I started Dawn Snyder Associates believing that good learning and performance systems help everyone. When workers are engaged,  they are likely to perform well and make valued contributions to their organizations. When the workforce meets performance goals, organizations are healthy. They create and add value to everyone they serve—workers, workforce, customers, and society.

For more than 20 years, we have been working with organizations to help them take performance to the next level.  Perhaps there’s a new initiative. Or they are not getting the results they expected for a process or program. Together, we figure out what good performance looks like and what it takes to get there.

Our projects represent most industries and all levels in organizations, particularly knowledge workers.

We have expertise in learning, performance, change management and organization development. Our clients have one thing in common: Performance matters.

We’re different from other learning and performance improvement organizations. We customize our approach to your unique situation to get to a feasible, sustainable solution as quickly as possible. We integrate with your team to maximize your investment, and bring in additional talent, when needed, to complete the project. We meet you where you are NOW and take advantage of what’s already working.

Our mission is to help organizations gain and maintain a competitive advantage by enhancing workforce and organizational performance.

Meet Dawn Snyder

Founder | Fearless Leader

Dawn M. Snyder is the founder of Dawn Snyder Associates, a learning and performance firm that provides consulting on learning strategies, curriculum architecture, performance assessment and evaluation. Dawn has a proven track record of bringing practical, cutting-edge solutions to organizations who want to take performance to the next level. She helps these organizations achieve results by combining contemporary evidence-based best practices from a variety of disciplines, including learning and talent development, performance improvement and change management. She is the go-to consultant for initiatives that impact global learning and performance and talent development.

Dawn has also worked within organizations as a manager and change agent to build high-performing teams and programs that achieve transformative business results. She is recognized as an expert on analyzing what “good” looks like and helping groups at all levels push past barriers and achieve dramatic market, revenue and business success.

She is at the forefront of leading and managing remote and culturally diverse global teams.

Her superpowers include figuring things out using analysis and research techniques, translating research into practice, getting people on the same page, motivating and empowering teams and individuals, and aligning strategies and processes to desired results.

Dawn is passionate about supporting emerging talent and has worked in universities and corporations to build curricula and teach in programs that credential high-performing individuals. She teaches graduate-level classes in performance improvement, change management, evaluation, organizational learning, knowledge management, leadership, and project and relationship management. She advises doctoral students on their research.

Dawn holds a M.S. and Ph.D. in Instructional Systems Technology and is also a Certified Performance Technologist (CPT) and Certified Change Management Practitioner (Prosci). She serves on the Advisory Board of the Doctorate of Professional Studies in Instructional Design Leadership at Franklin University and is the President of Central Ohio Chapter of ATD.

Partners

We draw on broad industry experience and an extensive professional network to bring in the right expertise and support for your project. Often, we work with your team to achieve outcomes, upskilling and coaching, to enable and transform your organization.

What can you expect?

We only bring in the best—proven professionals who add value to your project.

Awards

  • Computer Education Management Association’s Impact Award for a learning product that provided 60% faster implementation, 28% increase in customer promoters, and 55% decrease in cost of ownership. (Team award)

Academic Credentials

  • Ph.D., Instructional Systems Technology, Language Education – Indiana University
  • M.S., Instructional Systems Technology – Indiana University
  • B.A., English Language and Literature, cum laude – Butler University
  • Doctoral Teaching & Advising – Franklin University

Business Credentials

  • Certified Change Management Professional – Prosci 
  • Certified Performance Technologist (CPT) – International Society for Performance Improvement*
  • LEVEL II DACUM Facilitator – Center on Education and Training for Employment, The Ohio State University
  • DACUM Job Analysis Process – Center for Education on Training and Employment, The Ohio State University
  • DACUM Facilitator Training Institute – Center for Education on Training and Employment, The Ohio State University
  • SCID (Systematic Curriculum and Instructional Development) Training Institute – Center for Education on Training and Employment, The Ohio State University

