Degrees

• MA, Public Policy, University of Chicago, 1998
• PhD, Child Psychology, University of Minnesota, 1998
• MA, Applied Developmental Psychology, University of Toronto, 1992
• BS, Psychology, University of Toronto, 1990

Research Interests

Social influences on emotional and physiological stress and sleep quality in children and adolescents and their parents; effects of stress and sleep on emotional and physical health and academic outcomes.

Degrees

• M.A. Political Science, Stanford University, 2015
• B.S. Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007
• B.S. Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007
• Ph.D. Political Science, Stanford University

Research Interests

 Political communication, identity (race, gender, and intersectionality), political behavior (voting, contact with representatives, etc.) , political attitudes, and measurement of bias.

Degrees

• PhD, Developmental Psychology, The University of Michigan, 1981
• BA, Social Relations, Harvard University, Radcliffe College, 1974

Research Interests

Public policy and child and adolescent development; family functioning; health disparities; consequences of poverty and welfare reform on children and families.

Degrees

• PhD, Education, Stanford University, 2001
• MA, Sociology, Stanford University, 1997
• BA, Philosophy, Oberlin College, 1989

Research Interests

Relationship between instructional policy and teachers' classroom practices in urban schools , Relationship between research and policy

Degrees

• PhD, Stanford University, 2007
• MA, Sociology, MA, East Asian Studies, Stanford University

Research Interests

Organizations and entrepreneurship; institutions and networks; comparing public, private, and non-profit forms of organizing; university-industry interfaces; public and private science.

Degrees

• PhD, Social Welfare Policy, University of Chicago, 1977
• MA, Social Welfare Policy, University of Chicago, 1972
• MA, English Literature, University of North Carolina, 1968
• BA, English, Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi, 1965

Research Interests

The interrelationships between public opinion and social policy; the politics of public policy; the effects of public deliberation on political knowledge and participation; and the dynamics of public support for older Americans.

Degrees

• PhD, Social Psychology, University of Michigan, 2010
• BA, Psychology and Sociology, Northwestern University, 2005

Research Interests

Psychological processes underlying associations between socioeconomic circumstances and behaviors/outcomes, such as academic motivation and achievement; effects of financial assets on goals and behavior; small classroom-based interventions to improve school outcomes for low-income and minority youth.

Degrees

• PhD, Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1995
• MS, Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1992
• BS, Business Economics and Public Policy, George Washington University, 1991

Research Interests

Accountability policy; economics of education; teacher quality; teacher labor markets; anti-poverty policy; intergenerational transmission of human capital; evaluation design.

Degrees

• PhD, Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000
• AB, Economics, Princeton University, 1996

Research Interests

Understanding the sources and consequences of racial inequality and the economics of education.

Degrees

• Postdoc, Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, 2013
• PhD, Psychology, University of Jena, 2007
• Diploma, Psychology, University of Jena, 2003

Research Interests

Life-span development, emotion, motivation, close relationships, psychophysiology

Degrees

• PhD, Mathematical Methods in Educational Research, Stanford University, 1980
• MA, Statistics, Stanford University
• BA, Mathematics, University of California at San Diego

Research Interests

Development and application of statistical methods for the social, medical, and biological sciences; evaluation research.

Degrees

• Postdoctorate, Social Ecology, Stanford University, 1981
• PhD, Psychology, University of Oregon, 1979
• BA, Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, 1971

Research Interests

After-school programs; soft skills and the school-to-work transition; program development, implementation, and evaluation, particularly with respect to positive youth development.

Degrees

Research Interests

Race and ethnicity, gender, sociology of education, criminal records, sociology of youth and childhood, stigma, qualitative research methods.

Degrees

• PhD, Economics, Harvard University, 2007
• AM, Economics, Harvard University, 2005
• BA, Ethics, Politics and Economics, Yale University, 2002

Research Interests

Economics of education, labor economics, public finance, applied econometrics, development.

Degrees

• PhD, History of Consciousness, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1980
• BA, Political Science, Stanford University, 1968

Research Interests

Lewis currently heads a large-scale university consortium to study welfare reform efforts in Illinois. In another current project he is developing a new Suburban Action Research Project that will deliver technical assistance to suburbs struggling with social problems. It will concentrate on issues of homelessness and crime prevention in its initial phase.

Degrees

• MA, French Language and Literature, University of Wisconsin, 1971
• AB, French Language and Literature, University of Michigan, 1970
• PhD, Human Development and Social Policy, Northwestern University, 1993
• MA, Teaching & Learning Processes, Northwestern University, 1984

Research Interests

Stability and change over time in adulthood, especially during midlfe and beyond: wisdom, regret and life themes; gender differences in these areas.

Degrees

• PhD, Economics, Harvard University, 2004
• BA, Economics and Philosophy, Harvard University, 1997

Research Interests

General and vocational education, Technology and child development, Returns to college education

Degrees

• PhD, Psychology and Social Relations, Harvard University, 1979
• BS, Psychology and Humanities, Valparaiso University, 1976

Research Interests

Narrative psychology; the development of a life-story model of human identity; generativity and adult development; themes of power, intimacy, and redemption in human lives; modernity and the self; autobiographical memory; psychological biography.

Degrees

• PhD, Emory, 1999

Research Interests

Human biology, biocultural perspectives on health and human development, medical anthropology and global health, ecological immunology, stress, health disparities, laboratory methods.

Degrees

• PhD, Political Science, Columbia University, 2012
• BA, Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, 2001

Research Interests

Political analysis; policy development and implementation; political institutions (law and courts, regulatory agencies, Congress); civil rights, environmental, and education policy; relationship between state and society/public and private; and American political development.

Degrees

• Ph.D. Political Science and Methodology , Northwestern University , 2016
• M.A. Political Science, Northwestern University , 2013
• BA Political Science and Public Policy, The George Washington University, 2011

Research Interests

Professor Nuamah’s research sits at the intersections of race, gender, education policy, and political behavior. In particular, she uses quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the political consequences of public policies across the United States as well as in Ghana and South Africa.

Her dissertation, and recently completed book manuscript, examines the political effects of mass public school closure on low-income African Americans. Professor Nuamah’s first book, How Girls Achieve (2019), looks across race and gender and illuminates the unequal costs—school closure, sexual harassment, punishment—that poor black girls in the United States, Ghana and South Africa bear while striving to achieve. It then investigates the specific role of schools to combat these abuses and act as conduits of democratic equity.

Professor Nuamah’s newest research seeks to build on this work by investigating the impacts of black women and girls’ disproportionate experiences with punishment on their participation in American democracy.

In the future, she plans to expand this investigation to Ghana and South Africa as well. Her work has been published in academic journals including the American Education Research Journal, the Journal of Urban Affairs and the Urban Affairs Review, and has been featured in popular media including the Washington Post, Salon.com and TEDx. For this work, she was recently awarded the prestigious Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, named a Susan Clarke Young Scholar AND Clarence Stone Scholar from the Urban Politic Section of the American Political Science Association.

Degrees

• PhD, Princeton University, 2008
• BA, Dartmouth College, 2001

Research Interests

Changes and variations in families; demography; economic inequality; access to health care resources; parental employment patterns

Degrees

• MA, Psychological Studies in Education, Stanford University, 1976
• PhD, Psychological Studies in Education, Stanford University, 1976
• BS, Psychology and Philosophy, Iowa State University, 1971

Research Interests

Learning and teaching in schools and classrooms, particularly in literacy and mathematics; student and teacher learning in reform contexts; relations among educational research, policy and practice.

Degrees

• Postdoc, Psychology, Stanford University, 2018
• PhD, Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016
• MS, Statistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2013
• MA, Psychology, New York University, 2010
• BS, Psychology, Fudan University, 2008

Research Interests

Psychological and neural mechanisms underlying cultural differences in adolescents’ academic, social, and emotional development; role of parents in adolescents’ beliefs and brain development, with implications for learning and psychological adjustment.

Degrees

• PhD, Developmental Psychology, New York University, 2012
• BA, Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2004

Research Interests

Identity development among children and adolescents in sociocultural contexts; intersectionality and multiple identities; psychosocial and academic development among racially/ethnically diverse youth

Lab website:

D.I.C.E  (Development of Identities in Cultural Environments)

Degrees

• PhD, Sociology, Harvard University, 1973
• MA, Sociology, Harvard University, 1968
• BA, Culture and Behavior, Yale University, 1966

Research Interests

High schools, community colleges, youth transitions to work and adulthood. School and college reform and restructuring. Sociology of education.

