GV ASTD sends a special shout-out to several chapter members for their roles in helping ESL Federal Credit Union earn an ASTD BEST Award for the third time in four years. The national ASTD organization ranked ESL No. 21 in its 2013 awards competition for excellence in employee learning and development.

Six chapter members comprise ESL’s award-winning Learning & Development organization:

Kelli Loveless, President, GV ASTD, CPLP®
Julie Demo, President-Elect, GV ASTD, CPLP®
Yvette Charleton, CPLP®
Jim Darby, Marketing and Communications Team, GV ASTD, CPLP®
Alexis McLaughlin
Mary Polle, CPLP®

ESL was among 28 companies from the U.S., Canada, India, Taiwan, and Turkey honored at a ceremony October 1 in Washington, D.C. (View ASTD’s press release.) Equally impressive, ESL is among 13 companies on the list who have earned this prestigious international award three times or more. As part of the recognition, ESL is profiled in the October 2013 issue of T+D magazine along with the other award recipients.

“We’re honored to earn a place on this distinguished list once again,” says Kelli, who manages the learning function at ESL in addition to her leadership role for GV ASTD. “The BEST award acknowledges ESL’s commitment to investing in the training and development of our people,” Kelli says. “It also affirms the tremendous professionalism, dedication, and skill of our learning team.”

Widely regarded as the training industry’s most coveted recognition, the 11th annual ASTD BEST Awards honors organizations that demonstrate excellence in workplace learning and development across their enterprise.

This year, 70 organizations from nine countries submitted information about their learning and development practices and programs. Their applications were assessed by members of the BEST Awards advisory committee through a rigorous blind review process. ASTD scrutinizes the investment a company makes in its learning function and in the solutions it uses to create an engaging learning environment that drives performance excellence.

In addition to garnering this impressive award, ESL also will receive valuable benchmarking data from other award-winning companies. ESL’s Learning & Development team will use this data to compare our strategy and activities with the best practices of some of the world’s finest organizations.