Publications

  • Dawn is a regular featured blogger on the popular performance improvement blog site HPT Treasures
  • Naffi, N., Davidson, A.L., Clark, R.E., Snyder, D.M., Kaufman, R., Beatty, B, Wallace, G., Patino, A., Gbetoglo, E., Duponsel, N., Savoie, C., Ruby, I, Paquilin, D., Fournel, I. (August 21, 2020) “Disruption in and by Centres for Teaching and Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Leading the Future of Higher Ed,” Whitepaper.
  • Snyder, D.M. & Wisniewski, A. (August 2020) “The Case for Revisiting Analysis Strategies,” Performance Xpress https://cdn.ymaws.com/ispi.org/resource/resmgr/performance_express_archives/pxpress_aug20_finalrev1.pdf
  • Snyder, D.M., Moore, A., Rasile, P. (2013) “Maintaining standards and increasing accessibility of the certified performance technology credential.”  Performance Improvement. 52(8), 21-26. 
  • Snyder, D. M. & Gardner, J. (2012) “Implementing a world-class e-learning technology in a graduate instructional design course.”  Journal of Educational Technology Systems. 40(4), 389-399. 
  • Haig, C. (2007, November). Organizational evaluation process inventory (by Dawn Snyder) in TrendSpotters Open Toolkit: PerformanceXpress Newsletter (circulation 23,000) 
  • Snyder, D. (2005) “Analysis, evaluation and measurement.” Performance & Instruction Journal. 44(3), 50-51.
  • Naffi, N., Davidson, A.L., Clark, R.E., Snyder, D.M., Kaufman, R., Beatty, B, Wallace, G., Patino, A., Gbetoglo, E., Duponsel, N., Savoie, C., Ruby, I, Paquilin, D., Fournel, I. (September 8, 2020) “5 Recommendations from Teaching Centres to Teaching Centres to Help Faculty Shift Online,” University Affairs.

Our Clients

Here are just some of the many clients Dawn has worked with to help improve their business!

Dawn has been a wonderful advisor to Black Spectacles, helping us to understand a variety of aspects and considerations of designing curriculae and courses. She is like a surrogate team member for us – widely respected among our teammates, and the subject-matter experts she has facilitated meetings with. Dawn is a trusted consultant to myself as CEO, and to our entire team, when it comes to anything related to the practice of learning design.

Marc Teer, FAIA

Founder & CEO, Black Spectacles

Dawn worked closely with our team, directing our efforts in building a new Competency Model and software products based on that model.  As such, our team was able to:

  • Create a new model of the strategic skills building needed to help Insights (marketing research) directors train staff and help individual researchers build new skills more quickly.
  • The Strategic Skills Model provided a framework for working smart as Insights Professionals by: 
    • Defining best-in-class strategic skills so that Insights Directors can more objectively assess and develop their team members.   
    • Providing individual insights professionals with a blueprint for building their own strategic abilities.

Olivetree uses this framework in all coaching and workshop sessions and developed software, Insights Central, based on the competencies revealed in this model.  

Dawn is an unequaled expert and trusted adviser in the field of performance improvement. I have been working with Dawn over the last year and her keen intelligence, subject matter expertise and depth of experience makes every encounter a success. She always brings a positive energy to our team efforts and is a joy to work with. I would recommend Dawn to anyone.

Carol Shea

Olivetree Insights

Dawn Snyder has worked with the DACUM program as a reliable partner for many years.  Few people that I’ve ever worked with are as talented as Dawn. She is insightful, creative, dependable and congenial when it comes to marshalling resources to get a project up and running and seeing it through to completion. Her consulting experience coupled with her business insight and analytical and facilitation skills makes her a valued asset to any organization.

John Moser

The Ohio State University –
Center On Education And Training For Employment

One could easily be fooled into thinking Dawn Snyder is magic in the way that she makes the impossible, possible. It isn’t magic that fuels her greatness; it’s her unparalleled knowledge, experience, and dedication to excellence that drives the incredible results she achieves. Dawn is quietly effective in influencing radical change and is the type of person that inspires the best in others around her. She is wickedly smart, yet down to earth and genuinely cares for the well being of others. She understands the great responsibility that comes with managing people and is well known for building highly engaged teams. I’ve had the honor of working with Dawn in multiple capacities at HDVest, Ellucian, and Meeting Professionals International, and I am personally and professionally a better person as a result of our work together.

Melissa Majors

Melissa Majors Consulting