Nina Jackson Mitchell, M.S.
Doctoral Candidate, Applied Learning Sciences · Atlanta, GA
I design training and learning experiences for adult learners, from corporate onboarding to criminal justice education. I also teach criminal justice to high school and college students and speak on AI in learning.
Recent speaking: Teaching Criminal Justice in the Age of AI, Criminal Justice Association of Georgia 2026 Annual Meeting, Columbus Technical College.
“Designing learning experiences that elevate performance, build capacity, and connect people to their fullest potential.”
Start Here: 3 ProjectsStart Here: Three Projects in Five Minutes
Teaching Criminal Justice in the Age of AI
Students already use AI. This workshop taught criminal justice faculty and practitioners to verify AI-assisted claims and to place AI use by the stakes of the task. Retired judges, instructors, parole officers, and police leaders all engaged with the same method.
Read the case studyThe Elephant in the Room: Teaching WITH AI, Not Against It
Faculty must set AI rules under Clayton's color-coded policy. This demonstration turned the policy into everyday decisions, live scenarios, and conversation scripts. leadership at the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) said it came at the right time for the department's AI policy training.
Read the case studyNew Travel Agent Onboarding Course
A 12-module, self-paced path that guides new agents from welcome and orientation through credentialing, business setup, and launch, with progress saved as each module is completed. Completion rose from 15% to 68% within six months of launch.
See the projectTime 2 Evolve Travel Agent Training
A recorded training session for Evolution Travel agents, the same audience the New Travel Agent Onboarding Course serves. It shows how I explain a concept, pace a session, and keep learners engaged.
More training videosHow I Design: One Project, Start to Finish
Every project follows the same path: understand the audience and the problem, decide what learners must be able to do, build only what supports that, deliver it, and check what happened. Here is that path on a real project, the workshop Teaching Criminal Justice in the Age of AI. Full case study
Analyze
Who is in the room, and what is the problem?Audience: criminal justice faculty and practitioners at the CJAG 2026 Annual Meeting.
Problem: "Do not use AI" does not teach students what to do instead, and trusting unchecked output can follow them into policing, courts, and corrections.
Constraint: attendees had to be able to use it the following Monday.
Design
What should people be able to do?Goal: leave able to verify an AI-assisted claim and decide where AI belongs in a course.
Decisions: teach a process, not a prohibition (TRACE); adapt a familiar red, yellow, green model; make the audience do the thinking; assess the process, not the polish.
Develop
What gets built?A 21-slide deck, a word-for-word facilitation script, a live matching activity and a vote between two scenarios, and a ready-to-adapt assignment built on a Constitutional Law case brief.
Deliver
What happened in the room?Presented September 24, 2026, at Columbus Technical College. I tied the method to each attendee's role so they could use it to train recruits, subordinates, or students.
Evaluate
What did I learn?Retired judges, technical college instructors, parole officers, police officers, and police leaders all stayed engaged. The same method worked across very different roles, so I am building it out as a training tool for justice professionals.
Supporting Youth, Educators, and AI in the Classroom
I teach grades 9 through 12 directly. I teach dual enrollment courses, college-level criminal justice classes taken by high school students, in Introduction to Criminal Justice, Corrections, Principles of Law Enforcement, and Introduction to Criminal Procedure. I have taught in a dual enrollment program for two years, so I design for K-12 learners and teach them every term.
“I Am Enough”: A Digital Toolkit for Black Teenage Girls
A nine-module, research-based toolkit that helps teenage girls recognize and work through imposter syndrome. It uses culturally responsive design and Universal Design for Learning, with a self-assessment quiz, journaling, and role model spotlights.
See the projectGACE Ethics for Leaders Study Guide
A mastery-based study guide for aspiring Georgia school leaders. It covers all ten standards of the Georgia Code of Ethics for Educators through 18 scenario questions, and learners must answer each correctly before moving on.
See the projectTeaching Students to Use AI Without Deferring to It
A workshop that gave educators a verification method and a green, yellow, red model for deciding where AI belongs in a course. It was built for college and technical college instructors, and the approach applies to any classroom.
