David Pearson

Background

About David Pearson

As an extroverted artistic engineer I carry a wide variety of interests. I love to interact with people, love to look at things from a different perspective, and am compelled to analyze everything. My nuclear engineering instructor day job is a great fit for this unique set of characteristics while my side gigs as a correspondent and photographer for Digital Beat Magazine and freelance photographer for the Henrico Citizen adds a chocolate covered cherry to the top of a very fulfilling career. As an engineering instructor I am blessed with being able to assist in the development of engineers of multiple disciplines as the enter and grow in the nuclear industry. My educational background and understanding of learning styles and techniques have been quite beneficial inside and even out of the classroom. My ability to analyze and understand my audience has helped greatly in taking complex topics and delivering training in a way that makes sense to my students. My engineering and people skills have also helped me in what may be my post engineering endeavor, photojournalism and photography. As a correspondent and photographer for Digital Beat Magazine I have had significant interaction with public relations firms, record labels, various venues, and artists. If you ever want to hear a good PR story, ask me how I got photo credentials for an Alice Cooper / Halestorm concert, it is one of my favorites (it helps to be a good story teller). It is not all about the entertainment industry either. I have been a freelance photographer for the Henrico Citizen, a local county publication. This role has given me yet an additional journalistic insight as I have covered several community and national issues (as they impact the community). What has been most rewarding is seeing the difference between what really happens at events and how it is reported. Sadly, the difference is huge. All in all, it is about the story. In the training world, a good story helps with knowledge retention. Taking complex ideas and putting them in terms multiple engineering disciplines is not only ‘fun’, but is also very rewarding. On the training floor I try to think outside the box. As of this time, my training program is the first nuclear training program in the United States to use eLearning education techniques that are in line with the most successful online degree programs in the US (based loosely on courses offered in the Masters of Engineering Management program at the University of WI, Madison).