Kristen Himmerick: For Kristen, the stage was never really gone—it just got bigger.
Photographed for the Trailblazers Project by Priyanca Rao
“I’m building a life where I don’t have to choose between being a mother or a serious professional or a woman who still has her own dreams. I get to be all of it.”
Meet Kristen Himmerick, a national advocate for Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) and building credit mobility systems for working adults. Kristen has a strong track record as a CPL technologist, helping higher ed institutions and systems launch large-scale projects—LMS, SIS, portfolio tools, and CPL tracking systems. But that’s not all…her improvisation and musical theatre background makes her a great listener, quick thinker, and “yes-and” partner in any Zoom room.
Watch Kristen’s behind the scenes video
Broadway Dreams Delayed Not Denied
Kristen trained in Musical Theatre at Northwestern University with dreams of Broadway. But life had other plans—practical ones involving a way to get health insurance. What started as a “day job” to get benefits evolved into a 20-year career building credit mobility systems that help adult students finish their degrees faster.
Here’s the twist: she never really left the theater behind. In every presentation, demo or training—she brings the same skills she learned on stage. Active listening. Reading the room. The improvisational “yes-and” philosophy that turns obstacles into opportunities. While her theater career was on hold, she was performing on a different stage.
This year, after more than a decade away, Kristen returned to voice lessons and auditions. Her voice teacher delivered unexpected news:”He says I finally grew into my voice,” she shares. “A 25-year-old that sang like Ethel Merman was tough to cast, so I’ve been told.”
The Carpool Lane Epiphany
On a sunny Tuesday afternoon this summer, Kristen was laid off from the company where she’d spent 13 years. An hour later, she was in the carpool lane picking up her 10-year-old daughter.
“There’s something almost absurd about it,” she reflects. “One hour you’re processing the end of a 13-year chapter, and the next you’re asking about your daughter’s day at camp. But that’s when it hit me: I was the same person at 5pm that I was at 4pm. My capabilities hadn’t changed—only my circumstances.”
The revelation led to what she calls conscious uncoupling from your title. “Your title was just a placeholder in some random company’s org chart,” she explains. “Your skills, your expertise, your impact? Those belong to you. They come with you wherever you go next.”
It’s the kind of clarity that only comes from being forced to introduce yourself without a business card.
Credit for Prior Learning: Helping Adults Earn Credit For What They Know
Today, Kristen is a national advocate for Credit for Prior Learning (CPL)—the process that colleges use to award adult students college credit for skills they’ve already learned through jobs, military service, and training programs. She’s a technologist helping higher education institutions launch the large-scale systems that make it possible.
“It’s kind of a niche, isn’t it?” she says with a knowing smile. “But every credit a student earns through CPL is time and money they get back. Time they’re not spending away from their families, not adding to their debt, not delaying their career change or promotion. That’s not niche. That’s life-changing.”
Her theater training makes her unexpectedly perfect for this work. She’s a master listener who can translate between IT teams and the academic world. She thinks on her feet when implementations get complicated. And that “yes-and” improv mindset? It turns her into the partner everyone wants in the room when challenges arise.
The Non-Negotiable Joy Policy
Ask Kristen about her work-life balance and she’ll tell you it’s the wrong question. The real question is: When did you last do something just because it made you happy?
“I have mom friends who couldn’t name one thing they do purely for fun,” she says.
Her own joy looks like every Law & Order show ever, strength-training sessions, dance classes, game nights with friends, and psychological thrillers audiobooks—always at 1.75 speed because even her downtime moves fast. But here’s what matters: she protects that time with the same fierceness she brings to work deadlines and parent-teacher conferences.
“I show up for my own joy with the same dedication I show up for work or for my daughter,” she explains. “Because the message I want her to receive isn’t that mothers should sacrifice everything. I want her to see that I can be her mom and still be myself.”
The Next Act
Kristen is returning to auditions and building the next phase of her higher education career. She’s proof that the skills you develop in one arena—empathy from theater training, resilience from that carpool lane, strategic thinking around building support systems for adult students—travel with you everywhere.
Being a Trailblazer, for Kristen, means honoring every version of herself. The professional. The performer. The mother. The woman who still has her own dreams.
Kristen’s Trailblazer Experience
“Being photographed for the Trailblazers Project was such a joy,” Kristen shares. “Priyanca made me feel seen and celebrated in ways I didn’t expect. The process reminded me that the work I do matters—and that I have power, and my story has power.”
Connect with Kristen on LinkedIn to learn more about her work and ongoing projects in building technologies to serve working adults and veterans by helping colleges scale their CPL efforts.
About the Trailblazers Project
The Trailblazers Project by Priyanca Rao is a visual and storytelling series that celebrates inspiring women redefining leadership, creativity, and confidence. Each feature pairs a portrait session with a deeply personal interview to honor women who are shaping industries and inspiring others through authenticity and purpose.
If you are a woman making bold moves in your career, your community, or your personal life, this project was made for you. Join the growing circle of Trailblazing women who are embracing visibility, confidence, and legacy.
Visit www.priyanca.com/Trailblazers to learn more or apply to be featured in the next series.
Check out more Trailblazer profiles here- Sudha Acharya and Christine Dracanelli.
Empowerment. Visibility. Legacy. Be the next Trailblazer. Apply bottom the page here.
Kristen bio:
Kristen Himmerick, M. Ed. is a higher education and nonprofit administrator with deep expertise in Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) technologies. She has extensive experience working with institutions and systems to launch large-scale academic technology projects.
Her career in academic technology began at the City Colleges of Chicago as the District Director of Academic Technology, where she managed the launch of the first system-wide learning management system (LMS).
Kristen’s work with academic technology continued at Southern New Hampshire University’s Innovation Lab. There, she co-authored a proposal for a self-paced, competency-based associate degree, which was awarded the $1 million Next Generation Learning Challenge Grant. This funding helped launch SNHU’s College for America Program.
Her expertise led to a role at the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), where she was hired to lead and redesign the platform for their national portfolio assessment program, LearningCounts. Kristen later advanced to become the Vice President of Technology Strategy, where she developed technology to support regional, workforce, and higher education initiatives, working with institutions nationwide to help them build their CPL programs, including leading development on the Credit Predictor Pro and Credit Predictor Standard web tools.
She holds a M.Ed. in eLearning from the University of Illinois and a B.S. in Communication Studies from Northwestern University, where she also earned a Musical Theater certificate. Kristen is a Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner and former Second City Theatricals touring actor.
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