Dr. Kendy Vierling is the Special Assistant for Naval Education and the Director of the Naval Education Division at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) (ASN(M&RA)), United States Department of the Navy (DON).  In this role, she assists ASN(M&RA) with oversight of all DON education, including naval education strategy, policy, governance, processes, curricula, and resources.  Her work focuses on learning modernization, including policy, best practices, science, and technologies to improve naval education.  She also serves as the Department of Defense (DoD) lead for the Personalized Assessment, Education, and Training subarea of the DoD Human Systems Community of Interest. 

Dr. Vierling previously served as Deputy Director G-5 at Marine Corps Training and Education Command (TECOM) from 2019-2020, where she led strategy, planning, learning doctrine development, modernization, science and technology (S&T), analysis, and strategic assessment.  She led the development of the Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 7 Learning published in 2020.  From 2017-2019, she served as Special Staff to the Commanding General of TECOM, established the TECOM Future Learning Group, and served as its Director where she led multidisciplinary teams to rapidly assess and introduce new capabilities into training and education programs.  Dr. Vierling led TECOM S&T efforts from 2010-2020 working with the Office of Naval Research, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency 

(DARPA), and other partners developing S&T for accelerated learning, injury prevention, resilience, military performance, assessment, and instructor development.   
Dr. Vierling is a human performance scientist, served as a DARPA Service Chiefs Fellow, is a two-time recipient of the DON Meritorious Civilian Service Award, and was awarded the Department of the Army Public Service Commendation Medal.