Degrees

• PhD, Applied Development Science, University of Virginia, 2011
• BA, Psychology and English, University of Michigan, 2004

Research Interests

Individual and environmental factors that lead to healthy child development.

Degrees

• PhD, Economics, Princeton University, 2002
• MA, Economics, Princeton University, 1999
• AB, Economics and Religion, Wellesley College, 1995

Research Interests

Early childhood education; accountability policy; economics of education; obesity; anti-poverty policy; education and health.

Degrees

• PhD, Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1979
• MA, Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1976
• BS, Economics, Hofstra University, 1975

Research Interests

Economics of higher education, with particular interest in the area of college financing and affordability and on trends in educational costs and student aid.

Degrees

Degrees

• PhD, Yale University, 1979

Research Interests

Statistics and public policy with a special focus on the design and evaluation of large-scale statistical data programs.

Degrees

• PhD, Curriculum, Teaching and Education Policy, Michigan State University, 1993
• BA, Education and Geography, St. Patrick's College, National University of Ireland, 1984

Research Interests

Policy implementation; educational policy; organizational change; school leadership; relations between policy and teachers' and administrators' practice.

Degrees

• PhD, Northwestern University, 1975

Research Interests

Epidemiologic studies of psychiatric disorders, juvenile justice, drug abuse, public health policy, HIV/AIDS risk behaviors, correlates of violence (victimization and perpetration).

Degrees

• PhD, Psychology, University of Chicago, 1992
• MA, Social Work, University of Chicago, 1983
• BA, Psychology, Barnard College, 1980

Research Interests

Translational approaches to elucidating mechanisms and phenomenology of early emerging disruptive behavior.

Degrees

• Postdoc, Developmental Psychology, University of Kansas
• MA, Mass Communication, University of Minnesota
• BA, Communication, University of Pittsburgh
• PhD, Mass Communication, University of Minnesota

Research Interests

Effects of media on children and adolescents, impact of food marketing in the childhood obesity crisis.

Michelle Albaugh is a highly regarded leadership and effectiveness coach. She joined the MSLOC faculty in September, 2015, after she earned her PhD in Human Development & Social Policy, from the School of Education and Social Policy here at Northwestern. She received a bachelor’s degree in music, magna cum laude, from DePaul...

Masha Alexander is a senior consultant specializing in organizational change, culture and employee engagement at the University of Chicago Medicine. In this role, she is responsible for improving how the healthcare system approaches large change initiatives and the employee experience.

Prior to joining UChicago Medicine, Masha founded and led Social Good, a four-person consultancy focused on transformational projects for visionary nonprofits. Clients included the Millennium Reserve, the Illinois Library Association, the Chicago Dance Festival, and Northwestern University Center for Public Safety among others. She began her consulting career as a project manager and strategist at Lipman Hearne, a full-service marketing agency focused on the nonprofit and government sector.

Masha received an MS in Learning and Organizational Change and a BA American History from Northwestern University. She was a member of the inaugural cohort of Northwestern’s Designing for Organizational Effectiveness Certificate Program.

Kim Bayma is a senior Customer Success leader at LinkedIn. She's spent over six years helping LinkedIn Talent Solutions build and evolve their methodology to ensure customers achieve their desired outcomes while using LinkedIn's products and services. Kim leverages design thinking, learning, and strategic change to help LinkedIn's customers drive global change and adoption of new technologies and processes. She currently leads a global team of Customer Success Managers and Analysts who consult the world's largest companies on their talent strategy. Kim also leads multiple go-to-market cross-functional projects and helped develop LinkedIn's Customer Maturity Index.

Prior to working at LinkedIn, Kim spent seven years at Towers Watson and Aon Hewitt consulting organizations on their employee engagement, culture, total rewards, and performance management strategies. Early in her career, Kim worked in Talent Acquisition at Accenture.

Kim earned her BS in Business Administration and Marketing at the Louisiana Scholars' College at Northwestern University and her MS in Learning and Organizational Change from School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern.

Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimbayma/

Dorie Ellzey Blesoff currently serves as Chief People Officer for Relativity, a rapidly-growing e-discovery software development company based in Chicago. Before she began this lap in her career track, Dorie ran her own independent consulting practice that focused on developing leaders and designing and implementing sustainable strategic and culture change. In that capacity, she worked primarily with family-owned businesses, non-profits and healthcare organizations. Prior to that her work as an internal HR/OD professional in healthcare, manufacturing and professional services enabled her to hone in on her areas of most passion: learning and change!

Dorie utilizes practical approaches and tools to help leaders imagine and create desired change in their organizations. Through partnering with key stakeholders she has helped to design and serve as faculty for middle management and executive leadership development programs. She has also established corporate universities in companies of varying size in multiple industries. She facilitates a variety of participatory processes that embody her watchword phrase, “people are more committed to what they help to create.” Examples include: appreciative inquiry, scenario planning, and world café dialogues.

In her current role as a strategic HR leader, she contributes to the evolution of a healthy culture in an organization growing from start-up to mid-size. Her oversight includes ensuring values are weighed equally with technical talent and encouraging learning and continuous improvement throughout the employment life cycle. With an HR vision to promote a “happy, healthy and engaged workplace community,” she finds many opportunities to connect MSLOC topics and colleagues to help with the learning curves.

Dorie has served as Adjunct Faculty in the School of Education and Social Policy’s Learning & Organizational Change curriculum since 1996. In addition to MSLOC 441, she teaches a course at the undergraduate level, “Learning Organizations for Complex Environments.”

Dorie’s academic background includes a Masters in Organization Development from Loyola University, Chicago, and an undergraduate degree in Political Science and Religion from American University.

Personal website

Katerina Bohle Carbonell earned her Master degree (Cum Laude) in Management of Learning from Maastricht University, Netherlands (2009), where she also completed her interdisciplinary PhD in a Organizational Behavior and Education (2016). She teaches online and face-to-face for numerous years at Maastricht University and conducts research on innovative learning environments, and knowledge sharing networks. Her main research interests are team, innovation,and social network analysis. She was a 2016 Experimental Teaching and Learning Analytics Fellow at Northwestern, and finalist for the Universidad Madrid- Accenture Award (2011) and the Wharton People Analytics Conference Case Competition (2016). She has provided workshops on "Networks for Personal and Organizational Learning" for organizations and professionals. She maintains the website of the Network for Learning group (networkforlearning.wordpress.com) in addition to her personal blog (www.katerinabc.com)

Ahmmad Brown is a diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) scholar-practitioner with more than a decade of experience developing and implementing structures and processes that support equity and inclusion in organizational settings.

Ahmmad is currently a doctoral candidate in the Organizational Behavior program jointly offered by Harvard Business School and Harvard's department of sociology. His dissertation draws on the social capital literature to examine Black students' social experiences and feelings of belonging in predominantly white institutions. 

As a practitioner, Ahmmad is the co-founder and executive director of EBDI Consulting. Through EBDI, Ahmmad works with organizations across industries to conduct equity assessments, provide strategic support for the development and implementation of equity and inclusion initiatives, and promote intergroup dialogue. As a senior advisor at Working IDEAL, Ahmmad conducts qualitative and qualitative research for organizations to support their strategic DEIJ efforts. Prior to his current work, Ahmmad worked in social sector consulting and college admission.

Ahmmad holds an M.B.A. and M.A in Education from Stanford University, and a B.A. in Sociology & Anthropology and Japanese from Swarthmore College.

Cecelia Burokas is an independent consultant whose company, Working with Groups at Work, specializes in strategic planning, change management, coaching, and nonprofit board development. Prior work includes Consulting Practice Leader for the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, consultant with Hewitt Associates' Organizational Effectiveness global practice, and Vice President, Learning and Development with Talman Home Federal Savings. She is currently a certified career coach with The Five O’Clock Club, a national outplacement and coaching firm.

In addition to teaching and coaching in the MSLOC program, she currently leads undergraduate classes in Organizational Change. She holds an AB degree from Vassar College and an MAT from Reed College. She also completed the one-year program and practicum in Client-Centered Counseling at the Chicago Counseling and Psychotherapy Center. More recently she has studied at the University of Minnesota Split Rock Arts Program and Lill Street Art Center in Chicago.

