Faculty Advisor 

Dr. Ronald L. Jacobs

Ronald L. Jacobs, Ph.D. http://education.illinois.edu/frp/j/rljacobs is currently professor of human resource development, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and principal of a commercial venture called SiTUATE, LLC., https://www.situate-training.com, which is the digital version of structured on-the-job training (S-OJT).  As a professor, Ron has taught a wide range of graduate-level courses, including research, strategic HRD, work analysis, and consulting in organizations.  Ron has authored over 100 journal articles and book chapters and has authored or edited six books that address a range of topics in human resource and workforce development.  Ron has advised nearly 80 PhD students and over 300 master’s degree students during his career.  Ron is emeritus professor of workforce development and education at The Ohio State University.  In Fall 2022, Ron will assume a part-time professorship with the Learning, Leadership and Organization Development program at the University of Georgia. With Prof Jacobs (right in picture) is late Prof Ahad Osman Gani who passed away in November last year. Prof Osman Gani will be inducted in the AHRD Scholar Hall of Fame during the 2022 conference.

Student Conference Coordinators

Eunbyul Emma Park

Eunbyul Emma Park is a Ph.D. student in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership (EPOL) with a concentration in Human Resource Development (HRD). Her research interest includes individual digital competence in relation to organizational/industrial contexts for the reskilling and upskilling workforce and critical approach regarding technology accessibility. Her academic interest is aligned with her professional goal as an HRD scholar to contribute to society by addressing issues in practice.

Sadia Mazid

Sadia Mazid is an HRD major doctoral student at the Department of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership, College of Education, UIUC. Her research interest falls under the umbrella of the changing nature of the virtual workplace due to the major shift during the past few years and its implications on HRD professionals to understand the dynamics of virtual team collaboration. She has presented and is presenting part of her research at the American Human Resource Development (AHRD) Research Conferences in 2021 and 2022. Her research is also extended to educate and prepare pre-service teachers to lead cross-cultural online classrooms. For the past four years, she has been working on educational projects in the area of curriculum development for artifacts-based learning programs, designing online instructions for undergraduate training programs, and developing evaluation methods for educational research projects. She was awarded in the following categories- the Fabac-Tomilson Scholarship in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, and BG Summer Fellowship 2020 by the College of Education.

Shoptorshi Rahman

Shoptorshi Rahman is a PhD candidate in Human Resource Development (HRD) at Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership (EPOL) in College of Education at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Business Administration. Her doctoral research includes the development of first-time managers who have moved from roles that primarily call upon their areas of technical expertise to roles that are managerial in nature at different professional settings. She has served as Project Lead and Instructional Designer Intern in an Agile software development environment for onboarding both technical and non-technical newly recruited hires. She facilitates different career workshops and professional development programs for diverse talents in the Career Center at Illinois. She is motivated to cultivate a culturally responsive training design to enrich organizational learning initiatives and succession planning interventions in organizations. She has been awarded with FLAS fellowship (2018-2019) for learning foreign language issued by Center of Global Studies (CGS), UIUC, as well as, she has received Hove Graduate Scholarship for the 2019-2020 academic year funded through College of Education, UIUC.

Rasool Bux 

Rasool Bux is a Research cum Instructional Design Assistant at Gies College of Business Teaching and Learning Center. He is a third-year doctoral student in the Human Resource Development Ph.D. program. He has a decade long HRM/HRD background in higher education and corporate sector. His research interests revolve around the competency-based training at workplace and TVET sectors, Instructional Design and eLearning, adult learning and professional training. His career passion is to help organizations and governments fill the skills gap of their workforce through policy and practical interventions  and help non-traditional learners develop their skills by using learning technologies and eLearning resources.