Alice Buchanan

Location: Ashburn, VA

Motto: “Dig a well before you’re thirsty.” – Chinese Proverb

Hobby: Yoga and reading

Favorite Client Moment: Running into all the participants of a leadership summit during a midnight fire alarm, as well as the C-suite in – no joke – pajamas, curlers, a face mask (and this was a guy!) at 3 am. We welcomed them the next morning by playing “Burning Down the House” by the Talking Heads, and then incorporated this as a “what do you do when the unexpected happens in business” discussion.

Alice Buchanan is a learning and development consultant with more than 20 years of experience designing and implementing learning solutions that translate organizational strategy into practical capability development across global organizations. With a background in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, she applies principles of adult learning and best-practice instructional design to create engaging learning experiences that help employees, managers, and senior leaders build critical skills and apply them in their day-to-day work.

Her consulting work spans the full learning lifecycle—including needs analysis, program architecture, instructional design, development, facilitation, and evaluation. She has strong oral and written communication skills, project management capabilities, and the ability to build and manage relationships with senior leaders and stakeholders across complex initiatives.

Alice brings her instructional design expertise to Peak Seven Consulting and is also President and founder of Buchanan Consulting, LLC. Her experience includes:

Global Leadership & Professional Skills Development Programs
Designs blended learning experiences that translate strategic priorities into practical leadership and professional skill development. Integrates instructor-led learning, digital content, and applied practice to strengthen capabilities such as communication, influence, leadership, problem solving, and strategic thinking.

Enterprise Learning Program Design
Partners with senior business and learning leaders to design scalable learning programs aligned with strategic business objectives, building critical workforce capabilities through practical tools, real-world application, and measurement approaches that support sustained performance improvement.

Global Blended Learning Solutions
Designs and develops e-learning, instructor-led, and blended learning programs that scale skill development across geographically distributed teams and strengthen core professional and leadership capabilities.

She designs and facilitates leadership development programs, both classroom and e-learning, to support each client’s overall people-development strategy in a meaningful and creative way. This includes strategic management and leadership development initiatives, targeted technical training, management assimilation, career development programs, the MBTI®, the DiSC®, and 360-degree coaching and feedback sessions. As a learning partner, Alice collaborates with Subject Matter Experts and other key stakeholders to ensure that the programs meet the specific needs of each client’s audience. Her recent facilitation engagements include the topics of influence, negotiation, customer service, working with difficult people, performance management, self-awareness, communication, conflict, and change in the workplace. Alice is certified in the PDI 360 Profilorâ, MBTI®, FIRO-BÔ, and Facilitating Organizational Change (ASTD).

Previously, she worked at the Northrop Grumman Corporation holding Organizational Effectiveness positions of increasing responsibility.  In the IT sector’s Learning and Development department she consulted with cross-sector groups on a variety of organizational and leadership development issues including employee satisfaction, performance management, change management, benefits focus groups, strategic leadership training programs, succession planning, and retention.

Throughout her consulting career, she has worked with a wide range of organizations across both the commercial and public sectors, including Big Four consulting firms and Fortune 500 companies in the financial services, technology, pharmaceutical, and consumer goods industries.

Alice has presented at conferences and universities on the subjects of learning and succession management. Ms. Buchanan has a B.S. in Psychology from Guilford College and a MA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from George Mason University.