She has served on a number of not-for-profit boards including Community TV Network, serving Chicago’s most at-risk youth by teaching video production and workplace skills through hand-on experiences, and Gang of Toes, a dance ensemble (of which she is a member) that performs interactive programs for nursing home residents. She loves/hates the Cubs, learns every day about group dynamics and conflict resolution from her adopted parrots, and designs and makes one-of-a-kind jewelry that she exhibits locally and online.

Kourtney Cockrell is the Founding Director of Student Enrichment Services at Northwestern University, an office that works with students coming from first-generation, lower-income, and/or undocumented backgrounds. Kourtney has spent 20 years working with organizations to increase access and opportunity for marginalized students and young professionals across higher education and the nonprofit and private sectors. Kourtney recently co-founded the FGLI Consortium, a national organization, providing leadership, expertise, and resources around the experience of first-generation and/or lower-income college students at highly selective universities and colleges. Kourtney has also provided consulting services with Johns Hopkins University and Washington University in St. Louis.

Prior to working with Student Enrichment Services, Kourtney worked with The Posse Foundation as the National Director of Career and Alumni Programs, served as an Admissions Officer with the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and acted as National Diversity Recruiting Manager with McMaster-Carr. Kourtney has expertise in college access, social justice education, organizational change, nonprofit management, and talent management.

Kourtney earned her BA in African-American Studies and Sociology at the University of Michigan and her MS in Learning and Organizational Change from the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern.

Bob is an executive coach and member of EY's Americas Coaching Practice (ACP). He has 20+ years of executive coaching, consulting and HR experience across multiple industries and in 10+ countries. Previously he was a vice president with Ernst & Young Application Services prior to its acquisition by Cap Gemini. Bob has a BA in Psychology, an MS in Industrial Relations and an MS in Organization Development from Loyola University Chicago. He received his coaching training from the Hudson Institute of Coaching, a certified professional coaching school. Bob is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coach Federation, the global organization that certifies the training and capabilities of professional coaches.

Bob has coached leaders and teams in large organizations in the consumer goods, health care and financial services industries, including the C-Suite level and those reporting to the C-Suite. The range of coaching assignments has included individual development, team alignment and performance, and onboarding/transition coaching. Additionally, Bob has conducted individual development coaching for people of color who are leaders in large organizations.

Samir Desai is the Vice President of Talent Management and Organization Development for NorthShore University Health System. In this role, he is responsible for developing the skills and capabilities of NorthShore team members - physicians, nurses, other clinical and administrative staff. His goal is to create health care teams who can better lead and care for themselves, so that they can better care for patients.

His team, as part of Human Resources, drives this through leadership development, engagement, wellbeing, high impact learning programs, and performance management.

Prior to this, Samir led Learning and Organization Development for Northwestern University. In this role, he led the architecture of a leadership development curricula at all levels, the first ever staff engagement survey, reinvented performance management to be simpler and stronger, implemented digital learning through a new LMS and online learning capabilities, and led diversity and inclusion efforts including a comprehensive curricula to drive more inclusive teams.

Before joining Northwestern, he was the Managing Director for Talent Development at Accenture, responsible for the onboarding, learning, performance management, and career development of over 300K employees worldwide. This capped a career journey that spanned systems consulting, project management, learning design and development, technology-enabled learning, learning and leadership development, and talent management. He is the co-author of Return on Learning, Accenture's re-invention of learning aligned with their business strategy.

Samir has a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He has a Master's Degree in Computer Science from Northwestern University, which was a cross-discipline program with cognitive science and education, working at the forefront of using artificial intelligence for adult learning.

Nicole Dessain is a talent management and HR "nerd". She loves to blow up long-held beliefs that stop us from preparing our organizations for the future of work. She feels lucky to have had an amazing corporate HR and consulting career that she recently turned into her own start-up, talent.imperative inc, a talent experience design consultancy. Her second, not-for-profit business, DisruptHR Chicago, was launched in 2016 and has inspired more than 1,000 HR and business leaders in the Chicago area. Nicole is honored to serve as an IDEO U coach and as talent and culture blogger for HuffPost. View Adobe Acrobat PDF file

Eric Doctors is the SVP of Learning and Organizational Development at Leo Burnett and Publicis Communications, North America. His career includes 22 years at Towers Perrin as a consulting pension actuary and head of the Retirement Practice's learning and development function where he provided consulting services to organizations in a wide range of industries (healthcare, manufacturing, consumer goods, financial services, and pharmaceuticals) and pioneered a talent system to develop consulting actuaries. He also has had stints at Wyatt, Abbott, Abbvie and as an independent consultant in a number of people and organizational development roles with both US and global reach.

In his current role at Leo Burnett, he is architecting and driving efforts to implement an employee-centric talent system that empowers employees to be designers of their careers, equip them with the tools and resources they need and invite them to co-create their learning activities and experiences. The broad portfolio of programs and a highly experimental approach is ever evolving and spans everything from Leo Leaps, a 60-day passion learning project experience

In addition to Eric’s professional pursuits, he is a ceramic artist, who has exhibited nationally, founded and owned Chi Healing Center, a multi-disciplinary healing arts, learning center and art gallery, and has served on the boards of local not-for-profits, Architreasures and Literature For All Of Us.

Mindy Douthit brings both professional and academic expertise in the areas of organizational development and change and social network analysis.  She spent several years with Anderson Consulting working in the areas of organization analysis and design, human-computer interaction, and training design and...

Marina is a seasoned professional and has experience in a wide variety of areas including: leadership development, change management, performance management strategy, and talent management. She has enhanced the effectiveness of organizations and their people by driving the execution and delivery of leadership assessments, designing and facilitating strategic planning meetings, crafting competency models to improve employee development, and developing change management strategies for organizations in transition. Marina has held a series of corporate management and consulting positions at several professional service firms and Fortune 500 companies including Talent Management Manager at the Port Authority of NY & NJ, Director of Learning & Organizational Development at IFF and People & Change Consultant at PwC. She currently serves as a lecturer at Teachers College, Columbia University and as an advisor at Northwestern University. She holds a Ph.D. in Social-Organizational Psychology from Columbia University and is a DDI Certified Facilitator.

Eric Fridman, principal of Fridman Associates LLC, has spent the better part of his 30-year professional career as a marketing, communications, and strategy executive helping high-technology companies and universities tell their stories of who they are, what they do, how they’re different, and why that matters. He now teaches, consults, and maintains an executive coaching practice, supporting individuals and organizations who want to develop skills and behaviors that will make them more successful and their work more fulfilling and meaningful.

For 15 years Fridman held senior leadership positions at Northwestern University, including assistant dean of marketing and communications for the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, managing director of marketing and communications for the Kellogg School of Management, and assistant dean of marketing for the Kellogg School’s executive education and executive MBA programs. Prior to his years at Northwestern, Fridman spent 20 years working for telecommunications and computer networking companies in a variety of sales, marketing, and strategic planning roles. He graduated from Denison University with a major in European history, earned a master’s degree in humanities from the University of Chicago, and received his MBA degree from the Kellogg School of Management. He has taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses at Northwestern and DePaul universities in leadership development, leading high-impact teams, organizational change. Currently, Fridman co-teaches two courses in the MSLOC program: “Accelerating Learning and Performance” and “Building Transformative Client Relationships.” He also serves as an MSLOC ILP coach and supports the Kellogg School’s Executive MBA program as a leadership coach and team facilitator.

A graduate of the inaugural cohort of MSLOC’s Organizational and Leadership Coaching Certification program, Fridman is a passionate student of how adults learn, grow, and build expertise, as well as how models of organization and leadership development evolve in response to shifting organizational priorities and market realities. He has extensive experience in marketing strategy and implementation, executive communications, institutional branding, electronic and social media, business development, team building, strategic planning, and executive coaching.

Fridman serves as president of The Chasing Hope Foundation, an advocate for supportive housing that provides safe and structured living space for children who are suffering from mental illness and are enrolled in therapeutic day schools. He is also on the advisory board of id8TE, a startup that provides research and education mapping wisdom practices to the real-world transformation of business leadership, innovation, communication, engagement, and productivity. Fridman volunteers as a coach with One Million Degrees, an organization that empowers low-income, highly-motivated community college students to succeed in school, in work, and in life. He is married with two adult children and lives in Glenview, Illinois.

