CAE Credential Bootcamp (Winter 2025)

Association staff studying ahead of the December 1–14, 2025, CAE testing window logged into a single intensive virtual day on November 13. Among them was Devika Anand, membership coordinator at the Alliance of Regional Credit Unions and a 2025 NANA Foundation scholarship recipient, who would go on to pass the exam in that window.

Theo Nakashima-Ward, NANA's Director of Learning and Credentialing, and Jonah Whitcombe, who co-leads NANA's CAE study group and earned his own CAE in 2019, split the day across the exam's six content domains: organizational management, programs and services, finance and operations, membership and marketing, public policy, and leadership strategy.

Each domain got roughly ninety minutes, mixing lecture with timed practice questions pulled from NANA's study bank. Whitcombe was candid about where candidates tend to lose points — public policy and finance, in his experience running the study group for three cycles running.

Nakashima-Ward closed the day with a session on test-day logistics and what to expect in the exam's computer-based format, plus reminders that NANA pre-approves credit hours toward the credential but does not administer the exam itself.

Attendees who registered were also enrolled, at no extra cost, in NANA's ongoing CAE study group, which Whitcombe co-leads with rotating weekly calls through the December window. The group formed after member feedback that a single bootcamp day wasn't enough on its own to prepare for the exam's breadth, and it has since become a fixture attendees mention when asked what made the difference on exam day.

Registration ran $495 for members and $695 for non-members, and included a study guide and two full-length practice exams, both usable ahead of future CAE windows.