Read the case studyTeaching Criminal Justice at Georgia Piedmont Technical College
I am credentialed to teach, and have taught, every required criminal justice course in the Criminal Justice Technology associate degree at Georgia Piedmont Technical College. I teach high school students in grades 9 through 12 through dual enrollment, and college students, including adult and nontraditional learners, in the same program.
Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.)
Diploma
Technical Certificate of Credit
Dual enrollment (high school students, grades 9 through 12)
College students, including adult and nontraditional learners
CRJU stands for Criminal Justice. Program details are from the Georgia Piedmont Technical College academic catalog.
10+ Years Building Learning Systems That Work
I am a seasoned coach, trainer, mentor, teacher, and public speaker with a decade of experience designing, building, and managing training programs that drive measurable performance outcomes for diverse organizations. My work spans corporate enablement, higher education, and entrepreneurial ecosystems.
I currently serve as a Criminal Justice Instructor, Academic Advisor & Course Designer at Georgia Piedmont Technical College, and as Team Lead & Learning Designer at Evolution Travel, where I lead learning design for a distributed network of independent professionals.
Currently completing a doctoral degree in Applied Learning Sciences at the University of Miami, I bring both the hands-on craft of instructional design and the research-grounded rigor of adult learning theory to every program I build.
My path into Learning & Development did not begin in a classroom. It began in luxury travel, where booking a client's dream vacation meant becoming an expert in it first. If I wanted to teach a new agent how to book a Disney cruise, I had to research it myself: the ship layouts, the booking windows, the details that trip up a first-time cruiser. Learning something deeply enough to teach it clearly became the instinct that now drives everything I design.
Graduate study in Applied Learning Sciences gave me the technical vocabulary for what I had already been doing by instinct. Concepts like scaffolding, cognitive load, and adult learning theory put a name to skills I had been using for years without knowing what to call them. That combination, hands-on practice built through real client work, paired with the formal language of learning science, is what lets me move fluidly across arenas: designing a cruise-booking tutorial, building a faculty PD session on AI, or writing a rubric for a criminal justice capstone all draw from the same underlying skill set.
My practice is rooted in a simple belief: the best training does not just transfer knowledge. It changes behavior, builds confidence, and creates the conditions for people to do their best work.
Core Capabilities
Instructional Design
ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate), the Successive Approximation Model (SAM), Backward Design, and Universal Design for Learning. From needs assessment through evaluation, I own the full design lifecycle with precision and purpose.
eLearning Development
Articulate 360, Rise 360, HTML/CSS training portals, and multimedia content creation. Building engaging self-paced experiences that scale.
Facilitation & Delivery
Instructor-led, virtual, and hybrid training delivery for diverse adult learner populations, plus conference and professional development speaking on human-centered learning, AI in education, and authentic assessment, including a 2026 CJAG workshop on teaching students to verify AI-assisted claims.
Program Strategy
Building training ecosystems from the ground up. Needs assessment, curriculum architecture, learning management system (LMS) administration, performance measurement, and continuous improvement.
Stakeholder Partnership
Cross-functional collaboration with SMEs, executive leadership, and operational teams. Translating ambiguous business needs into practical, right-sized learning solutions.
AI-Enhanced Design
Integrating generative AI tools into content development and learning workflows with strong human judgment, quality control, and responsible-use practices.
Selected Projects
Teaching Criminal Justice in the Age of AI: Preparing Ethical Practitioners for an Automated Field
A workshop for criminal justice faculty, program leaders, and practitioners on how to teach students to use AI without deferring to it. It pairs two classroom methods, TRACE for verifying AI-assisted claims and a green, yellow, red placement model, adapted from Clayton State University's color-coded AI policy, for judging AI use by the stakes of the task, with a live case activity and a ready-to-adapt assignment.
Context
I led this workshop in Session 3, Teaching Criminal Justice in a Changing Era, at the Criminal Justice Association of Georgia 2026 Annual Meeting at Columbus Technical College. The meeting's theme was The Constitution in Practice: Policing, Courts, and Corrections in a Changing Era. The room mixed educators and practitioners, so the session had to be usable the following Monday in a classroom or a training academy.