Jennifer Green is artistic director at the nationally acclaimed Piven Theatre Workshop, where she was previously director of educational programming and a senior faculty member for the past 20 years. Jennifer has been actively engaged in the Chicago community as a director and teacher working in arts consulting and curriculum development. She was selected as a participant in the Theatre Communication Group’s Leaders of Tomorrow Fellowship and has regularly contributed to Piven Theatre’s professional production season and Performance Lab series.

Nancy is the Founder and CEO of Restart Consulting.

Restart helps organizations develop inclusive cultures and leaders. We are passionate about disrupting systems in the workplace that have held back women and people of color.

Our approach to change focuses on creating structures that embed diversity into every fiber of an organization and coaching leaders to serve as catalysts for change.

Restart is privileged to work with clients like Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago School for Performing Arts, The Catherine Cook School, ADA Advancing Leadership 2025, Heartland Alliance, and 3M, and John Deere.

Nancy considers herself a “people geek” and is fascinated by how people respond (or not) to change. She is the host of The Intersection podcast and a facilitator at Northwestern's Kellogg Executive Education. When she’s not coaching and consulting clients you can find her dining with family and friends, walking along the lakefront with Tito (her Havanese puppy), or practicing yoga…Namaste.

Irene Hayes is an organizational change professional focused on helping companies meet the challenge of complex operational and organizational change with a focus on significant technology implementations, policy and process transformations, and restructuring. Her clients include financial institutions, energy utilities, and consulting firms.

In addition to her consulting practice, Irene teaches in the MSLOC program. She is a member of the Advisory Council for the College of Education at DePaul University, president of the Lincoln Park Boat Club, and a member of the marketing committee of Open Books, a not-for-profit to supporting literacy in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Irene earned her BA in History at the Loyola University and her MS in Learning and Organizational Change from the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern.

Erica Kalata is an independent consultant in the Human Resource Development field with more than 15 years of experience. She was previously a manager with Deloitte Consulting in its Human Capital group specializing in organizational effectiveness and change management. She has extensive experience in evaluation, strategic planning, performance improvement, team building, organization design and leadership development. Erica has worked with several Fortune 500 companies including Hewlett Packard, the Walgreen Company, Supervalu, Humana Healthcare, and Quaker Oats. She has also worked across many industries including manufacturing, high tech, retail, utilities, insurance and public sector. Recently, she redesigned and taught an online Organization Development course for the University of Illinois and has been a mentor for students in their online master's capstone course for many years. She also led the design, implementation and evaluation of a Deloitte training program that resulted in significant return on investment.

Erica received a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in Human Resource Development with a concentration in Evaluation and Training. She also earned her BS in Industrial Organizational Psychology and her MEd in Human Resource Development from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Erica’s in-depth research on the relationship between business strategy and human resource development in high performance companies earned her several awards and international recognition from the American Society for Training and Development and the Academy of Human Resource Development.

Sonya Kaleel is a leadership coach/facilitator, inclusion practitioner and change leader with nearly 30 years in learning and talent development. She supports organizations around the globe in capacity building to cultivate inclusive environments, lead transformational change and develop as global leaders. Her expertise is leading initiatives and facilitating conversations that foster awareness and bridge differences across diverse styles and beliefs so we can work together, better

As the founder and principal of The Inclusion Practice, she develops experiential learning practices and self-guided tools that enable individuals and teams to create the equitable and inclusive workplaces they hope to see. As a leadership coach/facilitator for The Holdsworth Center, she supports Texas public school leaders in an immersive action learning program designed to transform public schools through capacity building at the individual, team and system level and achieve sustainable growth, excellence and equity in schools. As a Mentor and adjunct faculty member for Northwestern MSLOC’s Leading Equity and Inclusion certificate, she supports graduate students in developing an understanding of how individual identities and institutional/structural inequities impact experiences in organizations.

Prior to launching her own practice, she was the director of learning and delivery at Aperian Global, where she designed learning experiences that meet an organizations' needs for global consistency, local customizations and delivery across geographies. As a seasoned coach and facilitator, she engaged hundreds of leaders in Fortune 500 companies on topics such as inclusion, equity and diversity; inclusive leadership; global teaming; cultural proficiency; and people management.

She is active in her community serving on the board of the Austin Council PTA (ACPTA) which serves as a link between Austin Independent School District (AISD) and parent members of PTAs, teachers and the community. In her volunteer role as Advocacy Chair, she aspires to create a culture of advocacy in Austin public schools by collaborating with community leaders, engaging with legislators and enabling families to be a voice for all children within the public education system.

Sonya holds a Master of Science in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (2018) and a Bachelor of Science in Communications from Bradley University (1987). She has lived in five countries on four continents, traveled to over 30 countries and resides in Austin, Texas with her multiracial family. She aspires for a world of inclusion, participation and belonging and is committed to cultivating sustainable communities in Austin and beyond.

Sujata brings over twenty years of nonprofit experience to enhance the impact of philanthropy – foundations, donors and social change organizations. She has managed nonprofit organizations, led a community foundation and advised others in strategic planning, grantmaking, evaluation and research.

She has expertise is organizational development, fundraising, and team building, bringing extensive experience in turning around organizations with deficits to building reserves; improving employee retention; and establishing organizations as thought leaders in their fields.

She currently serves as a senior fellow with pfc social impact advisors, a global social investment consultancy where she is working on research and strategy impacting people living in poverty, community resilience in the face of climate change among other issues. She is gaining experience in impact investing, particularly on understanding social impact, addressing wicked problems with deliberate leadership.

Most recently, Sujata served as president and CEO of Chicago Foundation for Women from 2011-2019, a grantmaking organization focused on basic rights and equal opportunities for women and girls in the greater Chicago area. She worked closely with the board to advance racial and gender equity both internally and externally. Sujata led the foundation through double digit growth, managing a strategic alliance with the former Eleanor Foundation in 2012. She was instrumental in realigning a majority of the foundation’s assets with its mission.

Sujata has worked at several notable nonprofit agencies in Chicago: director of programs for the Eleanor Foundation, executive director of Apna Ghar, director of Chicago Continuum of Care (now Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness), and director of planning and development at Interfaith Housing Development Corporation.

Before joining the nonprofit sector, Sujata received her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University, received an MBA from IIT, and studied engineering in her native India.

She has previously served at the Chair of the Women’s Funding Network and the Asset Funders Network as well as on the boards of several nonprofits and public foundations.

You can find details of her experience at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ksujata/.

Degrees

• PhD, Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University
• MBA, IIT

Roma Khanna specializes in the design and implementation of large-scale transformations across multiple organizational contexts. In her current role, Roma serves as a director in Northwestern’s Office of Change Management, whose mission includes a focus on advancing a culture of organizational change and improvement across the University and on facilitating transformative changes that have broad institutional impact.

Prior to joining Northwestern in 2016, Roma worked at Deloitte Consulting where she specialized in advising executives on organizational strategies designed to enable business strategies across numerous industries, including extensive experience with large-scale transformations for healthcare providers. Before becoming a management consultant, Roma worked as a journalist at a number of newspapers and magazines including the Houston Chronicle, Chicago magazine, and Mother Jones. Roma served primarily as an investigative journalist focused on criminal justice and government affairs, and her reported effected change in local and state government.

Roma is a dual graduate of Northwestern, with a bachelor's degree in journalism and a Master of Science degree in Learning and Organizational Change.

Building on two decades as a consultant and chief of staff focused on transforming organizations, Diane now partners with change leaders as an Associate Director in Northwestern's MS in Learning and Organizational Change (MSLOC) graduate program. As an advisor, instructor, team leader, and coach, Diane drives people-centered outcomes by using her skills and experience in talent and workforce development, enterprise strategy, program design, partnership creation, and impact measurement. Diane currently co-teaches two courses in MSLOC’s Leading Equity and Inclusion in Organizations Certificate: Leading Global Change and Developing for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice.   

Prior to joining MSLOC, Diane worked both inside organizations and as an external advisor, counseling more than 100 organizations and corporations on organizational strategy, performance measurement, and fundraising partnership creation. Her past roles include consulting with private, public, and social sector organizations, as well as executive leadership experiences ranging from directing a nonprofit’s regional expansion to merging multi-country, multidisciplinary consulting teams.  

