The TechEd Podcast

Static career maps, spreadsheets and disconnected HR systems can't keep pace with how quickly jobs are changing. Today’s leading employers are rebuilding their workforce architecture around skills. As companies rethink talent, career growth and workforce strategy, becoming a skills-based organization is emerging as a fundamental shift in how enterprises structure roles, create career pathways and develop their people.
In this episode, Matt sits down with Liz Eversoll, CEO of Career Highways, to explore how a skills-based approach can help large enterprises solve one of their biggest workforce challenges: understanding the talent they already have and responding to change faster. They discuss how organizations can map and continuously improve role architecture in a fraction of the time, deliver personalized learning aligned to each employee’s career goals, and give people greater visibility into lateral moves, upward mobility and entirely new career pathways across the enterprise. At the same time, leaders gain real-time intelligence into workforce capabilities, emerging skills gaps and where learning investments will have the greatest business impact.
The conversation also explores the technology making this possible. Liz explains why deterministic AI, grounded in business context rather than public data alone, is essential for trusted workforce intelligence. She argues that as AI automates more routine work, people with deep business context become even more valuable. The future isn’t about replacing employees. It’s about giving them better information, accelerating career growth and freeing them to focus on the work where human judgment creates the greatest value.
In this episode:
Why 3,500 roles and 230 career pathways can’t live in spreadsheets anymore
The career lattice: Finding your next role with an 80% skills match
SIGN, Canon and Liquid Insights: The technology behind deterministic AI
Why business context becomes more valuable as AI automates routine work
“Talk to your data”: The future of decision-level workforce intelligence
3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:
1. Becoming a skills-based organization changes how enterprises compete. Managing talent through job titles and static career paths is no longer enough. Skills-based job architecture gives organizations a living view of their workforce, helping leaders adapt faster, make better workforce decisions and align learning, hiring and internal mobility with changing business needs. It’s a fundamental shift in how large enterprises understand and develop talent.
2. Career health is a competitive advantage. When employees can clearly see where they can go, understand the skills they need and access personalized learning, they’re more likely to build their careers within the organization. That improves retention, preserves valuable business context and helps employers fill critical roles with people who already understand the business instead of constantly competing for outside talent.
3. AI works best when it’s grounded in business context. AI isn’t replacing workforce strategy. It’s making it smarter. Deterministic AI and enterprise knowledge give leaders trusted workforce intelligence while automating repetitive work that slows people down. As AI handles more routine tasks, employees with deep business context become even more valuable because they’re the ones who can interpret insights, improve processes and create lasting business value.
Resources in this Episode:
Career Highways - Learn more about their technology, solution, AI services and more
Find more on the show notes page! https://techedpodcast.com/eversoll/
Connect with our guest online:
Career Pathways LinkedIn |  Connect with Liz on LinkedIn
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Imagine a future where healthcare consists of engineers working alongside medical researchers and clinicians to build better ways to measure the body, model disease, predict risk and design more effective diagnostics and treatments. That's what Dr. Kristin Myers is doing in the field of women's health.
Digital twins have transformed manufacturing by allowing engineers to simulate systems, predict failures and optimize performance before making changes in the real world. Dr. Kristin Myers believes those same engineering principles could fundamentally reshape healthcare. As a mechanical engineering professor at Columbia University, Myers is applying computational modeling, AI and biomechanics to one of medicine’s most complex frontiers.
In this episode, Myers explains why women’s health has historically been difficult to study, how engineering disciplines are beginning to fill decades-long research gaps, and why technologies like digital twins, wearable sensors, machine learning and computational models may dramatically improve diagnosis, treatment and long-term patient outcomes. She also explores what this emerging field means for engineers, educators and the next generation of healthcare innovation.
In this episode:
Why digital twins could become as important in healthcare as they already are in manufacturing.
The engineering challenges that have slowed progress in women’s health research for decades.
How AI, wearable devices and longitudinal patient data could transform diagnosis and personalized medicine.
Why mechanical, electrical and software engineers all have a role to play in the future of healthcare.
What engineering educators should teach today to prepare students for tomorrow’s biomedical breakthroughs.
3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:

1. Engineering is becoming a core driver of healthcare innovation. The future of medicine won’t be built by clinicians alone. Myers explains how mechanical engineers, computational modelers, AI researchers and device designers are bringing new tools and ways of thinking to problems that traditional medical research has struggled to solve.
2. Digital twins are moving from factories to patients. The same technologies manufacturers use to simulate equipment and optimize production are beginning to model organs, pregnancies and disease progression. While clinical implementation remains years away in many applications, digital twins are already accelerating biomedical research and medical device development.
3. Tomorrow’s engineers will need both technical fundamentals and AI fluency. As AI reshapes engineering education, Myers argues that foundational engineering principles remain essential. Students must still learn how systems work from first principles while using AI to accelerate analysis, design and innovation rather than replace critical thinking.
