Skillforge Consulting Services delivers keynote presentations, hands-on workshops, customized training programs, and individual consultations that forge skills, spark engagement, and drive measurable results.
Whether you need an energizing keynote for 500 attendees or a short course of demonstrations and workshops for your leadership team, every engagement is customized to your sector, your organization, and your goals.
Engaging presentations on AI foundations, use cases, and implementation for education, business, government, and healthcare organizations. Available for conferences, leadership retreats, and corporate events of any size.
Interactive, hands-on sessions that go beyond lectures. Participants leave with practical tools, frameworks, and action plans they can implement immediately. Ideal for professional development days, retreats, and team-building events.
End-to-end development of multi-session training programs tailored to your organization’s specific competency goals. Includes needs assessment, curriculum design, facilitation, materials, and post-program evaluation.
Synchronous virtual meetings for small teams or senior leadership. Customized goal setting with an accountability framework that will move your AI implementation forward.
Advisory services for organizations working through change, launching new initiatives, or building internal capacity. Areas of focus include strategic planning, program development, team member engagement, and organizational effectiveness.
AI readiness looks different in every field, shaped by the priorities and constraints its leaders actually face. From education and healthcare to government and business, Skillforge engagements are led by consultants with deep experience in your sector.
Division and building leadership teams working through instructional and administrative use cases, staff professional development, acceptable-use policy development, and the practical realities of classroom implementation.
Clinical and administrative leaders evaluating AI tools where issues of patient care and privacy, professional judgment, and administrative efficiency must all be addressed.
Agencies and public organizations implementing AI tools that enhance efficiency while acknowledging records privacy and security requirements, accountability, and internal and external communication needs.
Executive teams and senior leaders moving past experimentation toward measurable gains in workflow, analysis, and day-to-day decision-making.
Dr. Stephen C. Smith brings over two decades of senior leadership experience spanning education, organizational management, and executive administration. He holds a Doctor of Education (EdD) from the University of Virginia, a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction, and a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Chemistry.
Throughout his career, Stephen has served in roles including Director of the Central Virginia Governor’s School, Assistant Superintendent for Lynchburg City Schools, and President & CEO of the CVGS Foundation. He has managed multi-million-dollar budgets, negotiated complex institutional partnerships, and led organizations through periods of significant growth and change.
Stephen founded Skillforge Consulting Services to channel this breadth of experience into helping organizations and their leaders build the AI skills, strategies, and workflows they need to thrive. He personally leads engagements across K-12 education and business, and brings in specialist consultants when a client’s sector calls for it. His presentations are known for being engaging, practical, and grounded in real-world experience.
Stephen is joined by consultants who lead engagements in the sectors where they built their careers, including K-12 education, healthcare, government, and business operations, bringing firsthand experience using AI in your field.
Todd Reichert is a career educator whose roles span middle and high school English teaching, middle school principal, division-level Supervisor of English and Reading, and assistant principal of a 2,000-student high school. He teaches at Campbell County Public Schools and previously taught at the Minnick School in Lynchburg, a regional program serving students with emotional, behavioral, and learning challenges. Across his career he has served four of the five public school divisions in central Virginia: Appomattox, Bedford County, Campbell County, and Lynchburg City. He uses AI daily to plan differentiated lessons and build assignments across multiple preparations. He helps schools and educators put AI to work in instructional planning, differentiation, and presentations.
Dr. Michael Smith is a practicing anesthesiologist with more than three decades of clinical experience, beginning with his residency and neuroanesthesia fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic, where he later spent a decade directing the medical student clerkship in anesthesiology. He serves as Facility Medical Director of Summa Health’s Barberton campus in Ohio, holds a Master of Science in Education from Northwestern University, and is a past president of both the Academy of Anesthesiology and the American Association of Clinical Directors. He brings firsthand experience integrating AI into clinical practice and helps healthcare leaders and clinicians adopt AI safely and effectively.
Castle Smith brings more than two decades of federal service in program analysis, acquisitions, and financial management. He has led acquisition oversight, large-scale IT infrastructure modernization, and human resources and financial operations, managing complex programs and multimillion-dollar budgets across large organizations. He holds an MBA from Wright State University and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Georgetown College, and is a Certified Defense Financial Manager and a Google-certified Data Analytics Professional. He began his career as an Air Force officer. He helps government agencies and businesses apply AI to acquisitions, financial operations, workforce management, and data-driven decision-making. More specifically, his application of Lean Six Sigma Green Belt process improvement, in combination with data modeling expertise, has repeatedly created advantages for senior leadership in the financial and human capital workspace.
