Hi, I'm Heather.

I started in a clinical lab. Chemistry aide, phlebotomist in an ER stat lab, medical technologist pulling midnight shifts straight out of college, then clinical microbiology in a reference lab and a children's hospital. For over a decade, I was the frontline worker that leadership never thought to ask about.

Then I made a pivot that changed everything. I moved into education — and discovered that my real skill wasn't the science. It was helping people learn, grow, and find their footing in environments that weren't always designed for them to succeed.

At Rasmussen University, I designed the institution's first standardized hybrid delivery model — a system that won a national award and scaled across the entire university. I built the Faculty Incubator, an ecosystem for technology adoption that replaced mandated training with hands-on experimentation and peer learning. And within my first month leading analytics adoption across 45 people and 8 teams, I diagnosed exactly why a million-dollar platform investment was gathering dust — the technology wasn't the problem. The conditions around it were.

That became my through-line. Every broken system I've ever walked into had the same root cause — the conditions weren't right for people to grow.

At American Public Education, I designed and built an entire learning design function from nothing — architecting the structure, hiring the team, and creating the systems that turned a missing capability into a strategic function the organization couldn't operate without. 

At Graduate School USA, I owned enterprise learning strategy across 10 product domains for a national federal workforce training institution — making decisions about what got built, what got measured, and how learning aligned with organizational priorities. I led the organization's AI strategy, embedding generative AI into how the entire staff worked. And I shaped enterprise-wide organizational effectiveness strategy as a member of the APEI Leadership Development Council. 

And I was the accidental manager. Every single time. Promoted because I was good at the work, not because anyone prepared me to lead. I figured it out — through books, through mentors, through sheer resourcefulness and heart. And I watched the people around me struggle with the same thing, without the same support.

That's what I carried with me when I left to build Olive Groves.

Every role I held looked different on paper. Different industry. Different title. Different challenge. But underneath them all, I was doing the same work — designing how organizations develop people at scale.

I walked into environments that were undefined, neglected, or broken. I diagnosed what was actually wrong, not what people assumed was wrong. I built systems that didn't exist before me. I aligned learning to business strategy. I made the decisions about structure, tools, delivery, and measurement. And I left every organization with infrastructure they could sustain without me.

I've done this work five times across three organizations. Different scale, different complexity, same methodology, same result.

That methodology is what I bring to every CHRO engagement now. It's not theory. It's not borrowed from a consulting framework I read about. It's what I've personally built, refined, and proven across 15 years inside organizations — and it's why the work I do for CHROs today produces results that last.

I sat in the senior director chair watching everything that needed to change. I had the vision. I had the expertise. I didn't have the capacity to impact the whole organization — because the conditions wouldn't allow it.

Sound familiar? That's probably why you're reading this page.

I started Olive Groves because I believe CHROs and HR leaders shouldn't have to carry the weight of organizational development alone. You know what your people need. You just need a partner who can help you build it — someone who's been in your chair, who understands the internal politics, the budget constraints, the loneliness of being the only person at the leadership table whose job is to care about people as people.

That's the work I was built for. Not because I studied it — although I did. But because I've lived every stage of it. The frontline worker whose manager never asked how her day was going. The accidental manager figuring out leadership without a roadmap. The senior director who saw the gap but couldn't close it alone. And now the consultant who walks alongside the people trying to close it in their own organizations.

Education & Certifications MS, Learning Technologies — University of North Texas Gallup-Certified CliftonStrengths Coach (2025–2028) MHA, Healthcare Administration — Saint Joseph's University BS, Biology / BS, Medical Technology — Ohio Northern University

Career Highlights Five L&D functions built from scratch across three organizations. Enterprise learning strategy led across 10 product domains. Enterprise LMS implementations managed with full change management — twice. Organization-wide AI upskilling designed and delivered. 45 people across 8 teams led through analytics platform adoption. Learning design team of 7 built from the ground up — roles, hiring, workflows, culture.

Recognition SLOAN-C Effective Practice Award for blended learning innovation. Humanitarian of the Year — The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center (2019). OLC Institute for Emerging Leaders in Online Learning (2022).

Speaking & Thought Leadership "The Course Quality Matrix" — Training Officers Consortium (2024) "Navigating the Innovation Curve: Purposeful Integration of Disruptive Technology" — OLC Accelerate (2023) "Technology that Enhances Human Experiences" — OnTrack with Microsoft EDU (2023) OLC Track Chair & Proposal Reviewer

Professional Affiliations Association for Talent Development (ATD) Online Learning Consortium (OLC)

I'm a project manager to my core — the kind of person who fed 150+ marching band kids every Friday night for three years because I saw a need and had the skill set to fill it. My husband Scott and I organized the meals, the volunteers, the logistics, and the silly snacks that made teenagers feel like they mattered. Blue Gatorade and fruit snacks go a long way when someone asks how your day was.

I volunteered at The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center because everyone deserves to be seen, regardless of where they are in their story. I grew up having Sunday morning breakfast at my grandma's rooster-decorated kitchen, where I learned that food and a table are all you need to create belonging. And I got her salt & pepper hair to remind me of her love of people every day. I love to overwater my houseplants (succulents do not survive here) and prefer to be barefoot on just about any surface and I will take my shoes off to walk in any lake, creek, or stream. 

I'm a Metal Monkey in the Chinese zodiac, a collector of colorful pens and washi tape, and the kind of person who believes that rainbow sprinkles make everything better — including organizational development.

My CliftonStrengths Top 5: WOO, POSITIVITY, COMMUNICATION, DEVELOPER, ACHIEVER.

I'm relocating from Dallas to Stillwater, Minnesota in 2026 with Scott, our 10-year-old Goldendoodle Jack, and three kids in college in three different states. Thankfully we love to travel. But across 7 houses, 3 apartments, 5 states, and 3 dogs in 23 years, we are ready to settle into our forever community, explore Minnesota rivers, and return to midwestern fall festivals.

My life purpose: To nourish people and create the conditions for them to come alive and shine — so that they find belonging, discover their own quiet confidence, and experience the joy that comes from being useful to each other.