Alana Burman

Curious, nimble, and empathetic leader who aligns talent to business through end-to-end people and org development excellence: building stakeholder trust, needs analysis, system strategy, content creation, facilitation, assessment, and optimization.

Deep expertise across: learning design, leadership and manager skills development, onboarding, employee relations, team effectiveness, career and succession planning, competency mapping, performance enablement, organization design, and coaching. Known for my ability to make connections quickly and generate a cohesive, compelling vision from a variety of complex information. Partners say they appreciate my warmth, action-orientation, and the way I provide a new frame toward possibility.

Director of Learning & Organizational Development at Gravity Learning (2024-03 – Present)

• Translate business objectives to talent roadmaps for global biotech orgs including Ossium Health, Gilead Sciences, and BeOne. Advisor senior stakeholders, diagnose needs, shape initiatives, and implement concurrent development workstreams.
• Partner with HRBPS and senior leads to map critical roles and design distinct growth tracks for individual contributors, people managers, and strategic leaders, based on skill gaps and what "ready for the next stage" actually looks like at each level.
• Design, supervise, and optimize multi-year full-cycle talent development roadmaps integrating onboarding, manager competency mapping and upskilling, executive development, and ongoing performance enablement for audiences of 250-8,000.
• Outcomes of 3.7x average ROI calculated through time saved, quality of outputs improved, and competencies upleveled
• Ground manager and high-performer competency frameworks in organizational psychology translating academic literature into practical, teachable behaviors teams could actually use.
• Drive learning and organization development special projects including recruitment, hiring, onboarding; RACI matrices, redesign of Hubspot CRM implementation, vendor selection and relationship management.
• Outcomes: Shortened time to hire for new facilitators by half, reduced client onboarding mistakes by 30%.
• Facilitation of over 45 interactive remote and hybrid classes on talent development topics including strategic thinking, delegating trust, and the science of executive presence. Participants reported 4.89/5 satisfaction rating.
• Provide one-on-one coaching to over 75 executives, managers, and high-potential leaders, helping them achieve significant personal and professional growth; 100% of coachees reported positive experience and valuable impact on their worklife.

Consultant at Alana Burman Consulting (2023-09 – 2024-03)

• Performance Review Cycle Management: restructured process, redesigned template, built calibration processes and manager upskilling, audited results.
• Enterprise-Wide Employee Listening Strategy & Implementation: designed quantitative and qualitative data gathering, managed internal change communications strategy, assessed results, held focus groups, designed and presented reports with recommendations, designed and facilitated senior leadership workshops for follow-up policy planning.
• Internal Mobility & Succession Planning: consulted with department leads to map critical roles, key risk areas for institutional knowledge and skill, and high potential talent. Structured and conducted stay interviews, identified high-demand and high-need skill development areas, built recommended training pathways.

Senior Consultant & Program Manager, Learning & Leadership Development at LifeLabs Learning (2020-01 – 2022-12)

• Owned portfolio of 100+ enterprise-level strategic talent development partnerships: collaborated with department heads and internal champions at high profile partners including Airbnb, Dropbox, Skydio and Ramp; assessed learning needs, designed initiatives aligned to KPIs, delivered programs, and consulted on driving lasting impact. Earned 95 NPS, named a trusted partner.
• Administered 200+ cross-functional talent development programs targeting IC-first time manager development, performance assessment and enablement, capacity mapping, succession planning, and change readiness for tech, sales, and R&D teams.
• Drove program design and service delivery operations for audiences ranging from 12 to 4,000:
• Generated program strategy and deliverables, including: impact & experience design, delivery workflows, scheduling & logistics systems, and program-supportive content including podcasts, templates, playbooks & internal comms.
• Chaired meetings, maintained deadlines, conducted data analysis, reported outcomes and proposed optimizations.
• 98% of clients reported measurable improvement across key culture & business metrics over 3-, 6- & 12-months.
• Owned onboarding during a 350% headcount increase; bringing new hires to performance faster: designed learning paths, created KPIs, crafted and optimized lesson plans, trackers, toolkits, and videos; facilitated live learning experiences. New team members and team leaders reported 95% satisfaction with resources, readiness, and experience
• Facilitated 50+ working sessions for program sponsors to boost understanding of learning science, bolster skills for implementation and impact, and cultivate a community of practice. Participants reported 4.97/5 satisfaction rating.
• Managed team of 5: accountable for team members growth and achievement. 100% reported that I cared personally, helped them find belonging, gave useful feedback, coached effectively for success, and invested in their development.

Learning Experience Designer & Production Manager at Allen Comm (2018-10 – 2020-01)

• Owned design and development across 10+ bespoke learning projects: partnered with cross-functional teams to develop transformative eLearning, in-person, and blended solutions; track record of producing deliverables that achieved accessibility, engagement, and lasting behavior change goals; rated highly for user experience and performance impact.
• Strategized learner experience to develop both equity-driven people skills and highly technical skills: applied adult learning theories and instructional design methodology, analyzed and curated complex content, roadmapped participant journey of information, activity, integration, and assessment sequences to create engaging and relevant instructional materials.
• Project managed progress and delivery: collaborated, coordinated, and problem-solved across cross-functional internal teams, client stakeholders, SMEs, LMS providers, and vendors, meeting timeline and quality expectations.

Employer Brand & Talent Attraction Account Director at Radancy (formerly TMP Worldwide) (2015-07 – 2017-12)

• Developed and sustained high level relationships to promote business growth: cultivated, closed, and stewarded progress on +$5 million in business with enterprises including Walt Disney Company, Marriott, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Kuehne + Nagel.
• Thought-partnered with clients and stakeholders at all levels on micro- and macro-landscape assessment, audience segmentation, strategy development, project design, execution, measurement, and optimization

M.S. in Positive Organization Development & Change – Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University

B.A. in Woman & Gender Studies, History – Washington University in St. Louis