Whitney Egstad, PhD
Learning and Development Leader
Learning is infrastructure. I research it, partner with experts, build it, and connect it to outcomes that matter.
I solve organizational problems through learning. Over the past 17 years, I've partnered with leaders across higher education, public health, and decentralized commercial services organizations to build learning systems that scale, creating more than 500 learning experiences, custom learning platforms, and capability-building initiatives spanning frontline employees through company presidents. Most recently, I partnered with leaders across more than 40 operating companies to build organizational capability.
Some outcomes I'm especially proud of include:
Drove enterprise learning adoption through strategic communication, local stakeholder engagement, and learner experience improvements, supporting an increase of training completions from 29,000 to 52,000 and assigned completion rates from 80% to 85% in only six months.
Reduced research compliance errors by 23% and returned 2 hours per week to research administrators by embedding guidance in the flow of faculty research workflows.
Led the rapid transformation of a international learning portfolio during COVID, converting 70% of programs to virtual delivery in two weeks, retaining 95% learner participation, increasing learner satisfaction, and supporting the growth of a new membership-based business model.
Launched a graduate program that expanded access for an underserved rural student population, increasing first-year enrollment by 62.5%.
Helped launch the first standardized wastewater surveillance training for public health epidemiologists in the United States.
I believe effective learning starts with understanding the real problem, not just the training request. When done well, learning doesn't just improve business results: it makes people's everyday work a little easier, a little more meaningful, and gives them greater opportunity to grow. That's the impact I strive for.
What I bring to an organization
Strategic L&D Leadership
I’ve directed learning portfolios exceeding 100 programs across multiple organizations, led enterprise-wide transformations, and partnered with senior leaders to align learning investments with business outcomes.
Learning Technology & Platform Development
I design and build the infrastructure that learning runs on, including custom platforms developed from scratch using AI-assisted prototyping, eliminating vendor dependency and accelerating delivery at enterprise scale.
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, the CDC, the U.S. Army War College Foundation, academic institutions, vendors, 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.
Explore Select Projects
Each project begins with a real organizational problem and shows the full arc from diagnosis to measurable outcome. Click each title to view the full project.
Challenge: When the pandemic disrupted in-person learning, our national professional development portfolio risked significant revenue loss and declining engagement.
Solution: Led the transformation of 70% of in-person programs to virtual delivery in just two weeks, redesigning learning experiences while validating a more scalable, membership-based delivery model.
Impact: Preserved revenue, retained 95% of program attendance, and increased learner satisfaction by 11%.
Driving Change in a Resistant Market
Challenge: Identified that resistance to a new technology platform wasn't technical—it was rooted in agents' professional identity and client relationships.
Solution: Designed a change strategy that reframed technology as an enhancement rather than a replacement, embedding learning directly into broker offices and partnering with local leaders to build trust and adoption.
Impact: Increased membership by 20% in previously resistant territories and transformed brokerage leaders from skeptics into active advocates.
Performance Support in the Flow of Work
Challenge: As the university achieved R1 status, research administration processes had outgrown fragmented, email-driven support, creating administrative burden, confusion, and compliance risk.
Solution: Redesigned the end-to-end research administration experience by embedding just-in-time learning and performance support directly in the flow of work, from proposal development through post-award management and compliance.
Impact: Reduced compliance errors by 23% and saved employees ~2 hours per week through streamlined, self-service support.
Launching a National Public Health Training Standard
Challenge: Public health agencies needed a standardized approach to wastewater surveillance, but no national training program existed.
Solution: Led the design and launch of the first standardized wastewater surveillance training for public health epidemiologists, partnering across federal agencies, researchers, and public health leaders through a CDC-aligned National Center of Excellence.
Impact: Built national workforce capability, enabling health departments across the country to use wastewater surveillance as an early warning tool for disease outbreaks.
Explore Design Samples
