Are You Future Ready? AdVAncing Your Professional Development Department of Veterans Affairs

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Human Capital Services Center and Ms. Amy Parker, VA’s Chief Learning Officer, are excited to announce the launch of season two of Are You Future Ready? AdVAncing Your Professional Development. Each episode features actionable insights, experiences, and helpful advice for the VA community and those interested in honing their professional development skills. Tune in every other Friday starting on February 26, 2021!

On this episode, Amy Parker, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Chief Learning Officer, is joined by Dr. Maureen Marks, the Executive Director for VA’s National Center for Organization Development (NCOD) and Billy McCloskey, a Senior Organizational Psychologist at NCOD. If you are listening from a VA Medical Center or Regional Office, you may know NCOD for the All Employee Survey (AES), but they also facilitate research, consulting, and organizational health initiatives aimed at increasing employee engagement and supporting VA leaders in building a positive organizational culture.

During this episode, Dr. Marks and Mr. McCloskey discuss the importance of bringing your whole self to work and the need to support your staff and peers at every level to improve employee morale and ultimately, improve service for our nation’s Veterans. Listeners will learn about the five key drivers of employee engagement, be inspired by success stories from the field, and uncover unexpected impacts of remote work on employee productivity and morale.

On this episode, Amy Parker, the Department of Veterans Affairs Chief Learning Officer, is joined by Ms. Megan Turner, the Director of Professional Growth at the Veterans Affairs Acquisition Academy (VAAA) to talk about how developing skills like systems thinking, emotional intelligence, and problem solving can help you strengthen relationships and achieve positive outcomes at work and at home. Ms. Turner highlights her own commitment as a leader to using these skills to support employee development in a way that takes into account the “whole person”.

Ms. Parker and Ms. Turner also talk about how VAAA adapted to the changes of a virtual work environment and get a sneak peak of adaptive learning – a revolutionary technology that uses artificial intelligence to make virtual training easier, faster, and more interesting. VAAA is a pioneer in the future of e-learning, piloting the first adaptive learning course in the federal government.

On this episode of Are You Future Ready? AdVAncing Your Professional Development Amy Parker, VA’s Chief Learning Officer, is joined by Mr. Jeffrey Smith, who at the time of recording was the Executive Director of the Veterans Benefits Administration’s Office of Talent Management, to talk about AdVAncing: A Growth Mindset.

On this episode of Are You Future Ready? AdVAncing Your Professional Development Amy Parker, VA’s Chief Learning Officer, is joined by Mr. Harvey Johnson, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Resolution Management, Diversity and Inclusion to talk about AdVAncing: Your Passion.

On this episode, our guest is Ms. Barbara C. Morton, the Deputy Chief Veterans Experience Officer to talk about AdVAncing: Trust.