Learning Professionals tackle transformation though innovative CPI event Published July 24, 2025 By Bryanna Richards WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio — From July 15–17, the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) convened experts from across the Department of the Air Force for a Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) event focused on mapping the Air Force’s learning ecosystem to create a shared understanding and meet the demands of the future force. Held in a hybrid format at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Foundation Building in Dayton, the event brought together stakeholders in faculty/instructor development, educational technology, research, innovation, acquisition, and talent management to align systems, eliminate redundancies, and accelerate optimizing how Airmen are trained and developed across commands. "This gathering brought together diverse perspectives from across our Air Force family, creating a powerful convergence of ideas and expertise focused on one critical mission: developing the Airmen who will secure our nation's future," said Dr. Wendy Walsh, AETC’s Chief Learning Officer (CLO). The CPI event supported AETC’s strategic line of effort, “Enterprise Learning Ecosystem Optimization,” and featured collaborative working groups tasked with tackling transformational objectives: improving learning engineering, leveraging tech-enhanced training tools, expanding access to training, enhancing faculty and workforce development, and establishing learning data analytics as well as validating draft mission threads. Each working group produced critical deliverables, including identifying data for aggregation and visualization designed to populate a learning ecosystem map to improve access and awareness of existing force capabilities, developmental opportunities, and support talent management decision making. The event provided demonstrations of two visualization tools used in industry to help illuminate pathways to enhanced readiness, strengthen workforce development, and ensure that the ecosystem remains agile, efficient, and responsive to the Air Force’s evolving challenges. “What strikes me most is how effectively we’ve broken down traditional silos,” Walsh said. “We’ve seen researchers sitting alongside educators, technologists collaborating with force development specialists, and talent management professionals sharing insights with operational leaders. This cross-command participation hasn’t just been robust — it’s been transformative.” The intent of this event is to ensure that learners receive the right training and have access to the resources they need to grow throughout their careers. Participants drilled down on how mobile access, AI-enhanced tools, and faculty investment can enable learning that is flexible, personalized, and responsive to mission requirements. “CPI isn’t just about refining existing processes,” Walsh added. “It’s about collective understanding, problem-solving, and possibility generation. Multiple perspectives examining challenges together invariably produce more innovative, effective, and sustainable solutions than any single functional area working alone.” Organizers stated the focus moving forward will be to continue to build a community within the DAF Learning Enterprise to encourage ongoing collaboration, highlighting and celebrating successes to maintain engagement as the group prioritizes solutions and develops an implementation plan. The next Learning Strategy CPI event will be held in 2026 and will tackle challenges in system information flow and purposeful narratives to advance mission readiness.