Are you ready to expand opportunities for service member success with access to the modernized ACE Military Guide?

CAEL Members: Come learn more about the innovations occurring within the Department of Defense (DoD) aimed to enhance the validation and alignment of military learning and work experience to expand service member success!

Together, the Defense Activity for Nontraditional Education Support (DANTES) and the American Council on Education (ACE) completely transformed and modernized the Guide to the Evaluation of Educational Experiences in the Armed Services (referred to as the ACE Military Guide). Join us for a live demonstration and learn how you can immediately integrate the system capabilities. 

Launched on 1 April 2021, the modernized Military Guide is designed with a collaborative experience providing visibility, transparency, and accountability of military learning to academic credit decisions, enabled by continuous feedback mechanisms across higher education, DoD, and other key stakeholders.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will:

• Discuss the strategic vision for DANTES new Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) Branch and DoD’s the return on investment for service members, institutions, and taxpayers.    
• Observe the new search functions and integration of course and occupation data.  
• Learn how the system exports evaluation data to support mapping and articulation activities that populate student information systems.
• Identify strategies that improve interoperability of data, exchange, access, and clearer paths to support service member success.

Presenters

Gina Perry

Gina Perry serves as the Prior Learning Assessment Division Chief, Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES). Gina oversees the delivery of Prior Learning Assessment programs to support Department of Defense voluntary education. 

Gina’s career has spanned more than 30 years, and includes a strong foundation in leading private and public sector efforts to improve organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Since joining DANTES is 2011, she has focused on transforming programs to improve service member access to quality education programs, while increasing the return on investment for the taxpayer. In her current position, Gina is focused on maximizing the impact of Prior Learning Assessment programs and working to promote DoD efforts to the broader stakeholder network.

Gina earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science/International Relations San Diego State University, and holds a certification in Federal Contract Management.

Doug Johnson

Doug Johnson currently serves as the DoD Military Training Evaluations Program Manager, Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES).   Doug manages the outcomes and success of the Military Training Evaluation Program (MTEP) and oversees the successful implementation of data modernization and interoperability with key stakeholders. 

Doug is a retired Navy Commander and spent over 31 years serving in a variety of education and training leadership roles.  Prior to joining DANTES, Doug filled the role as Business Planning Manager for Perspecta, working in partnership with organizations such as Center for Research and Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing in support of the US Navy’s Testing Sciences Program.

Doug holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina, Columbia and MBA from Trident University.  Additionally, he holds both the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and Society of Human Resources Certified Professional (SHRM-CP) certifications.

Michele Spires

Michele Spires is ACE’s acting executive director for Learning Evaluations, the national leader in recognizing and validating learning and competencies to connect students, workforce, training providers, and universities.  In this role, she provides leadership to innovate new and transformational opportunities for ACE and its membership.

With more than 25 years of wide-ranging experience in post-traditional and workforce education, Spires is actively engaged in tackling critical topics that range from the evaluation of educational experiences that occur outside the traditional classroom, credit for prior learning, military culture, military transcripts, competencies, credentials, transfer credit, and trends related to workforce education and training. Connecting individuals to education and career pathways is her passion! 

Spires holds a BA in French (SUNY Plattsburgh) and an MS in Educational Leadership (Troy University). She has also completed post-graduate courses with a focus on adult education and curriculum (Nova Southeastern University) and is the proud spouse of a veteran who served 22 years in the United States Air Force.

Harold Tran

Harold Tran serves as Vice President of Education Strategy and Technology Enablement at Vantage Point Consulting. In this capacity, Harold is responsible for collaborating with Education clients to help build strategies and innovative solutions to advance the quality, accessibility, and value of education to all students. He has worked with some of the largest educational institutions and non-profit’s in the U.S. to plan, manage, and lead their most complex and transformational initiatives, ranging from Strategic Planning, Academic Course Development, and Education Technology implementations.

Prior to joining Vantage Point, Harold was a management consultant with Accenture and Slalom Consulting, and worked with a number of Fortune 500 companies including Microsoft, AT&T Wireless, and BP.

Harold earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington, and holds certifications in Prosci Change Management, and Agile Project Management.

Jackson Viccora

Jackson Viccora is a Senior Consultant facilitating the design, development, and release of the modernized ACE Military Guide. His recent experience revolves around building technology solutions to assist adult and non-traditional learners realize their education and career ambitions. 

He is passionate about getting down in the details and working hand-in-hand with learners themselves to co-create products and applications that meet their true needs and deliver a pleasant experience from start to finish. 

He holds a BA in Public Policy and Organizational Leadership from The College of William & Mary.