Beyond Training: Creating Learning Strategies for Your Team
2025-03-13 11:30 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | AMG Zoom Event, UCLA
In today’s complex and tumultuous work environment, continuous learning is key to team success, and professional development is key to retention and engagement. But how can managers, with everything else you have going on, create meaningful learning opportunities that drive impact?
In this session you will learn how to identify your team’s learning goals, define and clarify the impact you hoping learning will have on your team; and identify opportunities for your team members to learn new knowledge, apply new skills and behaviors, and reflect on learning.

Kelsey Duff is a board-certified coach executive coach, master facilitator and learning & organizational development consultant. She manages a portfolio of professional & leadership development programs and initiatives, where she helps UCLA employees increase their impact and enhance their careers through leadership and skill development, strategic personal exploration, and coaching. She is a UCLA alum who never left, with a degree in Art from UCLA, 14 years of coaching experience, and a passion for fostering engagement and excellence in others.
Kelsey Duff, BCC, ODCP
Professional & Career Development Portfolio Manager
UCLA Campus Human Resources, Learning & Organizational Development

AMG Lunch & Learn - Intentional Leadership: Fostering a Culture of Curiosity, Growth, Collaboration, & Inclusion
2025-04-15 12:00 - 13:00 | CA
The last several years have presented us with great challenges & opportunities within & beyond UCLA. It has become all the more critical to practice intentional & inclusive leadership to not only promote operational efficiencies but also staff growth, curiosity, collaboration & belonging. The Advising Communities of Excellence (ACE) Professional Development Program in which we lead, & the Center for Academic Advising in the College (CAAC) practice a staff-centered approach that cultivates learning, amplifies staff voices, & integrates staff perspectives into decision-making spaces. The result of a staff-centered model has been greater engagement, an openness to innovate, a drive for more thoughtful collaboration, & comprehensive support for students, staff, & each other within a community of care.
This session will share a framework for intentional leadership & demonstrate concrete strategies & initiatives to achieve these goals.
Marian H. Gabra, Ph.D. is the Senior Director of Learning & Development & Strategic Partnerships. In her role, she works collaboratively across campus to cultivate spaces of learning & growth for staff & students. She also works intentionally to build strategic collaborations between staff, faculty, & students. Marian also advises students in the Center for Academic Advising in the College. She earned her BA in English from Occidental College in 2002 & her doctorate in Comparative Literature from UCLA in 2010.
Alina Avila is the Coordinator of Advising Curricular Initiatives & Academic Advisor with the Center for Academic Advising in the College. Her experiences in ACE changed how she viewed her value & voice in various spaces across the institution & inspired her to turn the skills she has honed, such as advocating for students to faculty & leadership, towards amplifying staff voices. In her current role, she is able to work more directly with ACE to shift the campus culture built on institutional hierarchies.
Alina Avila. Coordinator of Advising Curricular Initiatives & Academic Advisor with the Center for Academic Advising in the College
Marian Gabra, Ph.D.Director, Advisor Training &Professional Development

AMG Lunch and Learn: Roles and Goals
2025-06-17 12:00 - 13:00 | AMG Zoom Event, UCLA
In this 1-hour interactive workshop, we’ll explore how to clarify your key roles—both personal and professional—and set meaningful, goal-driven priorities that elevate your daily work. You’ll discover how aligning your time and energy with what matters most can transform your productivity from ordinary to extraordinary.

AMG Lunch & Learn - Habits That Work: Building Better Professional Routines
2025-08-27 12:00 - 13:00 | AMG Zoom Event, UCLA
Join AMG on August 27th for a Lunch & Learn with Lola Ivy from Campus Human Resources!

Session Description
Discover how small, intentional habits can enhance your professional development in this engaging one-hour workshop, Habits That Work. This session encourages participants to reflect on the routines that shape their daily work lives. Through guided activities and useful tools, attendees will understand what and how effective habits are formed, as well as explore how habits can be intentionally designed for greater success.
Presenter Bio
Lola Ivy is a workshop facilitator and career management coach with over thirteen years of experience working for UCLA. Currently, she works for Campus Human Resources (CHR), managing a year-long career development program called the Staff Enrichment Program (SEP). Lola also serves as Vice Chair on the Administrative Management Group (AMG) board. Her educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from UCLA and a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership and Learning from Pepperdine University.

AMG Lunch & Learn: Coping and Thriving During Times of Uncertainty for Leaders
2025-11-06 12:00 - 13:30 | AMG Zoom Event, UCLA
Join us for this AMG Lunch & Learn on Thursday, November 6th from 12 – 1:30 PM with Liena Hsieh McCord, Assistant Director of the UCLA Staff and Faculty Counseling Center.
Lunch & Learn Description:
As uncertainty continues to surround us, its emotional is increasingly difficult to ignore – especially for leaders who must manage their own wellbeing while supporting their teams. The “Coping and Thriving During Times of Uncertainty for Leaders” presentation offers practical strategies to help leaders navigate emotional, physical, and psychological challenges, so they can cope and even thrive in their roles.
Participants will learn to:
• Recognize signs of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma • Apply self-care tools, including mindset-shifting techniques
• Develop a personalized self-care plan
• Build and maintain a psychologically-safe workplace
Speaker Bio:
Liena McCord is the Assistant Director of the UCLA Staff and Faculty Counseling Center (SFCC). Liena is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and has been in practice for over 25 years. Liena attended University of Southern California where she earned her Master’s Degree in Social Work, and UC Irvine, obtaining her Bachelor’s in Psychology and minor in Sociology. Prior to joining UCLA in 2024, Liena provided behavioral health counseling, consultation, and presentations in other workplace EAP settings, such as Wells Fargo and the County of Los Angeles; worked with adults presenting with severe mental illness in outpatient and inpatient settings for the County of LA Department of Mental Health; and worked with adults, adolescents, and families in private practice.
Liena’s areas of interest and clinical experience include anxiety, depression, trauma, LGBTQIA+ communities, diversity, and domestic violence/threat concerns.
