Tom Cohenno, Principal
Tom Cohenno, EdD, CSP, CUSP, HWC, is a recognized safety leader and co-founder of Applied Learning Science, partnering with organizations across profit and non-profit sectors to strengthen safety, leadership effectiveness, workforce capability, and technical training outcomes. A U.S. Navy veteran and former utility executive, Tom blends deep operational experience with rigorous academic training to deliver practical, evidence-based workforce development solutions. He also builds strategic partnerships with equipment and training vendors, and academic institutions to expand industry-aligned learning pathways and reduce training costs.
Tom began his career at Southern California Edison (SCE) after being discharged from the U.S. Navy. He spent his early years in power plant operations and Transmission & Distribution (T&D), specializing in electrical operations for the first half of his career and holding both line management and staff roles.
After earning a graduate degree in Human Resources, Tom advanced into Labor Relations. He later earned an MBA at Claremont Graduate School and a Doctorate in Education at Pepperdine University, specializing in corporate education and organizational development. He went on to serve as T&D’s Principal Manager of Training before becoming SCE’s Director of Learning, Leadership, and Organizational Development.
Tom retired from SCE in 2015 to launch Applied Learning Science, where he continues to advance workforce development and elevate safety performance across industries.
Diane Spiegel, Principal Consultant
Diane Spiegel is a creative and forward-thinking executive with over 30 years of experience in organizational design, change management, talent management, coaching, and executive leadership across a variety of industries that include: retail, hospitality, entertainment, and energy.
As an innovative thought leader, Diane’s capacity to navigate ambiguity as the workplace and business environment shifts has yielded strong business results. Her aptitude to support organizations as they grow and effectively sustain a competitive advantage, coupled with her strategic ability to leverage workplace diversity, has become a business differentiator for her clients.
Diane Spiegel is the current past SVP, Chief People Officer, Opus Bank, whose primary role was to enhance organizational culture, create communication pathways, provide executive development and coaching and inspire a learning environment to support growth strategies across the enterprise. As a creative and forward-thinking consultant, Diane is the author of The Gen Y Handbook: Applying Relationship Leadership to Engage Millennials, a featured selection on the SelectBooks list. She is also adjunct faculty at the University of California Irvine and serves on the committee for Diversity & Inclusion with the Chief Protocol Officer.
Susan Kun, Principal Consultant
Susan Kun brings over 20 years of strategic planning and change management expertise from Amgen, Southern California Edison (SCE), and Blue Shield of California. Susan’s successful track record includes leading large-scale change efforts such as post-merger integrations, reorganizations, process improvements, and technology implementations.
During her SCE tenure, Susan led the learning and development unit that created or refreshed 30 employee training programs.
Susan has taught master classes for the global Association of Change Management Practitioners (ACMP) and earned awards from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) for internal communications, employee engagement, and change communications.
Susan’s MBA is from the UCLA Anderson School of Management with an emphasis in Finance and Marketing. She is a certified change management practitioner (CCMP, Prosci, GE CAP) and project management professional (PMP). Susan also holds certifications that facilitate team effectiveness and behavior change including MBTI, DiSC, EQ-i, and Insights Discovery.
Amanda Ulmer, Senior Associate Consultant
Amanda Ulmer is an Industrial–Organizational Psychology practitioner with a Master of Science from California State University, San Bernardino, and nearly 15 years of experience in business. Her work spans leadership development, organizational effectiveness, research, and data-driven consulting, specializing in turning complex organizational challenges and human behavior into clear, actionable strategy.
She works at the intersection of business performance, leadership effectiveness, and human behavior, helping organizations cut through noise, surface real obstacles, and implement solutions that actually stick. Her work blends evidence-based behavioral science with practical execution, delivering solutions that last, not recommendations that sit on a shelf.
Amanda’s background includes extensive experience in organizational effectiveness, leadership development, research, and data analysis, paired with a systems-thinking mindset and a deep understanding of how workplace dynamics influence performance, safety, engagement, and change adoption.
Her graduate research focused on subtle and internalized sexism in the workplace, examining its cognitive and psychological impact on women’s self-perception and performance. This work sharpened her ability to identify hidden barriers within organizational systems and reinforced her commitment to building cultures rooted in accountability, awareness, and psychological safety.
