Whitney Egstad, PhD
Learning and Development Leader
Learning that moves people. Strategy that moves organizations
What I bring to an organization
Strategic L&D Leadership
I've directed portfolios spanning 100+ programs, led enterprise-wide transformations, and partnered with senior leaders to align learning investment with business outcomes.
Change Management
From a two-week pandemic pivot that preserved revenue and grew a business model, to driving product adoption in a fiercely resistant market, I lead people through change by addressing both the rational and the emotional.
Data-Driven Design
I build evaluation in from the start. Every program I lead generates feedback, tracks behavior change, and reports outcomes to leadership.
Cross-Functional Partnership
I've worked across HR, IT, marketing, federal agencies, vendors, academic institutions, and community stakeholders. I know how to build consensus across people who don't always agree.
Inclusive, Accessible Learning
Equity isn't a checkbox. I've built it into program design, community communication, and organizational structure, including founding an Accessibility & Inclusion Committee that won new business partnerships.
I design and lead learning ecosystems that connect strategy to people, and people to results. Over 16 years, I've built programs that reduced compliance errors by 23%, drove 20% membership growth in a resistant market, and retained 95% attendance through a rapid pandemic pivot. I've also launched the first standardized wastewater surveillance training for public health epidemiologists nationally.
Good learning doesn't happen by accident. It starts with understanding the real problem, earning trust across stakeholders, designing solutions that meet people where they are, and measuring whether they had a meaningful impact. That's the work I do.
Explore Select Projects
Each project begins with a real organizational problem and shows the full arc from diagnosis to measurable outcome.
Led the rapid transformation of 70% of in-person offerings to virtual during the pandemic in two weeks
Preserved revenue, retained 95% of program attendance, and increased learner satisfaction scores by 11%
Leveraged the crisis as a proof of concept for a new, more sustainable membership-based business model
Winning Over a Resistant Market
Identified that resistance to training our technology wasn't technical; agents' loyalty was emotional, tied to professional identity and client trust
Designed a change strategy that reframed adoption as an enhancement rather than a replacement, embedding training directly in broker offices
Grew membership 20% in previously resistant territories; brokerage leaders shifted from skeptics to active advocates
Identified that repetitive administrative churn, not a knowledge gap, was the root cause of inefficiency across an R1 research organization
Designed a systemic learning solution that eliminated redundant workflows and freed staff to focus on higher-value work
Reduced email volume and cross-functional confusion by creating clear, accessible resources that answered the right questions before they were asked
Directed the design and launch of the first standardized wastewater surveillance training for public health epidemiologists nationally
Managed a complex, multi-stakeholder collaboration across federal agencies, researchers, and public health officials
Developed training for a CDC-aligned National Center of Excellence, building capacity among health departments nationwide to use wastewater surveillance as an early warning tool for disease outbreaks