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 needed a durable, globally accessible platform capable of delivering high-fidelity procedural training while maintaining scientific accuracy and supporting long-term growth.

This wasn't about recreating classroom instruction in VR. It was about designing a new way for laboratorians to learn, practice, and collaborate regardless of location.

Learning Strategy & Platform Design

When organizational funding came through to unify CDC's laboratory learning ecosystem under OneLab, my team was given full autonomy to define how immersive learning could support the broader OneLab ecosystem. There was no product brief or prescribed approach—only a mandate to define what immersive technology could become within the OneLab ecosystem.

I co-led concept development, learning strategy, and roadmap ownership from the ground up — defining the platform vision, establishing its role within the broader OneLab ecosystem, and creating the release cadence and lifecycle governance needed to support 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.

Together, we designed more than 100 interactive learning experiences and laboratory assets that allowed users to practice complex procedures in realistic environments.

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.

Driving Adoption

Building the platform was only half the challenge. The laboratory workforce didn't have headsets, wasn't familiar with VR as a training modality, and was distributed across the country. Convincing them this was worth their time — and then actually getting them set up — required a change management effort as deliberate as the product work itself.

We shipped headsets to labs across the country and traveled on-site to configure devices, connect networks, and answer questions in person. We ran standing office hours — calls with labs nationwide where I'd ask directly: what are you seeing, what isn't working, what do we need to fix? IT staff joined in real time and we troubleshot together.

What each site needed was a local champion—someone who would take ownership, build confidence, and keep the platform moving after we left. We couldn't be everywhere. So we built a model that didn't require us to be. Once a site was connected and had a local champion, the platform became self-sustaining. We learned quickly that successful adoption wasn't driven by technology alone. It depended on confidence, local ownership, and creating an environment where people felt comfortable learning in a completely new way. That model is what allowed a platform built by a small team to reach a globally distributed workforce.

Impact

OneLabVR gave laboratorians a new way to learn, practice, and collaborate without the constraints of travel or physical classrooms. The platform established a scalable foundation for procedural training, enabled continuous expansion, and demonstrated how immersive learning could support a globally distributed workforce.

My Role

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

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