About NorthCrest
NorthCrest helps organizations build the skills and capabilities required for evolving work, particularly in environments where change carries real consequences and learning must support performance, readiness, and accountability.
We believe effective workforce upskilling starts with learning design, not tools or trends.
NorthCrest approaches upskilling through a capability and readiness lens, helping organizations make deliberate decisions about where to focus, what outcomes matter, and how learning should be structured to support real work.
Meet Ana
NorthCrest is led by Ana Eckhart, a learning design and capability development expert with experience contributing to large-scale initiatives across defense, higher education, and SaaS environments.
Ana specializes in learning design—not domain expertise. Her work focuses on designing the systems, structures, and experiences that enable subject-matter expertise to translate into usable, scalable capability.
She brings deep experience in instructional design, learning science, and assessment, combined with a pragmatic understanding of how organizations adopt new skills in practice. This includes working closely with internal experts, operational leaders, and stakeholders to ensure learning is accurate, relevant, and aligned to measurable outcomes.
This perspective has been shaped by years of contributing to complex, multi-stakeholder programs in mission-critical and regulated environments, as well as fast-moving commercial contexts—where learning must remain trusted, adaptable, and effective as conditions change.
Selected Work & Contributions
The following examples highlight large-scale programs and initiatives that Ana has contributed to in learning design, capability development, and program implementation roles. These examples reflect the scope, complexity, and environments in which her work has been applied.
Master of Warfare Operations (MWO) Degree Program
Naval Postgraduate School | Defense & Higher Education
Contributed to the development and launch of a new graduate degree program designed to align advanced education with operational warfare competencies. Work included conducting capability analysis through stakeholder and target-learner interviews, defining program structure and competency frameworks, and translating operational needs into an academically rigorous, stackable program model.
The concept was presented to senior leadership and successfully secured sponsorship and support from top officials, enabling program approval and launch in partnership with operational stakeholders.
AI Playbook for Supply Chain Professionals
Institute for Supply Management (ISM) | Learning Design Contribution
Served as the learning designer and developer for a practitioner-focused playbook addressing AI concepts and applications in supply chain contexts. The work focused on structuring complex, emerging knowledge into accessible learning content, aligning guidance to real-world roles, and supporting responsible and practical adoption.
This project reflects learning design applied to emerging capability areas, without positioning the learning function as the technical authority.
Workforce & Education in Defense
Podcast Appearance | Defense & National Security Context
Participated in a discussion on education, workforce development, and capability building in defense environments. The conversation focused on aligning learning design with operational needs, navigating change in high-stakes contexts, and designing education programs that support readiness and performance.
This appearance reflects engagement in broader conversations about learning strategy and workforce development within national security contexts.
Resilinc Academy
Resilinc | SaaS Customer & Workforce Education
Led the learning design, development, implementation, and ongoing administration of the Resilinc Academy, a scalable learning platform supporting customer and workforce readiness in a SaaS environment focused on supply chain resilience.
Responsibilities included learning program architecture, instructional design leadership, LMS implementation, content development, and operational management.
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