Senior HR leaders often reach a point in their careers where their greatest challenge isn’t mastering a single niche, but rather connecting the dots between them. Cristina Ciorna lives at this strategic crossroads every day.
As the Senior Director of Centers of Excellence for U.S. grocery brand Giant Food, she is responsible for the growth and culture of 19,000 associates across the Mid-Atlantic. Simultaneously, as a University Lecturer, she prepares the next generation of HR talent for the realities of the field. For Cristina, success is found at the intersection of humanity and strategy, where thoughtful design and empathy transform the workplace into an environment where people truly thrive.
Piecing together an HR strategy from everywhere
In a massive organization, Cristina’s role was to connect the dots among talent acquisition, learning and development, workforce planning, and leadership development. But she always hit a roadblock: no single place had everything she needed.
“It’s hard to find a resource that has everything at your fingertips in all realms of HR,” Cristina explains.
She’d find academic resources that were too theoretical. Or practical guides that were too narrow, focusing on one area without showing how it connects to the bigger picture.
As a university lecturer, Cristina saw this gap play out with her own students. They’d learn the essential foundations in frameworks and theories, but often graduate without knowing how to apply them in the real world.
Without a single resource that did both, she was constantly piecing things together. That made it harder to lead effectively and to show her students what modern HR actually looks like in practice.
What she needed was both the “why” and the “how,” grounded in credible theory and backed by frameworks she could actually apply in day-to-day work and in the classroom.
Learning in the flow of work
Cristina wears multiple hats and needs efficiency. When her company offered AIHR as a learning platform, she had high standards.
As a lecturer, she knows the theory-to-practice gap well. Students learn concepts but often don’t know how to apply them. “It can’t be a tool without context,” she explains.
So when she explored AIHR, she was evaluating it through three lenses: Would it give her the strategic depth she needed for executive work? Would it offer practical frameworks her team could use? And could she confidently recommend it to her students?
After initially exploring the platform out of curiosity, the answer to all three was yes.
The more she used the AIHR platform, the more she realized how different it is from other learning solutions. It aligned with her belief that learning should fit the timing and context of the work she’s doing.
Cristina decided the opportunity to earn certificates was a natural next step. Cristina completed three AIHR certificate programs: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging, Talent Management, and Strategic Talent Acquisition, alongside the Gen AI Prompt Design mini course that helps boost her overall productivity.
To make this work, she set aside time on quieter days and blocked one to two hours on her calendar. She also learned on the go, listening to lessons during her commute, while walking her dog, or by waking up early on weekends to dive into exciting topics.
AIHR’s mobile app and self-paced learning experience made it possible.
Turning learning into impact
Cristina reiterated her learning motive, “It’s not just about sitting down and listening to a video. It’s how I take that and make it applicable.”
And that learning doesn’t just help her. It also helps everyone around her.
Leading strategic change as a senior director
Cristina appreciates the Resource Library and how time-saving and practical the resources are. Instead of building everything from scratch, she now has frameworks her team can use immediately. She was able to standardize the process for performance management for her organization.
“We don’t have to create something from scratch, which is a gift. It helps us standardize some of our processes and gives us examples and perspectives we might not have considered.”
She even led a complete revamp of the retail interview strategy—a specialty she’d never worked in before. “I felt more prepared to have that conversation because I had the knowledge,” she says. “It makes you feel a little bit more confident.”
When Giant Food began exploring AI as an education topic across the organization, Cristina turned to AIHR again.
She completed the Gen AI Prompt Design mini course, focused on how to write effective prompts for generative AI tools. It immediately changed the way she worked. She wrote more structured prompts, gained clarity on what AI can and can’t do, and became more intentional in framing questions and use cases.
She didn’t keep the learning to herself. Cristina shared key tips and frameworks with her team and colleagues as they began their own AI journeys, helping them feel more confident and prepared.
Sparking growth conversation as a team leader
AIHR has also become a core part of her leadership approach, reinforcing her credibility as a team leader. She used the interactive Career Map in career conversations with junior associates on her team.
“It helps people visualize different paths and see how they can move from one role to another to reach a goal. It’s dynamic, intuitive, and above all, it sparks conversations around growth.”
She believes the Career Map is a great coaching tool for managers, a conversation starter in growth discussions, and a way to help team members discover possibilities they may not have considered.
Extending the impact: From leader to lecturer
Cristina also brings AIHR learning and resources into the classroom. While universities focus on theory, she brings practice. She recommends AIHR to every cohort she teaches.
“AIHR takes theory a step further and brings in fresh, real-world tools and resources that students can use right away. It helps them turn theory into practice and step more confidently into their HR roles.”
For students who are already working within HR functions while studying, she encourages them to be proactive in asking their employers to sponsor their learning.
Everything to succeed in one place
Cristina no longer spends time searching for the right resource. She’s found everything she needs.
Now she can focus on what matters: leading her team at a Fortune 500 company, teaching her university students, and connecting strategy to execution across 19,000 associates.
She doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel anymore. She has the frameworks. She has the tools. And she has the confidence to use them across all three of her roles. And it all lives in the same place.
“It’s not just about what I can learn,” Cristina says. “It’s about what I can do with it.”
What’s next
Cristina didn’t just make use of AIHR because it was available through her company. She chose to keep coming back. The impact is evident in stronger contributions to complex conversations outside her comfort zone, increased productivity with AI, and a mindset that naturally turns to frameworks and tools to structure her work.
She’s now exploring new topics where her personal curiosity and organizational needs intersect, like AI, talent acquisition, and evolving workforce practices.
With AIHR’s Full Academy Access, she knows she has a flexible, evolving toolkit she can return to whenever a new challenge, project, or interest emerges.
You can check out the AIHR Academy for yourself to see what Cristina loves so much about AIHR.
Are you ready to transform your own career? Browse our extensive course catalog and make your HR skill set future-proof!
Building your peer network? Connect with Cristina on LinkedIn.
