Lisa M.D. Owens is a learning expert who combines her engineering mindset with her deep interest in instructional design and learning sciences to create training that moves business forward.

In the latter half of her more than 30-year career at Procter & Gamble (P&G), Lisa was P&G’s leading training professional, with a broad range of cutting-edge internal programs. After retiring from P&G in 2011, she partnered with Crystal Kadakia to research and solve some of the issues facing L&D in this modern age. This work resulted in the highly rated ATD LearnNOW course, and the 2020 ATD book on this topic, Designing for Modern Learning: Beyond ADDIE and SAM. The Owens-Kadakia Learning Cluster Design model (OK-LCD), described in this book, is slated to be the next evolution for the L&D industry beyond blended learning.

Lisa also co-authored Leaders as Teachers Action Guide; the textbook, Your Career: How to Make it Happen (9th edition); and Lo Start-Up Di Una Corporate University (Italian). Annually, since 2009, she judges for learning awards such as ATD BEST Awards and CLO ELITE.

Lisa holds a bachelor of chemical engineering and a master’s in education. She worked at the Savannah River nuclear facility, joined P&G as a process design and construction engineer, then took on full-time global training responsibilities. She is married and has two sons and grandchildren. She has been active in church education and was the lead instructional designer for nationwide, multiday youth leadership training programs in use since 2003. Her youth leadership work continued with China Capable Teens.