Outdoor Sportswire Executive Interview Series – OIA President Kent Ebersole

July 29, 2026

What should today’s outdoor professional know that they may not have been taught on the job? That question sits at the heart of OIA Learning, a new self-paced education library designed to help the industry build knowledge around sustainability, climate action, advocacy, research, and business intelligence.

In this Outdoor Sportswire Executive Interview, OIA President Kent Ebersole explains why OIA created the platform, who it is built for, and how upcoming courses are designed to help outdoor companies turn industry knowledge into action.

How would you describe OIA Learning to someone who is hearing about it for the first time?

OIA Learning is a collection of educational courses built around the topics that matter most to outdoor industry professionals. Each one has real depth and variety across the subjects of sustainability, government affairs, business intelligence, and consumer trends.

The courses are designed to fit into a working professional’s day. Rather than asking someone to clear their calendar for a webinar at a set date and time, OIA Learning lets them learn on their own time and at their own pace by consuming the material whenever it works for them.

What prompted OIA to create OIA Learning, and why is now the right time to expand professional education for the outdoor industry?

Over the years, OIA has built a deep body of content produced by our internal teams and broader network of experts. OIA Learning brings all that work together in one place and turns it into structured, self-paced courses that professionals can complete on their own schedule.

The format is designed to keep people engaged and to present complex material in a clear, digestible way rather than in a multi-page document or a single live session. Now is the right time for this format because the desire for on-demand, flexible education has grown across the industry, and we have the expertise to meet it.

What types of outdoor industry professionals and organizations is the learning library designed to serve?

OIA Learning caters to outdoor industry professionals who want to expand their skillsets and knowledge, whether that’s to advance their own careers or to help their companies do better work. The courses are designed to serve people at every level, from those just entering the industry to directors and senior leaders.

For example, a C-suite executive might take a course to better understand the business value of sustainability, while an early-career professional might take the same course to build their skillset. Each person comes to the material for their own reasons, and OIA Learning is structured to meet them wherever they are on their career journey.

The outdoor industry is navigating sustainability, climate, compliance, policy, product, retail, and market shifts. How does OIA Learning help professionals keep pace with these changes?

It comes down to variety, depth, and timeliness. OIA Learning covers a wide range of topics in detail and keeps the courses updated with the latest information.

Even more, our team is deliberate about what topics warrant a course. OIA Learning focuses on subjects that are substantial and will hold their value over time, while topics that are constantly changing are better suited to other formats, such as briefings or webinars.

That balance lets professionals build durable knowledge through OIA Learning while staying current on rapidly developing topics through OIA’s other resources.

What gaps in industry knowledge or professional development did OIA see that helped shape the learning library?

The biggest gap we saw was flexibility. Professionals want to keep learning, but they want to do so on their own schedule. There was a clear need for self-paced education that is available whenever it fits into someone’s day, around the clock, with the learner choosing when they’re ready to engage.

OIA Learning was created to serve that need and to close the gap between the knowledge people need and the flexibility they require to access it.

How are courses and learning topics selected, and what role do OIA’s sustainability, research, and advocacy teams play in shaping the content?

We started with content in the areas where we have genuine expertise, drawing on our own sustainability, research, and advocacy teams as well as a wider network of subject-matter experts.

We only build courses in areas where we can speak with real authority and where the material will stay relevant. And our internal teams play a central role in that process, helping identify priority topics, shaping the curriculum, and making sure the content reflects accurate, up-to-date information that outdoor industry professionals find valuable.

What makes OIA Learning different from a traditional training platform or general business education resource?

The content is created by people who work in these areas every day, not generalists, and that expertise shines through in the depth of the material. Rather than broad business education, OIA Learning goes deep on the specific topics and challenges outdoor industry professionals want to take on.

It also fills a real need. Much of this content was something professionals were actively asking for and could not find anywhere else, and we deliberately built the courses in our catalog to make it available to them.

Are there any upcoming courses or topic areas that you are especially excited about?

We’re especially excited about two courses at the moment. The first is “From Footprint to Future: Climate Action in the Outdoor Industry,” a new climate course that offers teams practical knowledge that can be immediately applied to your work, providing greater leverage in the global fight to reduce this industry’s negative impact on the environment.

The second is “From Compliance to Competitive Advantage: Chemicals Management in the Outdoor Industry.” While many brands have set goals around chemical management and communicated them to suppliers, far fewer have put real systems in place to act on those commitments. This course is designed to close that gap and drive real change. Both multi-part courses result in a certification of achievement for the student.

What do you hope outdoor professionals take away after engaging with OIA Learning?

We want professionals to learn something in a course and be able to put it to work right away. We hope they can apply their newly acquired knowledge to make better, more informed decisions that benefit the work they do and their organization as a whole. The value of OIA Learning is not just to provide knowledge for its own sake but knowledge that translates directly into action.

How does OIA Learning fit into OIA’s broader mission to support and strengthen the outdoor industry?

Our mission is to help the industry find solutions to the challenges it faces, and OIA Learning is a direct extension of that work. It puts practical, expert knowledge in the hands of professionals, so they’re prepared to act on it when they complete the courses they participate in.

Every course is built around a problem-and-solution structure that map to a real challenge professionals are working through and offers a clear path toward addressing it.

For someone who wants to explore OIA Learning, what is the best first step?

The best first step is to visit the OIA Learning library, browse the available courses, and start with the topic that is most interesting to you. Both members and non-members can explore the catalog and begin learning right away.

Start exploring OIA Learning today

About Kent Ebersole