Challenge
Students already use AI, and a rule that says "do not use AI" does not teach them what to do instead. The risk reaches beyond the classroom. In the real 2026 case Meni-Siliga v. A's Contractor Inc., filings contained seven nonexistent AI-generated case citations and the court imposed a sanction. The habit of trusting polished output without checking its source can start in an undergraduate course and follow a student into policing, courts, or corrections, where an unsupported claim affects someone else's rights.
Goals
Attendees leave able to verify an AI-assisted claim against an original source, decide where AI belongs in a course using the green, yellow, red model, and revise one existing assignment the following Monday.
Research
I reviewed the 2026 Meni-Siliga v. A's Contractor Inc. sanction for seven nonexistent AI-generated citations, and Clayton State University's color-coded AI policy, which I adapted for the placement model.
My role
I designed the argument, both frameworks, the slides, the word-for-word facilitation script, and the audience activity, and I delivered the workshop.
Results and evidence
Accepted through the Criminal Justice Association of Georgia (CJAG) abstract submission process and presented Thursday, September 24, 2026, at Columbus Technical College. The session was designed so attendees leave with classroom-ready discussion prompts, a sample verification assignment built on a Constitutional Law case brief, and a framework for deciding where AI belongs in a course. The room included retired judges now teaching as adjunct criminal justice instructors, four other criminal justice instructors from technical colleges, parole officers, police officers, a police administrator, and a police supervisor. All were engaged. I connected the method to each person's current role, showing how they could use it to train recruits, subordinates, or students.
Key design decisions
- Open with a real, documented case and let the room decide who is responsible. A verifiable court example and a show of hands made the stakes concrete before any framework appeared. I kept the pathway from student habit to professional consequence clearly labeled as a teaching risk, not a claim about the attorney's own history.
- Teach a process students can perform, not a prohibition. TRACE (Target, Retrieve, Assess, Cite, Explain) turns "check the AI" into five observable steps, each tied to an original source the student retrieves through school resources.
- Adapt a familiar framework to classify AI use by the stakes of the task. I adapted the red, yellow, and green model from Clayton State University's color-coded AI policy. Green is approved study support, yellow is useful but must be verified, revised, and disclosed, and red cannot replace student-owned work or a consequential judgment. Students learn to apply a course's rules to new situations instead of memorizing a list of banned tools.
- Make the audience do the thinking. A matching activity and a vote between two scenarios, a policing use-of-force review and a corrections supervision recommendation, put the room to work on AI conclusions that sound plausible while the evidence is disputed or incomplete.
- Assess the process, not the polish. The model, rehearse, assess routine grades the source trail, the correction, the student's reasoning, and disclosure, rather than fluent output alone.
- End with a change small enough to make next Monday. A worked example from my own Constitutional Law for Criminal Justice course, an AI-assisted case brief check, shows how to revise one existing assignment instead of redesigning a course.
Reflection
What stood out was how the same method worked across very different roles. The room included retired judges, technical college instructors, parole officers, police officers, and police leaders, and everyone stayed engaged because I tied TRACE and the placement model to their own work. That told me the method is a training tool for justice professionals as well as faculty, and it is the direction I plan to build next.
The Elephant in the Room: Teaching WITH AI, Not Against It
A 15-minute professional development teaching demonstration delivered to Clayton State University's Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, including a speaker script, slide deck, and faculty handout. It turns the university's own color-coded AI course and assignment policy into everyday classroom decisions, so faculty can set clear, workable AI boundaries instead of relying on outright bans.
Faculty Quick-Reference Handout
A companion handout distilling the framework into a quick classroom reference: sample scenarios, tells for spotting unedited AI writing, redirect scripts, and ready-to-use syllabus language.
Context
I delivered this 15-minute teaching demonstration to the team at Clayton State University's Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT), the group that trains Clayton faculty. I ran it as I would for faculty, so the team could see both the content and how it would be facilitated.
Challenge
Clayton State's Academic Conduct Regulations already require instructors to define AI guidelines in their syllabi under the university's Color Coded AI Course and Assignment Policy, which is backed by University System of Georgia Board of Regents Policy 6.28. The policy sets rules at the course and assignment level, but faculty still face everyday judgment calls, and I started from the premise that most students have never seen the policy. A blanket ban does not stop AI use. It removes the instructor's influence and pushes use out of sight.
