Ariel Simons Email and Phone Number

• Design employee professional development curricula, including selecting relevant topics based on employee input, sourcing and adapting content with external providers, and designing and facilitating learning experiences• Lead ongoing heritage month programming, including resource and event development for staff learning and engagement• Manage and support 70+ employees in annual mentoring program• Provide staffing, coordination, and project management support for employee DEI Committee• Oversee and support four employee-led affinity groups• Facilitate cross-departmental operations working group to build better employee experiences• Manage DEI budget

• Serve as learning lead, staff training lead, and change management co-lead for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation project transforming HR, finance, and training processes.• Administrator, technical lead, and trainer for Learning Management System (LMS).• Design content and facilitate in-person, hybrid, and virtual professional development experiences for staff and interns on variety of skill-building and leadership topics, including the oversight of annual mentoring program, management peer learning group, and personal effectiveness series.• Staff institution’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, including design and oversight of staff working groups to improve internship experience, heritage month strategy and events, internal communications, and affinity group creation and support process.• Work cross-functionally to improve the employee experience, engagement opportunities, and community-building opportunities.

• Led the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship program—including alumni community of over 350 educators—building and leadership development, designing and facilitating in-person and virtual trainings, and liaising with external partners• Oversaw and designed programming for the National Geographic Education’s Teacher Advisory Committee, comprising 36 education leaders nationwide who co-lead on the education strategy• Fostered relationships and co-create community content with educators, including social media, blogs, and newsletters• Managed Education team calendar to create synergy for future programming and marketing

• Established a leadership pipeline for National Geographic Certified Educators through a mentorship program, which included virtual training, support, and community for 50+ educators annually who served a variety of leadership roles for the course, including as instructors, mentors, TAs, and mentor leaders• Adapted the National Geographic Educator Certification experience – a professional learning opportunity to infuse geographic thinking and competencies into any subject area for K-12 formal and informal educators – into a three-month, asynchronous online course• Created and piloted a monthly asynchronous courses on facilitation best practices and adult learning• Manage day-to-day facilitation, live webinars, communication, evaluation, and learning experience for three cohorts of certification per year reaching 25,000+ educators from 130+ countries annually and with a course completion rate over eight times the industry average for free online courses• Developed course syllabi, media, assignments, evaluation rubrics, support mechanisms, and processes• Partnered with staff at Tec de Monterrey to adapt and localize the Certification program for Mexico and supported training, implementation, and growth• Collaborated with the digital, technical, marketing, monitoring and evaluation, professional learning, educator network, and other teams across the society to create better user experiences, flows, outreach, and design of online courses and use of our learning management system (LMS)• Facilitated and designed in-person professional learning opportunities for educators, including a four-day Summer Institute on facilitation skills, certification workshops of varying lengths and focus areas, and for National Geographic Explorers on mentorship• Directly managed and coached Specialist of Online Learning

• Developed and managed monthly professional development (PD) webinar series for K-8 educators• Designed and facilitated over 50 K-8 STEM PD workshops in person and virtually, with focus on hands-on, engaging, evidence-based teaching and learning strategies• Wrote and edited K-8 STEM curriculum with alignment to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for 50+ experiment guides with national distribution• Created and executed four-day training conference annually, then managed and supported cohort of ~30 contracted educator facilitators (73 total) who led STEM PD in their home communities• Created and supported online community for educator facilitators• Collaborated with chemical industry, educators of all backgrounds and experience levels, STEM-rich institutions, parents, and other stakeholders to ensure programming met community needs nationwide• Increased total number of PD workshops by 353%, number of educators reached through workshops by 350%, and number of contracted educator facilitators by 300% from FY15• Developed metrics to measure impact of training and resources; found significant gains in teacher use of resources, efficacy, and enjoyment teaching science, and learner access to hands-on science programming• Managed teacher training program budget, drastically reducing per-workshop cost by over $700

• Facilitated, coordinated, and conducted outreach for K-8 teacher training STEM workshops nationwide• Led hands-on science events with community stakeholders (i.e. museums, schools, makerspaces)• Managed and supported 14 educator facilitators• Developed and published content for organization’s social media, newsletter, and blog

• Recognized as top performer in FY14 for having highest placement and customer satisfaction ratings• Trained and mentored new staff members in recruitment and placement best practices• Mentored diverse professionals in preparation for international volunteer assignments• Coordinated and conducted outreach at events nationwide

• Conducted personalized outreach events adapted to needs and backgrounds of potential applicants• Developed strategies to target diverse and qualified candidates to fill requests of 65 overseas posts• Managed campus recruiter and a team of student campus ambassadors

• Designed and implemented chemistry, biology, physics, and math curricula for grades 8-10 for learners far below, at, and above grade level• Developed student-centered instructional materials, guides, and afterschool programming focused on the arts, life skills, sports, and science• Facilitated staff trainings in environmental education, grant writing, budgets, and healthy living• Established first community laboratory and library, and trained resource management teams• Created youth service learning and peer mentorship programs with a focus on health and wellness

•Designed and led sessions in 7-week camp for first graders focusing on environmental education

•Performed data collection and entry, molecular research and statistical analyses

•Selected to assist undergraduate and graduate students in developing and writing papers

•Designed and executed a study on caterpillar mutation and published manuscript

•Analyzed genetic mutations in eye diseases using human blood samples

•Helped psychologists working with children identified as being at risk due to neglect and abuse