Challenge

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed structural limitations in traditional laboratory training. Travel restrictions, workforce shortages, and global demand for rapid upskilling made in-person instruction difficult to scale.

CDC needed more than a temporary solution. It required a durable, globally accessible training model capable of delivering high-fidelity procedural education without geographic constraints—while maintaining scientific accuracy, usability, and long-term scalability.

This was not a course redesign. It was the creation of a new training infrastructure for a global workforce.

Product Strategy & Program Development

I co-founded CDC’s immersive learning capability and co-owned product strategy and execution for OneLabVR, guiding the platform from concept through launch and into sustained quarterly expansion.

From the outset, we positioned the initiative as a platform—not a single training experience—with defined vision, roadmap, release cadence, and lifecycle governance. I led concept development, business-case creation, and funding justification, helping secure organizational buy-in for immersive learning as a long-term capability.

The system was built as a persistent 50,000-square-foot virtual campus composed of 13 modular laboratories. This structure allowed new training content to be integrated without disrupting the core environment, supporting both immediate launch and long-term growth.

Team & Execution

I recruited, built, and led a multidisciplinary team spanning Unity developers, instructional designers, motion designers, and SMEs. We operated within an agile model, running weekly sprint cycles while aligning with broader enterprise project management standards.

More than 100 pieces of interactive laboratory equipment were developed with behavior-based realism, enabling high-fidelity procedural training. Multiplayer functionality was embedded at the architectural level, allowing geographically dispersed laboratorians to collaborate in real time.

I also designed the operating model and workflows required to sustain the platform, ensuring it could scale beyond its initial release and support ongoing content expansion.

Impact

OneLabVR launched as a persistent, globally accessible immersive training platform for the laboratory workforce, establishing a scalable model for delivering procedural education without geographic constraints.

The platform shifted immersive learning from a pilot initiative to a sustained, enterprise-supported program, enabling continuous training, collaboration, and capability expansion across the global laboratory community.

My Role

As Associate Creative Director, I co-founded the immersive learning program, co-owned product strategy, led design direction, and built the team and operating model required to deliver and scale the platform.

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