Resources in this Episode:
ERVA (Engineering Research Visioning Alliance - NSF)
Report: Transforming Women's Health Outcomes through Engineering
Connect with our guest online:
ERVA Facebook  |  ERVA LinkedIn  |  Connect with Kristin on LinkedIn
More notes & resources on the episode page: https://techedpodcast.com/columbia/
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How do you redefine success when the dream you fought for is no longer your highest calling?
Rising from poverty and racism, Héctor Colón became a seven-time national boxing champion who competed around the world with Team USA, shared the international stage with some of the sport’s biggest names and defeated fighters who would later become professional world champions. Boxing taught him how to prepare under pressure, absorb setbacks, change strategy in real time and keep pursuing excellence when the outcome was uncertain. But at the point when a professional career was within reach, Colon began to reconsider what success, purpose and impact should look like over the course of a life.
That decision launched an entirely new chapter. Education became the bridge between two very different arenas, beginning at Milwaukee Area Technical College and ultimately leading to advanced degrees, public service and executive leadership. Today, Colon leads an $85 million organization serving approximately 30,000 people each year, translating the mindset of an elite athlete into the demands of leading people, managing complexity and delivering measurable impact at scale.
In this episode, Colon shares the five virtues that have guided him from the boxing ring to the boardroom and explains why courage is built through preparation, why composure matters when the original strategy fails and why perseverance requires a willingness to risk failure. He also reflects on the role of faith in redirecting ambition, the power of education to open an entirely new future and the responsibility leaders have to turn personal success into service.
3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:
1. The strongest leaders know when to redefine success. Héctor Colón had the talent and résumé to pursue a professional boxing career, but faith changed what he wanted his life to accomplish. His story shows that leadership is not only about staying committed to a goal; it is also about recognizing when a higher purpose demands a different one.
2. Composure is what turns discipline into leadership. In the ring, getting hit cannot become an excuse to abandon the strategy or retaliate emotionally. Colón carries that same principle into leadership: stay calm, assess what changed and make the next move with intention.
3. Education can be the bridge between potential and impact. Milwaukee Area Technical College gave Colón a starting point for a completely new chapter after boxing. That foundation ultimately led to advanced degrees, public service and the leadership of an $85 million organization serving 30,000 people each year.
Resources in this Episode:
My Journey from Boxing Ring to Boardroom: Five Essential Virtues for Life and Leadership by Héctor Colón
Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan
LSS Love Big Campaign
Follow Hector on LinkedIn
More notes & resources on the episode page: https://techedpodcast.com/hector
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Movie theaters have taken hit after hit, from streaming to COVID to fewer studio releases. But this is a case study for any business leader: organizations can survive disruption by knowing what business you're really in, adapting the model around changing consumers, and holding onto the fundamentals that still create value.
Greg Marcus leads one of America’s largest theater circuits at a time when the entertainment business is being constantly disrupted. Streaming has changed consumer habits. The pandemic halted moviegoing altogether. Studios are releasing fewer films. Younger audiences are discovering movies differently. And theaters are being pushed to rethink everything from pricing and premium formats to loyalty programs, social media, concessions, customer data and the overall experience of going out.
In this episode, Greg joins Matt for a wide-ranging conversation on what it takes to lead a legacy business through major market disruption. He explains why movie theaters are still differentiated from at-home entertainment, why attendance still matters even as spending per patron rises, how proprietary data and AI could reshape the business, and why Marcus Theaters has leaned into everything from premium screens to TikTok to keep audiences engaged.
The conversation also gets into jazz, family business and the leadership principles that have guided The Marcus Corporation for nearly 90 years. Greg even shares lessons from his grandfather Ben Marcus. Get ready for a wild ride full of laughter, dad jokes, and valuable business lessons!
Resources in this Episode:
Visit Marcus Theaters
"The $50 Movie Ticket Has Arrived" - WSJ
Milwaukee Jazz Institute
Connect with Greg & Marcus Theaters on Social Media!
Instagram  |  Facebook  |  TikTok
Find more notes & resources on the episode page.
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On the eve of America 250, The TechEd Podcast steps away from its usual format to reflect on the American Dream, the values that built the nation, and the ideals that continue to bind us together.
In this special episode, Matt Kirchner revisits two of the greatest presidential speeches ever delivered: Ronald Reagan’s 1984 address at Pointe du Hoc, honoring the courage and sacrifice of the U.S. Army Rangers on D-Day, and John F. Kennedy’s 1962 Rice University speech, challenging America to go to the moon not because it was easy, but because it was hard.
One speech looks back on the blood and sacrifice that defended freedom. The other looks forward to the science, ambition and conviction required to advance it. Together, they reveal a shared American creed rooted in courage, righteousness, sacrifice, honor and belief in a future worth building.
This episode is a reflection on the values that have carried America for 250 years, and the responsibility of this generation to remember them, renew them and carry them forward.
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The Reagan and Kennedy speeches featured in this episode are public domain recordings sourced directly from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum.
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