Karen Simpson, who led the Office of Personnel Management social learning pilot, will discuss the benefits and challenges of implementing a social learning program in a federal agency. The pilot program involved 97 participants from agencies across government in a six-week program on performance management in federal HR. In this interactive presentation, Karen will explain how federal trainers can create a social learning program in their agency.
Karen Simpson joined the Federal Government 16 years ago because she has a great passion for public service. Her education and degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, BA in Political Science and Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, New York University, Master’s of Public Administration further ignited her passion. After graduating from Wagner, Ms. Simpson moved to Washington D.C. to take a position with the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. She worked on the Digest for Education Statistics and the Condition of Education. She has worked for other agencies including the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). At OPM, provided policy and guidance to Federal agencies on a variety of training and development topics including writing the Best Practices in Mentoring publication and the Fact Sheet on Continuing Service Agreements. She was a key principle in the development of HR University and managed the first Government wide Social Learning Pilot. Currently, she is the Learning and Development program manager for U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Chief Information Office. She leads the IT learning and development efforts for USDA which includes managing USDA’s IT Fellows Program. She is also the e-learning expert with USDA’s AgLearn team, USDA’s learning management system. Outside of work, Ms. Simpson likes to compete in triathlons, swim, and take all kinds of fitness classes. She also loves music, theater, and dance. Ms. Simpson is married and has two children.