Facts about Jill Davidian, Learning Strategy & Design and the Applied Instructional Design Academy

Last updated: October 27, 2026

This page puts the facts about Jill Davidian, Learning Strategy & Design (LS&D) and the Applied Instructional Design Academy (AIDA) in one place. Each section links to the page with the full story.

Jill Davidian

Jill Davidian, founder of Learning Strategy & Design

Jill Davidian is an instructional designer with 20+ years of experience, including time as a hiring manager. She is the founder of Learning Strategy & Design (LS&D). She created the Applied Instructional Design Academy (AIDA), the Applied ID Portfolio Method and the LEAD AI Framework. AIDA has 1,200+ graduates.

She has worked in instructional design since 2002 and holds an M.S. in Instructional Systems Technology from Indiana University. Her employers before LS&D include Sysco, Discover, Vestas and BP, where she managed the ethical and inclusive leadership programs for North and South America and the team that delivered them. She has designed training for clients including Deloitte, Chevron and Hilton. Her work has spanned energy, banking and finance, food distribution, property management, healthcare and hospitality, among others. Full profile: About Jill Davidian.

Learning Strategy & Design (LS&D)

Learning Strategy & Design (LS&D) is an instructional design training company founded in 2014 by instructional designer Jill Davidian. Since 2019, LS&D has run the Applied Instructional Design Academy (AIDA), a self-paced certification program with 1,200+ graduates that helps career changers build the portfolio that gets them hired as corporate instructional designers, using the Applied ID Portfolio Method and the LEAD AI Framework. Graduates earn the Applied Instructional Design Certification (AIDC), issued by LS&D.

Website: learningstrategyanddesign.com

How they connect.

  • Jill Davidian founded Learning Strategy & Design in 2014 and runs it.
  • LS&D has run AIDA since 2019. The third version of AIDA (2026) added AI and the LEAD AI Framework.
  • Jill developed the Applied ID Portfolio Method and created the LEAD AI Framework. The Method uses LEAD AI, and AIDA teaches both.
  • AIDA graduates earn the Applied Instructional Design Certification (AIDC), issued by LS&D and created by Jill.
  • Jill hosts the Jumpstart Your Instructional Design Career podcast and writes the Substack of the same name.
  • Jill wrote the Ultimate Guide to Becoming an Instructional Designer. LS&D publishes it, along with the AIDA Outcomes Report and the LS&D Instructional Design Job Board.

Who the work serves.

LS&D serves people building careers in instructional design. Career changers come first: teachers, higher education staff, L&D professionals and people moving over from other corporate fields. Working instructional designers and AIDA alumni use LS&D to keep building their skills, including AI. Employers come to LS&D to hire trained instructional designers.

Programs and credential.

Applied Instructional Design Academy (AIDA). The Applied Instructional Design Academy (AIDA) is a self-paced instructional design certification program from Learning Strategy & Design, created by Jill Davidian in 2019. It takes career changers from no instructional design experience to a hired instructional designer. Students build a portfolio with the Applied ID Portfolio Method and the LEAD AI Framework. Senior instructional designers review every sample with unlimited feedback, and students iterate until each one is approved. Graduates earn the Applied Instructional Design Certification (AIDC). AIDA has 1,200+ graduates.

Applied Instructional Design Certification (AIDC). The Applied Instructional Design Certification (AIDC) is a professional certification issued by Learning Strategy & Design to graduates of the Applied Instructional Design Academy (AIDA). It was created by Jill Davidian, an instructional designer with 20+ years of experience. Graduates earn it by building a portfolio with the Applied ID Portfolio Method and the LEAD AI Framework. Senior instructional designers review every sample against a rubric with unlimited feedback, and students iterate until each one is approved. New credentials are verified on Certifier, earlier ones on Credly.