Diane earned both her graduate (MSLOC) and undergraduate degrees at Northwestern. Diane is an active volunteer and supporter of Springboard to Success, Chicago Women in Philanthropy, and the Chicago Foundation for Women South Side Giving Circle. Diane is also a member of Northwestern University’s Council of One Hundred.  

Degrees

• BA, English, Northwestern University
• MS, Learning & Organizational Change, Northwestern University, 2016

Judah Kurtz is a trusted advisor, coach, facilitator, strategist, and consultant, who is passionate about driving transformative growth and sustainable change. With a career spanning over 25 years, he has partnered with a broad array of individuals, senior leadership teams, and organizations around the globe seeking clarity of focus, forward...

Maggie Lewis is a member of the leadership team at Palantir.net , a digital consultancy, and a graduate of the MS Learning & Organizational Program at Northwestern University. Combining theory and practice, Maggie employs principles of design thinking, learning and strategic change to increase organizational effectiveness.

Esther Liu is a senior researcher at Gartner, where she leads survey design and quantitative data analyses. Prior to this role, she served as a researcher at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (now Shirley Ryan AbilityLab) and a professor of communication at Wheaton College and taught courses in negotiation, intercultural communication, conflict management, and research methods. >Esther holds a PhD in Communication Studies from Northwestern University, a MA in Communication Studies from Northwestern University, and a BA in Psychology and Communication Studies from Northwestern University.

Pi Wen plays in the intersection of strategy, research, and design. She is passionate about design thinking and human-centered service design. As an experienced consultant, she has helped clients turned employee insight into action, facilitated action-planning workshops, and provided guidance to leaders for successful organizational changes.

Currently, Pi Wen is a manager at Ernst & Young’s People Advisory Practice in New York. She uses a lean six-sigma and design thinking methodology to help clients find innovative solutions, improve efficiency, and business results.

Prior to EY, Pi Wen was the founder and president of Novacrea Research Consulting, a boutique consulting firm specialized in employee engagement surveys and action planning. She was named one of the most important voices in employee engagement by TechnologyAdvice and the head judge of the first-ever employee experience Hackathon in San Francisco.

Bruce McBratney is the founder and President of McBratney Consulting, Ltd., a firm that develops executives into the leaders they want to become, and that their organizations need them to be.

Bruce is an active member of the Duke Corporate Education’s Global Learning Resource Network, and consistently receives high marks as an educator, orchestrator, and coach. He has worked with more than 17 client companies, in more than 35 distinct programs, and delivered in North and South America, Asia, and Europe. Client companies include Fidelity Investments, Sun Life Financial, The Nature Conservancy, Altera, PwC, Norwegian Shipowners Association, and Microsoft. His areas of expertise include strategic thinking, organization design, leadership communication and collaboration. Bruce is the co-author of “How Leaders of Multi-business Groups Can Add Value,” published in Strategy & Leadership.

In his coaching practice he works with leaders from the Director level on up through the C-suite. He helps clients develop critical leadership behaviors. He also helps recently promoted clients understand the expectations of their new roles, and reduce the time it takes for them to be fully effective. His clients include executives at several global pharmaceutical companies, a global player in industrial distribution, a leading global executive search firm, a leading global advertising agency, a global packaged foods company, and one of the largest retailers in the US.

Before starting his own firm in 2000, Bruce was the Vice President for Management & Organization Development at RR Donnelley & Sons, one of the world’s largest printing and media services companies. Bruce was responsible for succession planning, executive search, management development, sales training, performance management, and executive team effectiveness. He worked closely with three executive teams – the CEO’s, the COO’s, and the SVP of Manufacturing’s – facilitating their work in developing strategy, rationalizing corporate initiatives, and building the change plan for introducing six sigma.

Prior to that, with Amoco Corporation, he developed and taught case discussions, simulations, and lectures on strategic thinking and building organizational capabilities, for the top 3,300 executives and managers of the corporation, as a member of a ground-breaking executive education faculty team that built Amoco’s executive development center from the ground up.

Also at Amoco, as a director of Amoco’s internal consulting firm, he lead a team of consultants and developed and delivered high impact organization effectiveness consulting projects ranging from business process redesign to leadership team alignment and coaching, for the Marketing, Refining, and Logistics sectors of the company.

Earlier in his career, as a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group, he provided research, analysis, and facilitated decision-making for clients setting marketing strategy, assessing acquisition targets, and integrating acquired operations. With The Forum Corporation, a leading provider of management and sales training, Bruce developed new products, built new client relationships as an account executive, and managed large custom projects.

Renetta McCann is one of the leading innovators and most influential executives in the advertising industry, with a global reputation for not only building brands, but also the organizations and leadership to sustain them.

As Chief Talent Officer at Leo Burnett, she heads up the agency’s People & Culture department. She plays a key role in ensuring that the company retains, attracts and arms the best and brightest minds in business today, with oversight of the agency's U.S. recruitment, training, benefits and talent management.

Renetta is no stranger to the Publicis family. She began her career at Burnett, and, after a long tenure, became the CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group Worldwide. After two years as CEO, she assumed the role of Chief Talent Officer of VivaKi. Renetta then took a break from agency life and worked as an executive coach and organizational change consultant before rejoining Leo Burnett in 2012.

Since her return, Renetta has worked tirelessly on organizational transformations, including shifting the agency’s talent focus to leadership development. She builds innovative partnerships for the future, constantly on the hunt for opportunities that promote learning and development for employees. Renetta isn’t afraid to try out new models for employee engagement or test new programs to enhance success. She believes that these efforts broaden perspectives and promote creativity.

Renetta also works to elevate the impact and reach of the agency’s employee resource groups, including Women’s Leadership Network, MERG (our multicultural ERG) and ParentKind (a group for mothers and fathers). She believes that building community into the company and fostering employees’ diverse interests brings people together in new ways and helps them solve problems.

A champion for women and for the development of minorities in the advertising industry, Renetta dedicates her time outside the office to organizations like Viva Women, the Publicis Groupe internal women’s network, and No.2six6, an organization launched in 2013 to advance the hiring rate of minorities in advertising.

Over the course of her career, Renetta has been a frequent name in the press. She was named one of the “100 Most Powerful Women” by Forbes and a woman to watch by both Fortune and The Wall Street Journal. She was awarded the title “Corporate Executive of the Year” by Black Enterprise magazine and was selected by Ebony as one of the “57 Most Intriguing Blacks.” Essence named her one of “50 Women Who are Changing the World,” and she has appeared on the pages of Advertising Age, BusinessWeek and Chicago magazine. The American Advertising Federation honored her with a Diversity Achievement Award for her contributions as an Industry Influential, and she’s the recipient of the 4A’s Pantheon award.

Renetta holds an M.S. in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University, where she will begin as an adjunct faculty member in 2016.

She lives in Chicago with her husband Kevin and is the proud mother of Ella and Alexander. She serves as an Honorary Trustee for The Ancona School and in her spare time enjoys golf, knitting, bridge, Legos, reading in all genres and yoga.

Jeff Merrell is Instructor, MS in Learning and Organizational Change Program, after having served as Associate Director and Instructor from 2008 – 2021. As Associate Director, Jeff led the program’s educational technology strategy and designed courses and programs to support a hybrid (remote/in-person) learning environment. Jeff was both a consultant and corporate leader prior to joining MSLOC, focusing on the impact of new technologies and practices on organizational learning, knowledge management and collaboration.

He teaches MSLOC 430 Creating and Sharing Knowledge and co-leads instruction for the Designing for Organizational Effectiveness Certificate. He also teaches in the Design and Change curriculum of the Executive Learning and Organizational Change Program.

Personal website: https://jeffdmerrell.com/

Marina Micari is Director of Academic Support & Learning Advancement at Northwestern, and a Capstone advisor in MSLOC. She is also an associate director at the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching. Marina oversees academic-support and enrichment programming for undergraduates and works with faculty who seek to improve teaching and learning. Her recent research projects address the experiences of less-prepared students in small-group learning environments and the impact of faculty engagement with students. Outside of academia, she spent nearly 10 years as a writer and editor, working in adult education as well as employee communications and workforce diversity. She has taught courses on learning in the organization, facilitating small-group learning, cross-cultural communication, multicultural education, educational research methods, and program evaluation.

