Patty Tydings has 25 years of experience in adult education, including the following:

--7 years at the high school level with 2 years as a department head managing up to 15 teachers
--8 years teaching at the college/university level
--10 years in curriculum design, instructor development, and training for the oil and gas industry

In 2012, after working as a consultant for several years, Ms. Tydings joined the International Association of Drilling Contractors, which is an industry association and standards body for the upstream oil and gas industry. At IADC, she facilitates expert collaborations and develops training and assessment accreditation programs primarily for the global drilling industry.

From 2010 to 2012, Ms. Tydings was a consultant for BP, where she worked in the Crisis Command Center during the Macondo (Deepwater Horizon) response. She has also participated in numerous significant projects for ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, and other major O&G companies. In addition to being a trainer and curriculum designer, Ms. Tydings is a writer (technical and other forms).

In addition to earning a master’s degree in English and a bachelor’s degree in journalism, Ms. Tydings was awarded a Texas Teaching Certificate (in 2001) and has certifications in facilitation and internal auditing. Ms. Tydings began her teaching career in the 1980s as an instructor at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, and she wishes she had known then what she knows now about adult education. She believes in designing training by focusing on what works rather than how “we have always done it.”

Ms. Tydings lives in rural Texas but works in Houston. She has eight children (four biological and four “step"), nine grandchildren, four Australian Cattle Dogs, and numerous dairy goats and chickens. She enjoys reading, writing, and escaping from the city every week.