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[ MEET THE ACAMS STAFF ]
Heather Carroll:
An e-learning pioneer
CAMS Today interviewed Heather Carroll to discuss her career in instructional design and the most
important component of a certificate/certifi- cation. Carroll joined the ACAMS Product Development team in September 2016. She initially worked on the team that pioneered ACAMS’ Certificate courses, including Anti-Bribery and Corruption as well as Virtual Currency and Blockchain. Most recently, Carroll has been working with subject-matter experts to create training courses in multiple delivery formats to support ACAMS Associate-Level and Specialist-Level Certification programs. In addition, she is coordinating the effort to translate ACAMS courses into several languages. In April 2021, Carroll was promoted to lead instructional designer and is responsible for guiding the internal team of designers on course devel- opment processes and quality.
Over the course of her career, Carroll has served as a business development representative and an instructional design consultant for companies such as Harvard Business Publishing, United Airlines, McDonald’s, General Motors, Bank of America and State Farm. She is passionate about continuing education and supporting nontraditional learners with technology-assisted courseware. Carroll holds a master’s degree in education and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign.
ACAMS Today: You will soon be celebrating five years with ACAMS. What is your favorite part of your job?
Heather Carroll: Five years have flown by! My favorite part of my job is working with my awesome team members. We are primarily based in home offices, across three time zones in the U.S. and in China, yet we share a commitment to creating high-quality, engaging courses for our members. And we frequently jump in to assist when a team member has a deadline. There are no “whiners” on our team; everyone has a “can-do”
attitude. To stay connected, we usually meet in person at least once a year, but COVID-19 has put a stop to that. I look forward to reconnecting with the team sometime in the near future. Meanwhile, we have to settle for communicating via Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
AT: Tell us what led you to a career in instructional design?
HC: In the late 1990s, I was developing new business for an educational publishing company that provided leadership development courses via CD-ROM. The company was committed to employee development, so I decided to enroll in an online master’s in education program for working adults. My intention was to understand the needs of my Fortune 500 clients, but I discovered that I loved analyzing business problems and creating engaging content. Since I traveled for my
100 [ JUNE–AUGUST 2021 ]