Jeroen Breman
Northwest Lineman College - Download Profile/Vita

It was February 1995 when I boarded a plane to travel to California, USA for the first time. My advisor and I were going to present my Master's research from the University of Twente in the Netherlands in Anaheim at the National Convention of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology.

I did not know that my life was about to change.

By the end of the week, I found myself a member of the International Division, and I was thinking about continuing my education in the USA. In 1996, I returned to AECT in Indianapolis to meet as many people as possible from the universities that had accepted my application. And in 1997 in Albuquerque, while presenting my last University of Twente project, I was already bleeding the Penn State blue and white.

After four years studying and working in their Instructional Systems program, I returned to the Netherlands to accept an amazing opportunity to apply my knowledge and skills as manager of the Conservation Leadership Program at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), bringing blended learning to this global conservation organization, with learners in 40+ countries.

The work was recognized by AECT’s International Division in 2002 with the Award for Outstanding Practice in an International Setting by a Student of Educational Communications and Technology.

In 2009, I exchanged conservation for the humanitarian sector as Learning and Development Project Manager in Oxfam. Based in the United Kingdom, I designed, developed, and implemented online, face to face, and blended learning solutions for staff and partners in over 90 countries. Personally, I delivered training workshops in 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

All those years, I have made attending AECT’s annual conference my go-to fulfillment of the ‘stay abreast of developments in the field’ line in my contracts. On numerous occasions I have presented results of applying this new knowledge in my work, in concurrent sessions and round tables. I am active in the International Division (as well as D&D and OTP), as a reviewer and facilitator, served in the presidential nomination committee for AECT in 2002/2003, and currently am a mentor in the AECT Design Competition.

In 2010, in my fourth of five visits to Anaheim, AECT was the place where I met the woman of my life, whom I married in 2014! After a short time in the UK, we relocated to Boise, Idaho, where she accepted a position at the Boise State University. And I now work in the corporate university of the Northwest Lineman College, where I fosters organizational performance improvement and professional growth of staff of the college in four locations across the USA.

To the function of president-elect of the International Division, I bring the unique perspective of a person with an academic mindset who has applied the knowledge and skills in different international settings with a global impact. I would love to work with both academics and practitioners to explore where the two meet and where collaboration can be extended.

I am looking forward to writing the next chapter of this story, serving in a leadership role in the International Division of AECT!

Best wishes,

Jeroen Breman