Research
I read Clayton State's Color Coded AI Course and Assignment Policy, its place in Student Code of Conduct Section I.H, and the University System of Georgia Board of Regents Policy 6.28 behind it.
My role
I designed the whole session: the argument, the practice scenarios, the slides, the word-for-word speaker script, and the faculty handout. I delivered it live.
Goal
Give faculty a practical way to apply the university's color code to ordinary situations, and a way to respond to suspected misuse with a conversation instead of an automatic penalty.
Key design decisions
- Build on the framework the audience already had. I chose red, yellow, and green because Clayton faculty already worked with a color-coded AI policy. The session extended something familiar instead of introducing a new system, which suited a 15-minute format.
- Translate policy levels into everyday uses. Green is comprehension support, such as summarizing readings or explaining a case. Yellow is mechanics only, such as grammar and APA formatting. Red is AI drafting the writing, which is where learning disappears.
- Make faculty practice the call. Six live scenarios asked the room to call each one green, yellow, or red before the answer and the reasoning appeared.
- Redirect, not gotcha. A four-step conversation script (point out what you noticed, name the actual policy, restate what it means here, invite a revision) and three assignment redesigns (an outline or annotated draft, a two-sentence reflection, and small checkpoints) replace punishment with a teaching moment.
- Send one line home. Faculty left with a single syllabus sentence they could add Monday morning: AI may be used to summarize readings and check grammar, but not to draft original written work.
- Model the standard. I showed an example of the behavior faculty want from students, using a read-aloud tool to listen to student work instead of using AI to grade it.
Results
The deliverables are a 25-slide deck, a word-for-word speaker script, and a four-page faculty handout with scenarios, redirect scripts, and syllabus language. Immediately after the session, I heard in person from CELT leadership that it came at the right time, because the department was actively expanding its own trainings on the university's AI policy.
Reflection
The session showed me that many instructors are uncomfortable with the role they should play when AI enters their classroom. Some want to ban it altogether. Others want to bring it in but do not know where to start. Many end up acting as the AI police. The work ahead is giving instructors a clear role: set expectations up front, redirect through conversation and assignment design, and start small, with one syllabus line and one assignment.
“I Am Enough”: A Digital Toolkit for Black Teenage Girls
A fully interactive, research-based digital learning toolkit designed to help Black teenage girls navigate imposter syndrome. Built as part of doctoral coursework at the University of Miami, applying evidence-based adult learning theory, culturally responsive design, and Universal Design for Learning principles. Features a self-assessment quiz, journaling activities, confidence-building strategies, and role model spotlights.
Goal: Help Black teenage girls recognize and work through imposter syndrome with a self-paced, culturally responsive toolkit.
GACE Ethics for Leaders: Interactive Study Guide
A self-paced, mastery-based study guide for the Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators (GACE) Ethics for Leaders assessment (Test 352), covering all ten standards of the Georgia Code of Ethics for Educators through eighteen scenario-based questions. Built on a mastery-lock progression model: learners must answer each scenario correctly, with full rationale shown, before advancing.
Goal: Prepare leaders for the Test 352 assessment by building mastery of all ten ethics standards through scenario practice.
Micro Training Series: Agent Development for Remote Travel Agents
A multi-part interactive training series for remote travel consultants, each part built around a memorable framework. Part 1 introduces the 4 P's of Prospecting; Part 2 introduces the 3 C's of Travel Agent Marketing. A companion Action Workbook walks agents through a 7-day plan, content audit, and hook-writing exercise.
Goal: Give remote agents memorable frameworks, the 4 P's and 3 C's, they can apply to prospecting and marketing right away.
New Travel Agent Onboarding Course
A self-paced, progress-tracked onboarding experience guiding learners module by module from welcome and orientation through credentialing, business setup, vendor registration, and launch, with progress saved as each module is completed.
Goal: Move new agents from welcome to launch at their own pace, with progress saved so they can pick up where they left off.
Before: the original onboarding
Completion rate. Content was overloaded, scattered, and delivered as flat words on a screen with no interaction.
After: the redesigned course
Completion rate measured six months after launch, using the same measure as before, with more interaction between new agents and the team.
