I’m pleased to share a professional milestone: I have been approved as an AWS Academy Educator. For my clients, partners, and students, this is more than a credential—it’s a commitment to rigor, current best practices, and industry-aligned learning experiences.

What is AWS Academy?

AWS Academy is Amazon Web Services’ higher-education program that equips colleges and universities with ready-to-teach cloud curricula, hands-on labs, and assessment resources aligned to in-demand job roles and AWS certifications. The aim is straightforward: help learners gain practical skills on AWS while preparing them for industry-recognized credentials.

As an Academy Educator, I’m trained and authorized to deliver these courses within accredited academic settings, ensuring instruction is up-to-date, mapped to certification domains, and anchored in real AWS services—not abstractions.

Where Industry and Higher Ed meet

Becoming an AWS Academy Educator enhances the value I bring to corporate teams, government agencies, students, and training partners in several specific ways:

• Curriculum currency & exam alignment: Academy coursework is updated to reflect the evolving AWS platform and certification blueprints. I bring that same currency and alignment into my freelance offerings—so your teams build the right skills, in the right order, against the right objectives.

• Evidence-based sequencing: The Academy pedagogy emphasizes progressive skill building—concept → demo → lab → assessment. I apply the same instructional design patterns to customized workshops, bootcamps, and enablement programs.

• Hands-on depth: My sessions prioritize practical labs and troubleshooting, mirroring the “learn by doing” approach learners experience in Academy courses (with materials appropriate to your context, licensing, and environment).

• Job-role focus: Whether you’re building capability for cloud practitioners, developers, architects, operations, security, or data roles, the learning paths I design reflect how successful teams actually work on AWS.

• Quality assurance: Academy Educator training reinforces sound instructional practice—clear outcomes, reliable assessments, and measurable impact—so you can trust the learning will translate to performance on the job.

New for Higher Ed: Associate Degree Launching Fall 2026

I’m excited to announce that I will be launching a new associate degree at Pine Technical and Community College (PTCC) in Fall 2026:

Cloud Computing & Emerging Technologies

Students in this program will receive deep AWS and cloud training from me, integrated with complementary skills in automation, data, and modern software practices. The degree is designed to produce job-ready graduates who understand cloud fundamentals, can build and secure workloads on AWS, and can adapt quickly as technologies evolve.

For employers and regional partners, this creates a strong pipeline of early-career cloud talent with hands-on AWS experience and an understanding of how emerging technologies are changing the way organizations deliver value.

A foundation of experience you can count on

• 25 years in technology education: I’ve been teaching technology since 2000, continually refining my approach to make complex topics clear, engaging, and actionable.

• Nearly five years at AWS: I served as a Senior Technical Trainer and as a Global Learning Strategist with AWS Tech U, helping design and scale enablement programs for cloud practitioners worldwide. That experience informs how I structure training, measure outcomes, and align learning to business results.

• Freelance training clients trust: I have a history of bringing a combined perspective—enterprise, academic, and field—into every engagement. I have a reputation for Bringing High-tech Down to Earth™.

How organizations can leverage this program

• Job-ready, hands-on talent: Students train on real AWS services (compute, storage, networking, security, automation) with labs, projects, and troubleshooting—not just slideware. They arrive able to build, break, and fix in the cloud.
• Certification-aligned skills: Curriculum tracks AWS certification domains, so grads speak the same language as your architects and SREs—VPCs, IAM, least privilege, IaC, observability, cost controls, and Well-Architected tradeoffs.
• Security-first mindset: Access controls, encryption, logging, and guardrails are embedded from day one—reducing rework and risk.
• Automation over heroics: Expect Git/GitHub, CI/CD, CloudFormation/Terraform fundamentals, and scripting (Bash/Python) to replace manual, error-prone steps.
• Cost and reliability awareness: Students practice designing for resilience and cost efficiency—using right-sized services, managed offerings, caching/CDNs, and monitoring to prevent waste.
• Clear documentation & teamwork: Deliverables include runbooks, diagrams, and tickets. Grads know how to communicate decisions and hand off cleanly.
• Learning velocity: With cloud changing fast, the habit of continuous learning is built in—guided by an AWS Academy Educator with two decades of teaching experience and former AWS training leadership.

Let’s build capability—together

If you’re planning a cloud initiative, modernizing a product, or preparing teams for certification, I’d be glad to help you design a learning plan that drives measurable results. And if you’re an employer interested in the upcoming PTCC degree, let’s talk about internships, capstone projects, and hiring pipelines.

Ready to elevate your team’s AWS skills with a program that blends industry rigor with practical delivery?

Reach out and let’s craft the right learning path for your goals.