Cassandra Mitchell uses her executive coaching and organizational consulting skills to develop great leaders and teams. She has more than 20 years of experience in helping clients achieve their business goals by delivering a range of services from one-to-one leadership coaching to large-scale organizational design.

Cassandra has provided executive coaching, needs assessment, leadership development, program design and development for educational institutions, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and CPG. Her coaching and development work has helped leaders and teams at Astellas, Aurora Health Care, Baxter International, Kraft Foods, Classic Residence by Hyatt, Charter Manufacturing, ITW, Scot Forge, Scholle IPN, University of Chicago. US Foods and Zurich Financial.

Cassandra is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University. She teaches Coaching for Learning and Performance and Coaching Fieldwork for the Master’s program in Learning and Organizational Change. In addition, she is adjunct coaching faculty for the Kellogg School of Management.

Prior to consulting, Cassandra worked for Bank One, the sixth largest bank-holding company in the U.S. with over 75,000 employees. During her 14-year tenure at Bank One, she held a variety of positions including assignments in the Commercial Banking and Credit Card Divisions. As first vice president and national learning design manager, she oversaw a team of instructional and web-based designers responsible for management, leadership, and professional development curricula based on leadership competencies and organizational business goals. Prior to Bank One, Cassandra worked in training and organizational development at Loyola University and Medical Center, impacting employee and student development.

Ngoc Nguyen is a Diversity & Inclusion Program Manager at Wintrust Financial Corporation, a $30 billion enterprise of chartered community banks and other specialty financial services. In this role, she focuses on executing the One Wintrust Diversity & Inclusion Roadmap by developing and managing programs in partnership with internal stakeholders from across the organization. Ngoc is committed and passionate about creating an inclusive environment where employees can feel happy, engaged and empowered in the workplace.

Prior to this role, she spent 11 years in commercial insurance property and casualty sales, underwriting and operations at Travelers and CNA Insurance . Ngoc holds a Masters in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University and Bachelor of Science in Finance and minor in Asian American Studies from the University of Minnesota. She has also completed the Organizational and Leadership Coaching Certificate at Northwestern.

Kathleen O’Connor is an independent consultant specializing in the identification and development of leadership talent. She has more than 20 years' experience in corporate education and organizational change as an external consultant and previously as an internal consultant at Hewitt and Motorola.

O'Connor has personally coached hundreds of leaders from a variety of functions, nationalities and roles. Her leadership coaching experience has been at both the individual level, especially related to 360 assessment data, and at the group level, as part of action learning team coaching. She guides leaders in identifying strengths and development opportunities, while continuously acknowledging organizational realities facing each leader. She believes in the value of continuously improving self-awareness while harnessing individual strengths and interests.

In addition to coaching individual leaders, O'Connor advises organizations on broader strategies for identifying and developing high potentials, as well as designs and facilitates programs and resources for developing targeted leadership skills.

She earned a BBA from the University of Notre Dame and holds a master’s degree in education (Organization Development and Workplace Learning) from Northwestern University. She is also certified in assessment instruments from Personnel Decisions International, the Center for Creative Leadership, Hogan Assessments and Korn Ferry Voices 360.

Debbie Plager is the Vice President of Talent & Organizational Development for HUB International - an International Insurance Brokerage Firm. As the head of Talent, Debbie and her team are accountable for designing and supporting the overall employee experience and providing strategic organizational consulting. Debbie leads the coaching service at HUB and provides internal coaching for executives and executive teams. Prior to HUB, Debbie was the Global head of Talent at Relativity (a rapid growth technology company) and an Assistant Vice President and Sr. HR Business Partner with Unum Group. Debbie is an ICF Accredited Coach and is certified in several assessments including the Hogan Leadership Suite and Change Style Indicator. Her expertise and interests include organization and leadership development, executive and team coaching, culture transformation, and creating and driving people-related strategies. In addition to several years as an internal executive coach, Debbie has her own external coaching practice, The Plager Group | Elevating Performance through Purpose.

Throughout his career, Beau River has focused on accelerating the development of individuals, teams and organizations. Insights into people, systems and group dynamics gained through years of assessment experience allow him to match leadership behaviors with the strategic imperatives that drive operational success. Particular areas of focus include executive selection, executive development and senior team performance.

With a background as a professional squash player and member of the United States Squash Team, Beau helped NCAA Division One athletes overcome psychological barriers, enabling them to augment their natural abilities with positive psychological behaviors that lifted their performance to new levels. He develops executive talent in a similar fashion, combining existing business capabilities with programs that promote new leadership competencies, confidence and grace under pressure to facilitate exceptional execution. Consulting with a Fortune 500 energy giant has provided Beau with a unique opportunity to work with executives from all functional disciplines across different organizational levels of a highly decentralized environment. He has also worked in the following industries: government, law enforcement, medical device, home building, metals, processed and packaged goods, executive education, and nonprofit.

Beau completed his undergraduate education at Dartmouth College, and went on to receive his MA and PsyD from the Adler School of Professional Psychology. In his spare time, Beau enjoys yoga, biking, and building Legos with his sons, Theo and Wynn

Terrence serves as Vice President of Professional Services at The Ounce of Prevention Fund, a national nonprofit whose mission is to advance quality early learning for families with children before birth through their earliest years to help close the opportunity gap. At The Ounce, Terrence leads efforts to develop and scale a portfolio of early-childhood workforce professional development offerings across the United States.

Previously, Terrence was Senior Vice President for Strategy & Operations at Kellen, a global professional services organization that specializes in working with nonprofit associations. In this role, he led an organizational change and operational excellence program while managing company operations that helped staff support the success of clients, including Strategy, Technology, Education, Internal Communications, Customer Service, and Office Services. Prior to Kellen Company, Terrence held a variety of roles over 12 years at YMCA of the USA, the national office for the largest nonprofit in the U.S. leading functions related to strategy, product development, quality improvement, change management, project management, program evaluation, and grantsmanship.

Terrence is a decorated veteran who served as an Officer in the United States Marine Corps with an overseas deployment supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. He also was an Advanced General Manager at Cintas Corporation. Terrence earned a Master of Science in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy and holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. Terrence is a volunteer for Race Conscious Dialogues, and in addition to teaching in SESP, he also teaches two courses at Northwestern's Philanthropy and Nonprofit Organization's Certificate Program.

Kelly Ross is a MSLOC Coach and Coaching Fieldwork Supervising Coach, and teaches Coaching Fieldwork (MSLOC 454). In her independent practice, Kelly is a coach, learning strategist and facilitator with global experience. Kelly’s work is in leadership development and talent management. She works with individuals in one-on-one leadership coaching engagements, with teams to clarify goals and increase effectiveness, and with organizations to build and implement learning strategies. Kelly brings experience working in more than 20 countries, with individuals and organizations across industries and sectors, and nearly a decade of experience at McKinsey & Company.

Kelly’s work as a coach is to help individuals make a change of some sort. Are you a leader in a new position or trying to decide how you want to lead others? Are you in a new role or leading a different part of your business? Perhaps you are considering or are in the midst of a career or personal change and struggling to make new behavior stick? Career changers or professionals in search of the right next step may work with Kelly as they navigate the path of deciding what is next. Expatriates often value a thought partner like Kelly, who “gets” the complexity of living and working abroad.

Kelly’s work as a facilitator seeks to hear all the voices in the room. Typically, the participants of a training, workshop or strategic planning session come to the conversation with experience and questions; Kelly believes in tapping into the curiosity and authenticity of participants and accomplishes this through dialogue, purposeful examples, and interactive exercises.

Kelly’s work as a learning strategist helps organizations and teams to articulate the skills and behaviors needed to be successful, and then to determine the best way to build those skills or manage through the change while retaining their star talent.

However you engage with Kelly, you will find her to be invested in your journey. You can expect a keen listener who is non-judgmental while challenging you to be the best version of yourself. Kelly wants the best for her clients and herself, and shows up honoring her values of authenticity, curiosity, integrity and self-development.

Kelly’s broad understanding of business needs, cultural differences, and the global marketplace aid her in developing great leaders and teams. Her MS (Learning and Organizational Change, Northwestern University), coaching and Master Coach certifications (Hudson Institute) and Professional Certified Coach (PCC) accreditation (International Coach Federation), certification in several assessments (Myers-Briggs (MBTI), Hogan, Creatrix, Conflict Dynamics Profile, and, VOICES 360 and PDI Profilor 360) and global work experience bring an array of resources and ideas to support you on your journey.

