VA Chief Learning Officer Receives Lifetime Learning Leadership Award

VA Chief Learning Officer Receives

Lifetime Learning Leadership Award

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced that Joy Hunter, chief learning officer for its Veterans Health Administration, has received the Lifetime Learning Leadership Award from the MASIE Center, an internationally recognized think tank focused on workforce education and performance.

“This is another credit to Joy Hunter, whose 31 years of public service include receipt of a Presidential Award for Meritorious Service,” said Dr. Robert A. Petzel, VA’s Under Secretary for Health. “She has pioneered a learning culture within VA that is essential to how we provide some of the highest quality health care in the nation.”

Hunter is the first recipient of this award created in honor of the late Jonathan Kayes, former chief learning officer (CLO) of the MASIE Center’s learning consortium and previously CLO of the Central Intelligence Agency.  She received the award from Elliott Masie, president and CEO of the MASIE Center, at the annual “Learning 2010” conference in Orlando–attended this year by over 1,600 education leaders from around the globe.

Hunter was selected in recognition of her work “to cultivate learning leaders at all levels of VA and for helping to create a learning culture that serves the goal of optimal Veteran health care for the 21^st Century,” said Masie.

Hunter leads the Employee Education System for the VA health system, where she is responsible for the development, delivery, accreditation and evaluation of education services that support the workforce development and continuing education needs for VA’s more than 239,000 health care professionals and support staff at more than 1,400 sites of care nationwide.  In support of these objectives, she directs a budget of approximately $92 million and leads more than 375 employees at nine Employee Education Resource Centers nationwide, the National Training and Education Office, and a headquarters office in Washington, D.C.  

Hunter started her VA career as a medical librarian at the Nashville VA Medical Center.  She has held key leadership positions, including chief communications officer for the VA Mid South Healthcare Network, for which she received the Under Secretary for Health’s Award for Excellence in Public Affairs.  She has also served as national director of the Communications Management Service for VA’s National Cemetery Administration.

She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a Master’s degree in library and information management and Bachelor of Science degree, cum laude, with a dual major in psychology and social studies.  

The MASIE Center was founded by Elliott Masie, an internationally recognized futurist, analyst, researcher and organizer on the critical topics of workforce learning, business collaboration and emerging technologies. The MASIE Center is a Saratoga Springs, N.Y., think tank focused on how organizations can support learning and knowledge within the workforce. Masie leads The Learning CONSORTIUM, a coalition of global organizations cooperating on the evolution of learning strategies.

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