While the typical format is listed below, each topic can be provided as a keynote, workshop, or multi-session training series. The specific topics and focus can be customized to your group and goals.
This one-hour presentation traces the development of artificial intelligence from Alan Turing’s early thought experiments to deep learning, large language models (LLMs), and today’s generative AI boom. Participants will gain historical context for understanding how AI reached this moment and where it may be headed next.
This one-hour presentation introduces the major concepts behind modern artificial intelligence, including the differences among artificial intelligence, machine learning, and neural networks. Participants will learn common AI terms, explore leading providers and models, examine practical professional and personal uses, and consider both recent breakthroughs and emerging concerns.
This one-hour presentation examines artificial intelligence’s most exciting frontiers and most serious risks. Participants will explore advances in education, medicine, and business while also considering concerns related to job displacement, energy consumption, lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), mass surveillance, and the potential of misaligned AI models.
This 2.5-hour workshop moves from the content of the one-hour keynote into a hands-on workshop. Each participant chooses an individual learning path based on current AI accounts and expertise. Activity guides range from “Creating Free AI Accounts with Major Providers” to “Exploring Reputable Prompt Libraries” and “Prompting: Current Best Practices” all the way to “Working with Protocols, Skills, and Projects.” Skillforge consultants provide expert assistance throughout the work time. A recap and Q&A session rounds out the experience.
This 2.5-hour workshop is designed for participants who are already familiar with popular AI models, have paid accounts, and are ready to move beyond basic use. Participants will explore tools such as Gems, Skills, Projects, and workflow supports, discuss current developments and cautions related to AI agents, and receive guided time to apply AI to their own professional projects.
This 2.5-hour workshop helps educational leaders understand, evaluate, and apply artificial intelligence in school settings. After an introductory overview, participants move into hands-on activities ranging from opening free accounts and learning basic prompting to using AI for presentations, research, and data analysis. The workshop concludes with recent developments, implementation considerations, and question-and-answer time.
| Organization / Group | Date | Presentation Type |
|---|---|---|
| Bedford County Public Schools Administrators | June 2026 | Artificial Intelligence: Patterns, Predictions, and Practice Testimonial |
| Schewels Home Annual Business Meeting | May 2026 | An Introduction to Modern Artificial Intelligence: Patterns and Predictions |
| Virginia Tech School Leaders Institute: Aspiring Superintendents Program | April 2026 | Artificial Intelligence in Education: A Workshop for Educational Leaders
Customized for aspiring superintendents: AI-assisted division intelligence briefs, interview practice and coaching, and a First-90-Days plan with slide deck. |
| Virginia Tech School Leaders Institute: Recently Appointed Administrators Program | February 2026 | Artificial Intelligence in Education: A Workshop for Educational Leaders |
| Westover Alumni Program: University of Lynchburg | April 2025 | An Introduction to Modern Artificial Intelligence: Patterns and Predictions |
| Westminster Canterbury University Program | March 2025 | An Introduction to Modern Artificial Intelligence: Patterns and Predictions |
| Life at Lynchburg Program, University of Lynchburg | November 2024 | An Introduction to Modern Artificial Intelligence: Patterns and Predictions |
| The SPHEX Club of Lynchburg | January 2024 | The History of Artificial Intelligence: 1950 to Today |
Looking for something different? Every engagement is customized. Let’s talk about your needs →
Feedback from administrators, executives, and workshop participants.
Working with Dr. Smith of Skillforge Consulting Services was outstanding from start to finish. He genuinely invested time in understanding our staff, our processes, and our needs, which resulted in a presentation that felt relevant and engaging to our team. The content was practical, customized, and immediately useful, with our team quickly demonstrating significant progress in how we utilize A.I. tools. He even went above and beyond, helping us solve a complex data analysis challenge by teaching us to leverage A.I. to tackle it ourselves. He is personable, timely, and professional, and I can’t recommend him highly enough!
Whether you have a specific event in mind or want to explore how Skillforge can support your organization, I’d welcome the opportunity to connect. Send a note using the form and I will respond personally.