Kelly loves being outside hiking, cycling, and skiing. Traveling and photography are passions of Kelly’s.

Ross Associates

Vanessa Ruda Seiden is a Partner at RHR International specialists in management and leadership development. Her client base covers a variety of industries; both small firms and fortune 500 companies. Her area of expertise includes executive selection and promotion, executive coaching and development, and team-building. Dr. Ruda Seiden has taught courses on negotiation skills at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University. She is currently an instructor in Northwestern's MSLOC program. Her research and publication focuses on effective negotiation strategies and can be found in several psychology journals.

Kimberly Scott is Assistant Professor and Director of the Master’s Program in Learning & Organizational Change (MSLOC) at Northwestern University. She came to Northwestern with over 10 years of management and consulting experience in a variety of mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies. Her work focuses on improving workplace environments and...

B. Keith Simerson has provided consultation to professional services firms and to corporate clients spanning 18 industries (including the financial, consulting, health care, architecture, and engineering professions and automotive, industrial supplies, paper, rubber, heavy machinery, petrochemical, hospitality, food processing, business-to-business merchandising and electronics industries), as well as to branches of the U.S. military and foreign governments. He has consulted throughout the U.S. and in Iraq, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Germany, Italy, Singapore, England, Bermuda, France and the Netherlands.

Simerson helped develop and implement a five-year strategic plan for a leading professional services firm; led integration teams for the merger of two petrochemical industry giants; helped develop the consulting framework and electronic consulting “toolkit” for a leading professional services firm; established consulting organizations in two regional health care systems; and has served as an HR leader in a top-tier professional services firm.

Simerson earned his EdD from UNC-Greensboro and MA from Appalachian State University.

Simerson and Aaron Olson's book, Leading with Strategic Thinking, was released by John Wiley & Sons in April, 2015. Simerson is also the author of Strategic Planning: A Practical Guide to Strategy Formulation and Execution (ABC-CLIO, 2011) and the co-author of The Manager as Leader (Praeger Publishers, 2006), Fired, Laid Off, Out of a Job: A Manual for Understanding, Coping, Surviving (Greenwood, 2003) and Evaluating Police Management Development Programs (Praeger Publishing, 1990).

Shaun Slattery helps organizations — from start-ups to globally-recognized brands — transform to create better employee and customer experiences. For the past decade, he's been leading strategic business and digital transformation planning, design, execution, change management, and success measurement, often through technology implementations. With a Ph.D. in Communication and specializations in usability, digital collaboration, and change management, Shaun brings a knowledgeable perspective on the cultural, technical, and business factors surrounding transformation initiatives.

Over the last decade, Ryan has researched, taught, and published in the areas of learning and new executives, decision-making, innovation, and organizational learning. He is the author of  Organizational Learning and Performance: The Science and Practice of Building a Learning Culture (Oxford University Press). In the book, Ryan...

Brad partners with clients who strive to "lead what's next" by establishing sustainable organizational conditions for the business and its people to thrive today and shape a successful tomorrow.

In his 25+ years as an HR leader and organization design and effectiveness consultant, Brad has successfully managed large-scale organization effectiveness and change initiatives across a spectrum of industries, geographies and business scenarios. Brad also designs and delivers customized leadership development programs focused on equipping current and emerging leaders with the capabilities needed to lead what's next in a rapidly changing world.

Brad's recent clients include: Beam Suntory, Inc., Heath Care Services Corporation, McDonald's Corporation, Omaha Public Power District, SP Plus Corporation, Union Pacific Railroad, and W.L. Gore and Associates.

In his non-consulting roles, Brad has served as the leader of Global Talent Planning from Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and leader of Global Talent Management at Fiserv, Inc.

Brad received an MBA degree in Organizational Behavior and Marketing from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Marquette University.

Margaret Sullivan is an independent consultant who has a passion for dovetailing the needs of individuals and organizations. She specializes in helping individuals, groups, and organizations identify, clarify, design, and implement an effective, sustainable path forward. Using a range of services, from one-on-one coaching to company-wide strategy design, her clients have included individuals, not-for-profits, and small to large corporations.

Prior to launching her consulting practice, she was the Senior Advisor – Organizational Effectiveness at Wiss, Janney, Elstner and Associates, Inc. for seven years, responsible for designing programs and structural changes to make the organization more effective; identifying, designing, and implementing leadership development initiatives; and advising on organization development strategies.

She began her career at Accenture where she worked for twenty-two years as both an external and internal consultant. While at Accenture, she gained an extensive background in developing strategic plans; reorganizing/reinventing teams to meet emerging strategic needs and opportunities; instilling a sense of community; change management; knowledge sharing; delivering high-performance service in dynamic, diverse business environments; and coaching and mentoring professionals at many levels.

Her expertise and interests include organization and leadership development, decision processes, knowledge sharing, community building, sustainable changes, and career transitions. She is a Certified Professional Facilitator and is certified in Hogan Assessments and MBTI.

Lisa Tallman is a knowledge management and enterprise social networking strategist dedicated to social good. As Sr. Director of Knowledge Management at the YMCA of the USA, the national resource office for YMCA across the nation, she ensures Ys have access to knowledge, tools, and resources to collaborate to strengthen their local communities. Prior to joining the Y, Lisa worked for Grant Thornton, an accounting and advisory firm, where she was part of a team that instituted KM from scratch- developing processes, training team members to manage knowledge, and building a new technology platform. She has spent almost 15 years defining and shaping knowledge management for both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Lisa earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Master's Degree in English focused on Technical Communication from Eastern Michigan University. At Chicago Booth, she was chair of a nonprofit student group that provided consulting services for nonprofits. This experience coupled with her work at the Y has allowed her to see how knowledge management adds value to large and small nonprofits alike.

Karen came to Northwestern and MSLOC after an initial career in marketing and communications where she was an award-winning scriptwriter and video producer. Since 2008 she has been a life and human effectiveness coach, working with individuals to become better leaders, partners, team members, and employees. A lifelong learner herself, Karen is dedicated to fostering the systems, services, and conversations that support adults to stay meaningfully engaged in the world; she is president of the Board of Directors at The Village Chicago, a non-profit committed to helping Chicagoans successfully navigate the new longevity. She is also a human emergence coach with the Wright Foundation and adjunct faculty at Wright Graduate University. Karen completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan; she has advanced degrees from Northwestern (MA) and Wright Graduate University (MA, Ed.D.)

Teresa Torres is a product discovery coach who helps teams gain valuable insights from their customer interviews, run effective product experiments, and drive product outcomes that create value for their customers and their businesses. She teaches teams how to connect the dots between their research activities and their product decisions, inspiring confidence that they are on the right track. Recent clients include Allstate, Capital One, The Guardian, and Snagajob.

Before becoming a coach, Teresa spent the majority of her career leading product and design teams at early-stage internet companies. Most recently, Teresa was VP of Products at AfterCollege, an Internet startup that helps college students find their first job. She was CEO of Affinity Circles, an online community provider for university alumni associations and a social recruiting service used by Fortune 500 companies. She also held product and design roles at Become.com and HighWire Press.

Teresa has a BS in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University and an MS in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University.

Melinda Turnley is Assistant Director of the Master of Science in Learning and Organizational Change Program. Most recently before joining MSLOC, she was director of education at a professional association for residential real estate agents. The majority of her experience, however, has been as a teacher and administrator in higher education working with faculty and curriculum development, communication strategy, and instructional and collaborative technologies.

Turnley received her PhD from Purdue University with a dissertation focused on critical frameworks for engaging instructional media in the teaching of writing. Melinda has published and presented on topics such as gendered assumptions about teacher technology training, potential problems with the notion of transparency in interface design, student access and success in mobile pedagogies, technology in service learning projects, improvisation and teaching, and professional persona in the age of social media.

Curt is an independent executive and career coach who is passionate about working with smart, successful, creative, ambitious and positive leaders to live bold careers, lead bold initiatives, be strategic and collaborative and take on greater and new responsibilities. Curt helps executives and other leaders to understand their leadership style, capitalize on their strengths, strengthen their development areas, increase their influence, and determine their future career direction. Clients become more effective leaders and managers, resulting in more successful and faster attainment of their and their organizations’ goals.

