SWIM
Standing

Faculty & Board

The SWIM™ credential is held to a high standard by a faculty that has run the work in the field, and a board drawn from across the HR profession: executive search, performance coaching, organizational learning, and HR leadership.

Ryan Vallery
Program Director

Ryan Vallery

Ryan Vallery is the Program Director of the SWIM certification. He holds a master's degree in clinical psychology and has led organizational development across manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality, and the public sector. He has deployed SWIM in organizations from small businesses to major hospital systems. At the national level, Ryan's work for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs identified tens of millions of dollars in waste and improved service delivery for veterans. Ryan is a combat veteran of the U.S. Army.

Carolyn Case
Operations Director

Carolyn Case

Carolyn is the Operations Director of the SWIM Institute. She has built and run HR and labor relations functions in environments most practitioners never set foot in: correctional facilities, maritime operations, manufacturing floors, and national organizations scaling faster than their infrastructure. She has led multi-state HR and Labor Relations teams, stood up HR functions and entire operating divisions from nothing, and redesigned personnel processes that returned more than a million dollars to a single business in one year.

Speaking
Dustin Snyder
Executive Director

Dustin Snyder

Dustin Snyder created Strategic Workforce Insight Mapping and authored its foundational text, Sink or SWIM. The methodology is deployed nationwide, from family businesses in generational transition to Fortune 1000 divisions launching at scale. Dustin's work bridges organizational psychology and executive operating leadership. Before founding Wayforward, Dustin led a 600-employee, $300M manufacturing firm to profitability as its President — organizational transformation from the operator's chair.

Speaking
Governance

Board of Directors

The Institute's board holds the credential to account. It oversees the standard, the assessment, and the integrity of what certification means.

Begin certificationScience & Methodology