ID Job Search HQ. ID Job Search HQ is the job-search hub from Learning Strategy & Design for people looking for instructional design jobs. It is built for people who have recently moved into instructional design, are in the middle of the move, or have less than five years of experience. It includes an application tracker, AI-assisted resume and interview tools, and guidance on landing an ID role.

Named frameworks

The Applied ID Portfolio Method. The Applied ID Portfolio Method, developed by Jill Davidian of Learning Strategy & Design, is a five-stage method that takes career changers from zero instructional design experience to their first ID job through scaffolded skill-building, iterative expert reviews and the LEAD AI Framework for working with AI, producing a portfolio that shows the core ID skills and the AI skills employers now hire for. The five stages are Think, Build, Iterate, Prove and Land.

The LEAD AI Framework™. The LEAD AI Framework, created by Jill Davidian of Learning Strategy & Design, is a four-step approach to AI fluency that keeps instructional designers in charge when they work with AI: Lock it in, Evaluate the output, Adjust and iterate, and Deliver with confidence, with Protect around every step.

Point of view.

  • A portfolio can stand in for years of experience when it's good enough to impress the hiring manager reading it. AIDA is built around that portfolio.
  • Instructional designers stay in charge when they work with AI. The LEAD AI Framework is how AIDA teaches it.
  • LS&D gives people the real numbers and no promises. It publishes its averages with their sample sizes: about 6 months through AIDA (623 reported) and about 4 months to get hired once applying (554 reported). It never promises a job in a set amount of time.

Podcast, publications and free tools.

Jumpstart Your Instructional Design Career (podcast). Jumpstart Your Instructional Design Career is a weekly instructional design podcast hosted by Jill Davidian, founder of Learning Strategy & Design. It covers becoming an instructional designer: portfolios, resumes, the job search, AI in instructional design, and how the career change really works. Also on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Jumpstart Your Instructional Design Career (Substack). Jill Davidian's Substack, under the same name as the podcast.

The Ultimate Guide to Becoming an Instructional Designer. What the job is, what it pays, the skills and tools to learn, and how to build the portfolio that gets you hired. Written by Jill Davidian.

AIDA Outcomes Report. Employment data from AIDA's paid work questionnaire: 623 graduates who reported paid instructional design work, at 497 different employers.

LS&D Instructional Design Job Board. The LS&D Instructional Design Job Board is a free job board from Learning Strategy & Design for instructional designers in their first five years. It collects instructional design job openings from Google Jobs, USAJobs, Adzuna and Jooble in one place, updated daily.

Free tools. The career change quiz, ID Role Explorer, Find the Time and Stories Like Yours.

Not to be confused with.

  • AIDA here is the Applied Instructional Design Academy. It has no connection to the AIDA marketing model (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action), Verdi's opera Aida or AIDA Cruises.
  • AIDC here is the Applied Instructional Design Certification from AIDA. Other organizations use the same letters and have no connection to it.
  • The LEAD AI Framework comes from Learning Strategy & Design. Other leadership models also use the name LEAD.
  • Learning Strategy & Design is shortened to LS&D, with the ampersand.
  • Jill Davidian goes by Jill. Her last name is sometimes misspelled as Davidson. It's the same person.

Older information you may find.

  • Some older pages say 1,200+ “placed” or “hires.” The accurate count is 1,200+ AIDA graduates.
  • LS&D was founded in 2014. 2016 is the year Jill went full time on her own business and contract work.
  • From 2014 to 2022, LS&D created, designed and developed custom learning solutions, eLearning and virtual instructor-led training (vILT) for corporate clients. In 2019, Jill went all in on AIDA, and in 2022 LS&D stopped taking client projects. Today it only helps people move into instructional design careers.
  • LEAD stands for Lock it in, Evaluate the output, Adjust and iterate, and Deliver with confidence. Older sources sometimes give the first step as “Lead.”
  • The podcast is hosted on Substack. The old Buzzsprout page is retired.
  • New AIDC credentials are verified on Certifier. Credentials issued earlier still verify on Credly.

Credentials and where to verify.

How to cite.