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Shirley J. Caruso earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees at À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ. As an undergraduate, Shirley earned her Bachelor of Arts in the Nontraditional Degree Program's University Without Walls. The program incorporated many Human Resource Development (HRD) courses and helped Shirley reinforce her practical experiences in the field of HRD with theories and skills needed in today’s competitive workplace. Shirley continued her studies at Northeastern and earned a Master of Arts in HRD.

Upon graduating, she put her new talent into action by teaching as an adjunct professor in Northeastern’s HRD program, and opening WISE Training and Development Consultants, a Chicago-based Human Resource Development consultancy company that specializes in the design and development of customized training programs. Shirley also launched a website and is chief editor of , a site that provides information on adult learning theories and research in relation to practice in the field of HRD. Shirley has written over 200 articles on the implications of adult learning theories.

Shirley’s professional background includes more than 20 years of experience in the practice of HRD. She currently puts the HRD theories she writes about into practice by developing talented employees to help clients achieve real competitive advantages, designing and delivering highly effective training and development programs that enable participants to enhance their individual performance, supporting the learning goals of students by focusing on student learning outcomes, considering the needs and abilities of the students, becoming familiar with academic and social support, making reasonable provisions to accommodate individual differences, maintaining the academic integrity of Northeastern, and working in collaboration with faculty of all ranks and disciplines to promote educational innovation and the improvement of student learning.

Shirley also holds a variety of training and development affiliations and awards.  She is a member of the Chicagoland Chapter Association for Talent Development (ATDchi) and Northeastern's . She chaired the local site committee for the Midwest Research-to-Practice 2009 Conference in Adult, Continuing, Extension and Community Education and authored a paper entitled "I" published in the Midwest Research-to-Practice 2009 Conference Proceedings. In 2010, she received an Award of Merit in Recognition of Outstanding Research from Northeastern’s 18th Annual Research and Creative Activities Symposium. In 2009, she was a Deb Colky Workplace Learning and Performance Award finalist and received Outstanding Service to the Community, Outstanding Piece of Academic Work, and Overall Integration of Conceptual and Experiential Competencies Awards from NEIU. Shirley has also been recognized by Northeastern for her valuable contributions to the Graduate College Seminar Series.

In January 2014, Shirley was awarded a Ed.D scholarship from The Boyer Graduate School of Education at William Howard Taft University. She anticipates completion of her doctoral degree in May 2016.