Bridging the Gap Between Classroom Curriculum and the Needs of Today's Workforce: AdvancED Industry Insights Panel

Brad Lawrence is a proud Vandy alum (B.S. ‘09) and also the Senior Director of Customer Success at Coursera. 

At Coursera, his team strives to help individuals transform their lives through learning through partnering with over 7,000 universities, governments, and businesses. Prior to Coursera, Brad spent nine years at LinkedIn, where he led the Global Learning & Engagement and NAMER Enterprise Hiring Solutions teams.

Brad received his MBA from Harvard Business School and lives in Nashville with his wife Megan, a Vanderbilt professor at the Owen Graduate School of Management, and two kids, Henry and Caroline. In his little free time, he loves running, fishing, and cheering on Diego and the ‘Dores.

Andrew Kerr is a technology executive and small business owner with 18+ years of diverse experience leading teams, delivering software solutions, and helping individuals and organizations to grow and thrive.  He is currently the CEO at FortyAU software solutions where he leads an agile team of 140+ software developers to deliver custom software solutions for clients in the healthcare, finance, education, sports, and entertainment industries.  

Over the past 8-years, Andrew has advanced FortyAU from an early-stage start-up to a mature, middle market services company repeatedly doubling revenue and working with enterprise clients including HCA Healthcare, Dollar General, Asurion, Tivity Health, and Alliance Bernstein.  FortyAU works with a diverse portfolio of small business and enterprise customers to lead their digital transformation and innovation efforts.  These collaborations have led to millions of dollars in VC funding for FortyAU clients and several successful exits.

Andrew previously served as the Assistant Vice President (AVP) for HCA’s Parallon Technology Solutions where he directed the efforts of over 150+ consultants to deliver high-priority IT projects for many of the nation’s top-healthcare companies.  Prior to working at HCA/Parallon, Andrew worked at the Federal Investigative Services Division (FISD) within the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in Washington, DC.  Andrew is a graduate of the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program, class of 2003. 

Possessing a strong passion for leadership development, he annually teaches dozens of classes on diverse topics including change management, managing up, and the power of humility for leaders.  His first book, The Humility Imperative: Why the Humble Leader Wins in an Age of Ego, was released in 2017 and led Andrew to be featured on numerous podcasts, blogs, and as a featured speaker across the country for companies including HCA, Cisco, Tivity Health, Compassus, Yahoo Finance, and Scott Madden consulting.  Andrew is also an adjunct professor at Lipscomb University teaching in the Master of Health Administration program on “Healthcare, Innovation & Entrepreneurship”.   

Andrew is a Certified Facilitator from Development Dimensions International (DDI) and is certified to teach the Change Style Indicator (CSI) and Influence Style Indicator (ISI) assessment instruments developed by Discovery Learning, Inc.   Andrew is also active in the community, where he serves as the board chair for the Amputee Blade Runners and on the board of the National Football Foundation of Middle Tennessee. 

He holds a Master’s degree in Education (M. Ed.) from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College and a B.A. in political science and anthropology from Vanderbilt’s college of Arts and Sciences.  While at Vanderbilt, Andrew was a four-year walk-on and two-year letterman on the varsity football team earning academic All-SEC honors both his junior and senior year.  Andrew and his wife Ashlie have three energetic children and currently reside in Franklin, TN. 

You can find him on Twitter @AndrewKerr11 or LinkedIn

Jen is an ICF certified executive coach, marketing and communications expert, and facilitator with 20 years of experience. 

Jen currently leads the Acceleration Practice of the L’Oreal USA People Development & Learning Team, enabling key strategic initiatives by accelerating organizational capability across 13,000 employees. Jen draws on her past experience leading Digital Upskilling and Leadership Development for L’Oreal USA, global education, digital and marketing for the Essie brand, and communication and marketing consulting for organizations like Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Starbucks.

Jesse Spencer-Smith, PhD is Chief Data Scientist and Interim Director for the Data Science Institute at Vanderbilt University, and is Professor of the Practice of Computer Science. He leads a team of data scientists and postdoctoral fellows who collaborate with researchers across the university and medical center and with industry partners, and teaches graduate courses on artificial intelligence. He consults with researchers and business leaders on using, training and developing new AI models, and has developed and led workshops on AI for audiences from senior executives in industry to high schoolers. He has been invited to speak on AI at national academic, industry, and government conferences focused on science, healthcare, financial services, executive leadership, and service industries. He has published on AI and its applications in areas ranging from astrophysics to archeology to negotiation. He holds a PhD in Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science from Indiana University, and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Florida. He was previously at HCA Healthcare for nine years, where as Director of Data Science he built the first data science team for the company and was charged with enabling data science across the enterprise through training, mentoring, skills assessments and consulting with business units on data science and AI preparedness. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he was an Assistant Professor of Psychology in Quantitative Methods and was a Beckman Fellow at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. In high school, he founded an early software technology company that developed solutions for civil engineering using the first generations of personal computers. 

Patrick is the Manager, Learning Design & Development at Chevron where he leads the global team responsible for the design and development of enterprise learning and leadership programs. Prior to Chevron, Patrick’s experience included leading and designing talent development projects and programs at global, Fortune 500 organizations for over 15 years. He has worked on strategic learning and change efforts for top client accounts while at Slalom and Accenture and has also held internal organizational development consulting roles at BHP, Marathon Oil, and The Shaw Group. He graduated with a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Human Resource Education from Louisiana State University. He completed his Doctorate in Leadership & Learning in Organizations from Vanderbilt University in 2021.