Problem: The original onboarding was saturated with information, had no interaction, and only 15% of new agents completed it. Because the answers lived inside the onboarding, I concluded that many of the basic questions new agents asked came from not completing it. What I changed: I rebuilt it as a 12-module, self-paced, interactive course with progress tracking. Testing: Team leaders were my test group before launch. They suggested changes, which I implemented right away, and they approved the final version, hoping it would answer the basic questions new agents used to ask.
What I learned: Heavy, flat content went unfinished, and unfinished onboarding left new agents with basic questions. Interactive modules with saved progress were finished far more often, and that gave agents and the team more to talk about.
New Agent Training Series: From Onboarding to Closing
A comprehensive three-part curriculum designed using ADDIE and grounded in adult learning theory. Covers the business owner mindset shift, the FORM method for client qualification, objection handling, and turning raw vendor quotes into personalized branded proposals using AI.
Goal: Shift new agents to a business-owner mindset and equip them to qualify clients, handle objections, and send personalized proposals.
Elite Leadership Academy
A six-module, mastery-gated leadership training for rising leaders preparing to sponsor and mentor new consultants. Each module pairs original content with a knowledge check that must be passed before advancing, closing with a printable Certificate of Completion.
Goal: Prepare rising leaders to sponsor and mentor new consultants, with a passed knowledge check required before each next module.
Quick Start: New Agent Orientation
A live orientation session for newly onboarded consultants covering back office setup, personal booking site configuration, vendor access, compliance, social media strategy, and income activation, designed to get new agents revenue-ready in their first seven days.
Goal: Get newly onboarded consultants revenue-ready in their first seven days.
Prior Learning Assessment Framework
Developed in partnership with the Atlanta Police Department, this framework translates field-based law enforcement expertise into recognized academic credentials. Involved subject-matter expert (SME) interviews, skills gap analysis, rubric development, and a scalable evaluation system now in active use at Georgia Piedmont Technical College.
Goal: Translate field-based law enforcement expertise into recognized academic credit. Outcome: now in active use at Georgia Piedmont Technical College.
Qualifying Your Cruise Client: From First Contact to a Polished Proposal
Part 1 of the Elite Travel Group Agent Training Series. A scenario-based facilitation guide walking agents through the full client qualification process, from communication best practices through intake questioning and proposal development, with full speaker notes and job-ready frameworks.
Goal: Teach agents to qualify a cruise client and turn the intake into a polished proposal.
New Agent 30-Day Execution Guide
A comprehensive daily execution workbook mapping out week-by-week learning objectives, certification requirements, mock booking practice, and social media activities across the first 30 days, bridging formal onboarding with on-the-job skill development.
Goal: Bridge formal onboarding and on-the-job practice with a day-by-day plan for the first 30 days.
Training in Action
How to Quote and Market Your Travel Business: Classic Vacations, VAX and Vacations Express
Why Should Clients Book With You? Know Your Worth as a Travel Agent
Master Agent Training: Click, Click, Click to Success (Evolution Travel Convention)
Time 2 Evolve Travel Agent Training
Travel Agent Live: Overcome the “No” to Increase Your Sales
How to Book a Disney Cruise as a Travel Agent: Disney Portal Walk-Through
L&D Job Aids Collection
The ADDIE Model: Quick Reference
A one-page reference covering all five phases of the ADDIE model with key actions, design questions, and a pro tip on iterative practice.
Download PDF →Adult Learning Principles: At a Glance
Knowles' six principles of andragogy translated into practical design implications for trainers and instructional designers.
Download PDF →How to Book a Royal Caribbean Cruise: Step-by-Step
A six-step agent workflow covering client intake through post-booking follow-up using Royal Caribbean's agent portal.
Download PDF →New Agent Commission Guide
A comprehensive commission reference covering how agents earn, rates by booking type, and a payment tracking checklist.
Download PDF →Education & Certifications
Education
Certifications & Training
Generative AI in learning
L&D strategy and program design
Learning science and inclusion
View all certifications by year
Providers: Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI), Project Management Institute (PMI), Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA).
2026
2025
2024
Affiliations
National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice (NABCJ) · Alpha Phi Sigma Criminal Justice Honor Society · Northeastern Association of Criminal Justice Sciences (NEACJS) · Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) · Order of the Eastern Star · National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) · Pi Lambda Theta · Phi Delta Kappa · National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS)