of “Physics for Rock Stars,” among others.
“I was really thrilled when I found out I was selected. As a young professional, to get confirmation from an outside organization that your beliefs and your work are worthy of recognition and support is an immense confidence boost, not to mention extremely motivating,” Wehr said.
“What I’m most looking forward to about participating is the collaboration and being able to represent my team and our institution as a leader in the field. The 2017 cohort is extremely diverse — there are participants from companies like Amazon, Wegman’s, KPMG, Keurig. Those are recognized industry names, and I’m proud that Smeal and Penn State will now be alongside them.”