What's the Cure for Conventional Learning?

Deanna Hartley - 8/20/12

By creating a consolidated infrastructure, Justin Lombardo isn’t just injecting change into Children’s Medical Center of Dallas; he’s leading the way for other pediatrics facilities across the nation.

Every professional yearns for the sweet spot — the intersection where interest and passion collide with expertise. Justin J. Lombardo has found his.

“I either build it or I fix it — that’s what I do and that’s what I enjoy doing,” said Lombardo, vice president of the Learning Institute and chief learning officer at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. “I enjoy building something from scratch. I like seeing it optimized and really contributing back to the institution, and then I’m ready to move and build something else.”

Built It. Fixed it. Now What?
One might say learning always has been in Lombardo’s blood. While embarking on a career in higher education as a faculty member at St. John’s University in Minnesota, Lombardo had the opportunity to look at curriculum and really study how adults learn.

It was a natural progression for him to join Motorola University during its formative years; corporate universities were just beginning to take shape and gain traction as learning vehicles. Fifteen years later, after going through almost every rotation — from managing sales training to leadership development to global instructional systems design — he moved on to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

The hospital was looking for someone to step in and create a corporate university. Curious about the health care field, Lombardo rolled up his scrubs and went to work building Northwestern Memorial Academy — removing unwarranted silos and consolidating every aspect of learning and development under one roof.

Ten years later, with the academy up and running, Lombardo set his sights on a new challenge — the builder in him was thirsty for more — and an employment prospect in Dallas at Children’s Medical Center appeared.

So Long, Silos
Since joining Children’s in January 2010, Lombardo has led all the clinical and non-clinical education and training for the medical center, which has a population of approximately 6,500, including employees and physicians who are not technically employees.