Known for her ability to balance directness with empathy, Amanda brings a thoughtful, no-nonsense approach to her work. She challenges leaders to think differently, act intentionally, and take ownership—while supporting sustainable growth for both people and organizations.
Jim Caldwell
Jim Caldwell is CEO of Workforce Incubator, a 501(c)3 Public Charity he founded in 2006 to develop career pathways into high-wage/high-skill/high-demand jobs. From 2013 through 2018 he served as Sector Navigator for Energy, Construction, and Utilities workforce initiatives in the California Community College System, leading a statewide team that connected industry with educators at California’s at more than 60 of the 114 community colleges.
Based on success at the sector level, Mr. Caldwell was appointed Visiting Dean for Key Talent Development at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, serving until his retirement in 2019.
Mr. Caldwell is a former Silicon Valley executive with deep experience in the telecom, utilities, and manufacturing industries.
Marcy Willis, Principal Consultant
Marcy Willis is a change agent with exceptional acumen in all aspects of training, organization development and leadership coaching. Her passion for supporting diverse individuals, teams and organizations through the change process, is matched by her personal warmth, creativity and genuine devotion to driving the success of every initiative that she touches. Her consultative vision provides clients with navigational guidance through the murkiest of ambiguities. Strong analytic and evaluative skills have been honed by years of experience, leading to improved client performance and effectiveness. Clients view Ms. Willis as a trusted partner.
Marcy recently concluded a 4.5 year tour with Southern California Edison as a Training Program Manager in Human Resources. Ms. Willis was a key player in the transformation of a critical technical training organization, by managing the systematic redesign of two separate 3-year job skills training programs for Apprentice Linemen. During that time, she also provided team building, coaching and facilitation support for leadership development, which improved team effectiveness and communication skills for clients in Customer Service, Engineering, and the electric power lines. She facilitated leadership development modules for new-to-role supervisors and managers. She is currently leading the development and implementation of a 360-degree assessment for a major California educational system. This includes the coaching support necessary to implement individual development plans.
Ms. Willis earned her Master’s Degree in Organizational Behavior and Evaluation from Claremont Graduate University. She is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach and holds certifications including: Prosci Change Management, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, DiSC, EQ-i 2.0, Risk Type Compass and Insights Discovery.
Daniella Lockhart
Daniella Lockhart received her graduate training in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from California State University, San Bernardino.
She is currently a Learning and Development Specialist at Applied Learning Science. Daniella's specialty is examining content for cultural sensitivity and researching diversity topics. Daniella is passionate about and works to help organizations and employees learn how to create inclusive and equitable workplaces for all.
Christina Putrov
Christina Putrov received her Master’s degree in Positive Organizational Psychology and Evaluation from Claremont Graduate University.
Christina is currently a Ph.D. student, a Training & Development Specialist at Applied Learning Science, and a professor at Cal Poly Pomona. Christina is passionate about authenticity at work and strives to improve an organization’s culture by adopting a holistic approach to development.
Sofia Torres-Crespo
Sofia Torres-Crespo is earning her graduate training in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from California State University, San Bernardino.
She is currently a Learning and Development Specialist at Applied Learning Science. Sofia's specialty is researching topics on supervisor-subordinate relationships and subtle sexism in the workplace. Sofia uses her passion for multimedia content creation in instructional design and onboarding projects.
Heather Carrasco
Heather Carrasco is an Organizational Development Consultant. Her goal is to develop effective tools to enhance the workplace for employees.
Heather obtained an M.S. degree in Industrial Organization Psychology at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB). Her thesis centered on the retention of early childhood educators by examining the role of fit and perception of distributive justice. Additionally, Heather received her B.A. in Human Development and Psychology at CSUSB. Her research interest includes job satisfaction, turnover intentions, embracing sisterhood in the workplace, and workplace ostracism.
In addition to Heather’s educational background, she has several years of experience in management, research, and customer service. Providing client service is a top priority is always eager to establish engaging relationships with her clients.
