Cheetah Learning Honors Tessa Reisner, PMP®, with Distinguished Cheetah Alum Award for Creative Applications

Recognized for applying project management principles and accelerated learning to intelligent automation, AI, and enterprise transformation

PHOENIX, AZ, UNITED STATES, September 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Cheetah Learning, a global leader in accelerated project management education, announced today that Tessa Reisner, PMP^®, has been named a Distinguished Cheetah Alum in the category of Creative Applications. The award recognizes professionals who creatively apply project management principles and accelerated learning in new industries or areas, expanding the value and reach of the PMP^® credential.

Reisner completed the Cheetah Learning PMP^® program in 2022 and has since advanced into a leadership role at the intersection of project management, intelligent automation, and artificial intelligence. As Director of Consulting, Intelligent Automation, and Application Services at SoftwareOne, she leads a consulting and delivery practice serving enterprise clients primarily in oil and gas, energy, finance, manufacturing, and retail.

Clients come to the practice with a problem rather than a specification. Reisner’s teams determine what is actually feasible, what will return value, and how it should be delivered, across application development and modernization, migrations and integrations, AI pilots and proofs of value, and automation programs spanning multiple platforms. She owns the service line end to end, including its direction and the services within it, the delivery frameworks her teams work to, quality and client satisfaction, and the growth of the practice. She leads teams based in North America and globally, manages the technology partnerships behind the practice, and serves as the senior point of escalation for client engagements. She has also mentored emerging leaders in structured project delivery and transformation management.

“The credential formally recognized the experience I had built, and that credibility opened doors faster and positioned me for increasingly complex work,” said Reisner. “What I find most rewarding is applying the discipline in areas the profession is only beginning to reach.”

For Reisner, that means bringing traditional project management discipline to rapidly evolving technologies.

“Most organizations start by asking what the technology can do,” she said. “The better question is which problems are worth solving and whether the business is ready to absorb the change, and that is a project management question before it is a technology one. Clear objectives,
governance, risk management, and value realization are what turn a promising pilot into something that works at enterprise scale.”

Project management has been a recurring thread throughout Reisner’s life and career. Her mother, an accomplished project management professional, introduced her to the profession early. While still in high school, Reisner shadowed project roles at a major Alberta energy company before working for a project management consulting firm. Even as she explored different industries and spent several years in Australia, she continued taking project management courses and instinctively applying the discipline to budgets, schedules, resources, and risk.

When the time came to pursue her PMP^®, Reisner wanted an approach that could accommodate a demanding career. She learned about Cheetah Learning through several PMP^®-certified women in her life and ultimately completed the program with the support of her mentor and leader, Shayne Dow of Beniva Consulting Group.

“It is a significant body of knowledge, and with a full and growing career, carving out the dedicated time to prepare properly was the real challenge,” she said. “The right method replaces volume with focus, and it removes an enormous amount of guesswork and stress.”

Reisner says one of the most important lessons from the Cheetah Learning experience was that professionals often know more than they realize.
“Cheetah’s Accelerated Learning method unlocks the knowledge your project experience has already built and teaches you to apply it the way the exam demands. Peak performance is a practice, not an accident.”

The program’s emphasis on focused learning and deliberate breaks has also stayed with her. Reisner continues to incorporate short breaks, movement, and resets into intensive work, recognizing that sustained focus requires deliberate attention to how the mind performs.

“I will also admit the Yoga for Learning breaks felt unconventional on the first morning,” she said. “By the second day, the difference in focus and retention was tangible, and I understood the method was not a gimmick. It was engineered.”

Today, Reisner applies project management thinking well beyond formal project environments. At home, she approaches renovations, family gatherings, and travel planning with the same instincts she uses professionally.

“Any trip I organize comes with a schedule, a budget, and a risk log, whether my travel companions asked for one or not,” she said.

In fact, Reisner’s project management instincts began even earlier. As a teenager, she pitched her parents on hosting a party using what was essentially a project charter, complete with objectives, risks, and mitigations.

That mindset has become particularly valuable as she leads work in intelligent automation and AI, where technology is evolving rapidly and organizations must balance innovation with governance, risk, and measurable business value.

Cheetah Learning praised Reisner for the way project management has become an enduring part of how she approaches both professional and personal challenges.

“Tessa is a wonderful example of someone who simply can’t stop seeing the world through a project management lens – and that’s a great thing,” said a Cheetah Learning spokesperson. “It’s almost as though project management has been chasing her throughout her career, from her earliest experiences to the work she is doing today in automation and AI. Tessa has taken those lessons and made them part of how she leads, learns, and delivers results.”

Reisner says that while her career has moved beyond traditional project management roles, the discipline remains central to how she leads.

“For me, the credential is not something I maintain; it is something I practice,” she said. “Because I am applying the principles every day, staying certified follows naturally.”

About Cheetah Learning

Cheetah Learning is a global leader in accelerated learning and project management education. Known for its proprietary learning methodologies, Cheetah Learning helps professionals earn certifications faster, retain knowledge longer, and apply skills immediately on the job. Thousands of professionals worldwide have earned their PMP^® certification through Cheetah Learning’s proven approach.

Frances McCoy
Cheetah Learning
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