A.J.
Merlino

I lead academic programs and build learning products, including AI-enabled tools.

Across the arts, higher education, workforce development, and technology, I help people connect creative practice to professional life. I work alongside educators, artists, learners, and industry partners to turn ideas into action.

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Leadership

Program, product, and creative leadership.

I lead work across higher education, workforce development, technology, and the arts. I build teams around a clear need, shape programs and products with the people who will use them, and carry the work through launch, revision, and growth.

525%

Music-industry program leadership

I built a music-industry major that grew enrollment by 525% in five years while leading a department of 8 full-time and 12 adjunct faculty.

90+

Academic change leadership

As HACC’s Interim Chair of Communications, Humanities, and Arts, I led more than 90 faculty across five campuses and online during unionization and a presidential transition.

4,000+

Experiential learning and outcomes

At Albright College, I led career development, experiential learning, student employment, and the 13th Street Educational Partnership—creating 4,000+ hands-on opportunities, raising positive outcomes from 84% to 91%, and reaching a 100% internship-acquisition rate within four years.

300+

Product and program leadership

At Thinking Through AI, I led learning and workforce product work with employers, government agencies, and education partners, shaping training pathways and partner experiences used by more than 300 organizations.

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Resource development

Funding the work.

I have led grant development, secured funding, and developed proposals that connect learning with workforce opportunity.

Grant development lead · 2025

$399,896

SCPa Cyber Defenders

Led the research, budget development, and grants-office coordination for a cybersecurity apprenticeship initiative funded through a $399,896 Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry award to SCPa Works.
Grant development lead · 2024

$750K

E-GROW workforce initiative

Led the research, budget development, and grant-development work for this four-year USDA NIFA-funded workforce and education initiative for controlled-environment agriculture.
Principal Investigator · 2025

$614,917

SIP Pathways to Smart Recovery

Served as Principal Investigator for this U.S. Department of Education Strengthening Institutions Program award to Harrisburg University.

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Selected work

Systems for
learning.

These are interactive portfolio reconstructions of systems I designed and deployed. They recreate the core workflows while removing proprietary data, branding, and production details. They do not connect to live AI services or transmit information.

AI-enabled feedback system

AI-Enabled
Design Studio

A deployed design studio where learners bring work in progress, receive role-based feedback, revise, and return for another round of critique.

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Artificial Neural Network (ANN)

Coach Training
ANN

A deployed governance workflow for AI course coaches. Teams set source priorities, review response quality, and catch unsupported guidance before it reaches students.

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Deployed AI learning platform

Thinking
Through AI

I led learning and workforce product work for a mobile AI platform, shaping training pathways and partner experiences used by more than 300 organizations.

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Formative design research

Prototype Feedback
Workbench

A deployed formative-design tool for a master's-level course. Students upload a wireframe, analyze a synthetic user-testing dataset, and use the evidence to decide what to revise next.

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Learning analytics system

Skill EQ
Dashboard

A deployed system that translated xAPI activity from an LRS into a skills view, showing learners what they had demonstrated and what to practice next.

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Recorded work

Music
credits.

Years of performing, writing, and arranging taught me to listen closely to the people in the room and what each person brings. That habit shapes how I lead teams, build programs, and create learning experiences.