Eric Cazares
Eric Cazares is an analytically minded Learning and Development Consultant. He is enthusiastic about data and appreciates when he can leverage his knowledge to inform data-driven decision making.
He has previously worked at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) helping spearhead their competency model initiative where he worked alongside various workgroups, ranging from Payroll Professionals to Wastewater Stationary Engineers, to develop competency models used for performance management. Before beginning his career, Eric interned with the Office of Institutional Research at California State University-San Bernardino performing data analyses to support planning, enrollment management, and ad hoc request. He is currently working on developing an Immersive Learning Lab (Virtual and Augmented Reality) at the Los Angeles Community District and oversees the evaluation approach for the Testing and Commissioning Power Academy at TRC Solutions, Inc.
Eric received his undergraduate (Psychology) and graduate (Industrial and Organizational Psychology) training from California State University-San Bernardino.
John Luttrell
John Luttrell is a pioneer in the field of multimedia communication with over 30 years of experience producing content and managing training and technical communication projects. His solutions and methodologies have helped some of the world’s most recognizable Fortune 500 organizations in a variety of industries to communicate more effectively with their audiences.
During the emergence of the fields of Internet technology and streaming media in the 1990s, John developed a process called Integrated Multimedia. This process transforms presentations and classroom training into dynamic, engaging online content. Using a methodology he coined “The Taming of the SME,” John collaborates with subject matter experts to capture their expertise and translate it into the development of content that is relevant and applicable. This scenario-based approach, combined with connecting the design to job role-related competencies, results in learning that is targeted and has measurable results.
A graduate of DeVry Institute of Technology in Phoenix, Arizona, where he studied Electronics Engineering Technology, John is a self-professed tinkerer and loves to dig deep into technology to find solutions. He also studied at MIT in a program called “Communicating Technical Information.” John is a Windows Media Solutions Provider and has spoken about his process and methodology at industry organizations such as the Association for Talent Development (ATD/ASTD), the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), and the Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business and Management.
Neesha Daulat
Neesha Daulat is an organizational development and culture enthusiast as well as aspiring practitioner. She offers a wealth of innovative and unique knowledge including behavioral neuroscience, education, and positive organizational psychology.
Before beginning her budding consulting career, Neesha taught high school science, worked in a student-run leadership development consulting firm, and interned at Morning Star Tomato Packing Company. Through her teaching experience, Neesha gained exemplary skills in developing and facilitating training sessions. While involved in the student-run consulting firm, she administered 360 degree assessments and organized an assessment center for Getty Leadership Institute Fellowship affiliated museum leaders. During her internship, Neesha worked on a number of organizational culture and colleague development initiatives including redesigning and rewriting the employee handbook and evaluating the current state of the self-management culture.
The notable projects that Neesha has worked on at Applied Learning Science include assessing HVAC programs offered in a number of California Community Colleges, designing an instructor preparation course, and developing survey items for 360 degree assessments.
Neesha has earned a Bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of San Diego, a Master’s in Education from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and a Master’s in Positive Organizational Psychology and Evaluation from Claremont Graduate University. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Positive Organizational Psychology from Claremont Graduate University. Her research focuses on occupational well-being, leadership, and culture.
William Tutton
William Tutton has over 17 years’ experience in Instructional Design with an emphasis on eLearning working for diverse organizations including Yahoo!, the University of Southern California, Southern California Edison, and TRC Companies. Before that he was a professional musician and did a summer stint with the Los Angeles County Department of Agriculture in 2000 when he trapped what became known as the Inglewood Gypsy Moth. He was born in Buffalo, New York and educated at the Buffalo State Teachers College before moving to SoCal in 1985.
Jonathon Stearns
Jonathon Stearns is a film maker and multimedia designer. His experience ranges from commercial production to instructional design, with specialization in animation and motion graphics. He has owned and operated production company Channel B4 since 2001, with clients including Harley-Davidson, Deloitte, Heath Net, United Airlines, California Institute of the Arts, Marriott, and many others.
In 2017 he served as the Director of AV for animal rights organization PETA. He also creates original creative content and his works have been featured internationally. Since 2018 he has been on the production team at Applied Learning Science creating multimedia content, and conceptualizing / developing immersive learning content.