ACADEMIC DIRECTORS
Meet The Team
Our vision is to be the indispensable, transformative learning resource for risk and insurance professionals through adaptive technology and practical instruction. The educational programs and research conducted by The National Alliance were built on a foundation of integrity, innovation, and imagination. These qualities commit us to act responsibly, to be accountable for our actions, to fulfill our obligations, and to inspire others with our relentless determination to achieve a standard of excellence in every endeavor.
Dustyne Bryant, Personal Lines Academic Director at The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research, is a self-professed and colleague–backed wholehearted Personal Lines Insurance geek. Supported by multiple degrees and designations over the course of a decade and rising, her thirst for knowledge is never ending and ever growing. Her passion for educating others in Personal Insurance, is even greater. She is an advocate of permanency for children in foster care and relishes all the joys of being a soccer mom, minus the minivan.
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Cat Ferris, CIC, CRM, CPCU, CLCS, AU is the Commercial Lines
A method for combining the value of property of different types or at different locations into a single limit of insurance on a property insurance policy. https://youtu.be/7iExUPAM8J4 More Academic Director with the National Alliance. In her twenty years of experience within the industry, Cat has focused most of her career in commercial underwriting, and independent agency training. Based out of Gainesville, Florida her hobbies include bodybuilding, gardening, and spoiling her dogs more than her kids.
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Paul Z. Martin, CPCU, is the Director of Academic Content and Academic Director Team Lead for the National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research. Paul works with Alliance faculty, agents, and other industry professionals to deliver high quality insurance content and education. During his career, Paul worked as an adjuster, underwriter, special agent, company manager, and independent agent. Paul has been an insurance educator in Texas for over twenty years.
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Mr. Rogers serves in a consultant capacity as Academic Director for Life and Health programs and CISR High School programs for The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research. He began his insurance career as a college trainee with MetLife. Mr. Rogers served in numerous sales and sales management positions until 1991, when he accepted a position at MetLife’s New York home office. He retired from MetLife in 2001 as Vice President and National Sales Director for MetLife’s Voluntary Permanent Life Division.
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Sarah Warhaftig is the Academic Director of Risk ManagementProcess of managing uncertainty of exposures that affect an organization’s assets and financial statements using five steps: identification, analysis, control, financing and administration. More Programs for the National Alliance where she is responsible for the Certified RiskUncertainty that may be either positive or negative arising from a given set of circumstances. Common definitions also include: 1) chance or probability of loss, 2) uncertainty concerning loss, 3) possibility of a variation of outcomes from a given set of circumstances, and 4) difference between expected losses and actual losses. More Manager, the Certified School Risk Manager, and the Certified Personal Risk Manager designation programs.
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Mandy Whorton joined The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research in April of 2018 as an Academic Director after engaging in the insurance industry for 20 years. During that time, she held most positions within a variety of agencies and groups that eventually lead to overall management responsibility for the operations and initiatives conducted by these organizations. Her knowledge and experience provide an excellent and practical perspective to our curriculum. She currently oversees the creation of content within the topics of AgencyA relationship, express or implied, wherein one party (principal) delegates authority to another person (agent or proxy) to undertake certain activities for the principal. The agent’s limit of authority and discretionary power depends upon the agreement between the parties. https://youtu.be/s_hHkK95lbA More Management, Agency Operations, Insurance Company Operations, and the Intro Series.
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Jay Williams started his insurance career in 1979. He spent 21 years in the agency business, 9 years at the Florida Association of Insurance Agents, and 7 years on the insurance company side of the industry. Jay was the interim CEO for Applied Client Network and CEO of a construction risk wholesale operation. Prior to coming to The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research, he was an insurance educator, a consultant to agencies, companies, and industry partners, and an expert witness for both technical insurance and agent E&O cases. In addition to being an Educational Consultant, Jay is a member of the National Faculty, teaching CISR, CIC, Ruble Graduate Seminars, and PROFocus topics across the country.