He works with a wide variety of leaders, including high potential directors to C-Suite executives at Fortune 500 companies, CEOs of several prominent not for profits, and high-level university administrators.

Curt has been an executive coach for more than 10 years. He has over 20 years of experience as a marketing executive, innovation consultant and higher education professional. Prior to teaching in the MSLOC program, Curt was an adjunct instructor teaching innovation at Northwestern University’s MBA program. He has a Masters in Positive Organization Development & Change from Case Western Reserve University, an MBA from Northwestern University, and a BS in Accountancy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Degrees

• MA, Positive Organization Development & Change, Case Western Reserve University
• MBA, Northwestern University
• BS, Accountancy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Kelly C. Weiley founded CoAct Consulting 12 years to continue the work of cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion outside the traditional classroom setting. Kelly holds a Master of Science degree in Social Responsibility from St. Cloud State University where she also taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in Human Relations and Multicultural Education. Kelly currently serves as a lecturer for Northwestern University in the School of Education and Social Policy and has previously taught at the University of Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas. Kelly draws upon her classroom experiences to root her trainings in research and theory, but always circles back to how principles apply to individuals, urging them to practice skills that improve connection, foster growth, and nurture effective leaders.

Kelly currently serves on the National Advisory Board for Equity in the Center, an initiative that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems within the social sector to increase racial equity. Previously, Kelly facilitated award-winning residential service-learning experiences for high school students and staff at the Civic Education Project (CEP), and partnered with six Boston public schools and a career center to connect struggling young people to employment opportunities through the Year 13 program. In her 18+ years of working with individuals of all ages and from diverse backgrounds, she has trained over 25,000 people on topics ranging from creating social change, diversity, and intercultural competency, to navigating difficult conversations, creating inclusive spaces, and facilitating controversial issues.

Degrees

• Political Science with Political Theory concentration, Williams College, 1997
• PhD, Learning Sciences, Northwestern University, 2009

Research Interests

Dynamics of culture, learning, and development broadly with a specific focus on the complexities of navigating multiple meaning systems in creating and implementing more effective and just learning environments in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics education; reasoning and decision-making about complex socio-ecological systems in ways that intersect with culture, power, and historicity.

Degrees

• PhD, Education, Stanford University, 2001
• MA, Sociology, Stanford University, 1997
• BA, Philosophy, Oberlin College, 1989

Research Interests

Relationship between instructional policy and teachers' classroom practices in urban schools , Relationship between research and policy

Degrees

• PhD, Cognitive Psychology, University of Michigan, 1970
• MA, Communication Sciences, University of Michigan, 1961

Research Interests

Technology and education, teaching and learning, scientific inquiry.

Degrees

• PhD, Stanford University, 2007
• MA, Sociology, MA, East Asian Studies, Stanford University

Research Interests

Organizations and entrepreneurship; institutions and networks; comparing public, private, and non-profit forms of organizing; university-industry interfaces; public and private science.

Degrees

• PhD, Psychology, University of Michigan, 1971
• MA, Child Development and Family Relations, Cornell University, 1962
• BA, Arts and Sciences, McGill University, 1959

Research Interests

Group dynamics, organizational assessment and change, family systems, gender and authority in group and organizational life, organizational consultation, evaluation of school reform and school academic/technology systems, research methods, application of group and systems theory and research to school change.

Degrees

• PhD, Human-Computer Interaction, Carnegie Mellon University, 2010
• MS, Human-Computer Interaction, Carnegie Mellon University, 2004
• BA, Psychology and Mathematics, Reed College, 1999

Research Interests

Technology for the new civics – producing scientifically supported educational technology to create informed and engaged citizens who can solve the serious policy problems facing society such as poverty, global warming and militarism. Training such citizens requires us to understand how competent citizens analyze policy, communicate issues, and organize to make change. It also requires us to design more effective educational technology that can teach the knowledge, skills and dispositions citizens need.

Degrees

• PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1984

Research Interests

Artificial intelligence, specifically qualitative reasoning, spatial reasoning, analogical reasoning and learning, and inference engine design; in cognitive science, understanding how analogy and similarity work; in education, using AI techniques to create educational software and activities; in human-computer interaction, the use of sketching as an interface modality; the role of AI in computer game design. 

Degrees

• PhD, Mathematics and learning; cognitive development, University of Chicago, 1972
• MAT, Mathematics, University of Chicago, 1967
• BA, Mathematics, Oberlin College, 1965

Research Interests

Mathematics teaching and learning; cognitive development; design of teaching/learning activities.

Degrees

• PhD, Ohio State University, 1996

Research Interests

The centrality of social inclusion to the self.

Degrees

• PhD, University of California, San Diego, 1974

Research Interests

Learning, reasoning, and conceptual change in adults and children, especially processes of similarity; metaphor, and analogy; mental models; acquisition of meaning.

Degrees

• PhD, Stanford University, 2007
• MS, Stanford University, 2003
• BA, Dartmouth College, 1998

Research Interests

Design and innovation work practices.

Degrees

• PhD, Philosophy of Education, University of Chicago, 1976
• MA, Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1966
• BA, Music, Religion/Philosophy, Cornell College, 1965

Research Interests

Philosophy of education, teacher education, interpretive discussion, philosophy of psychology.

Degrees

• PhD, Developmental Psychology, Emory University, 1996
• MA, Cognitive Psychology, Emory University, 1993
• BA, Psychology, Reed College, 1990

Research Interests

Object representation, number and spatial relationships.

Degrees

• PhD, Computer Science, Tufts University, 2009
• MS, Computer Science, Tufts University, 2006
• ScB, Computer Science, Brown University, 1997

Research Interests

Design of educational technology, learning in museums, computer programming, tangible interaction.

Degrees

• PhD, Education in Language, Literacy, and Culture, University of California, Berkeley, 2003

Research Interests

Multilingualism and cultural diversity in education, digital literacy and learning in new media environments, multilingual and multimodal literacy, language and identity, language socialization, learning in transnational contexts of migration.

Degrees

• PhD, Education (Curriculum and Instruction), University of Chicago, 1991
• MA, English, University of Chicago, 1969
• BA, The Teaching of Secondary School English, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, 1966

Research Interests

Cultural contexts affecting learning broadly and literacy specifically; teacher preparation and development; classroom discourse; urban education.

Degrees

• PhD Learning Sciences, Northwestern University
• MA Learning Sciences, Northwestern University

Degrees

• BA, Concentration in Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, New York University
• PhD, Learning Sciences and Technology Design, Stanford University
• Master of Professional Writing, University of Southern California

Research Interests

Learning and behavior norms in online communities, social media production and consumption practices, sources and credibility, historical consciousness, fandom, digital technologies and the creative process, inquiry in digital spaces.

Degrees

• PhD, University of South Dakota, 1968

Research Interests

Learning, reasoning, and conceptual change in adults and children, mental models; acquisition of meaning, culture and education.

Degrees

• PhD, Teacher Education, Stanford University, 2018
• BS, Elementary Education, University of Maine, 2000

Research Interests

Mathematics teaching and learning; coaching and professional development; teacher education

Degrees

• MS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994
• BS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1992

Research Interests

Instructional materials design, professional development of teachers, professional learning communities, scientific modeling, and agent-based modeling.

Degrees

• PhD, Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, 2016
• MS, Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, 2012
• BA, Computer Science and Spanish, Colby College, 2007

Research Interests

Design of technology-enabled learning experiences, educational games and playful learning, growth mindset interventions, connected classroom ecosystems.

Degrees

• PhD, Computer Science, University of London, 1972
• MA, Philosophy, University of Edinburgh, 1966

Research Interests

Emotion and cognition; knowledge representation and figurative language comprehension; human-computer interaction and interface design.

Degrees

• MA, Psychological Studies in Education, Stanford University, 1976
• PhD, Psychological Studies in Education, Stanford University, 1976
• BS, Psychology and Philosophy, Iowa State University, 1971

Research Interests

Learning and teaching in schools and classrooms, particularly in literacy and mathematics; student and teacher learning in reform contexts; relations among educational research, policy and practice.

Degrees

• PhD, Learning Sciences, Northwestern University, 1998

Degrees

• PhD, Experimental Psychology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, 2000
• MA, General Psychology, New York University, 1996
• BA, Psychology, State University of New York, Albany, 1994

Research Interests

Reading comprehension; memory following learning experiences; updating prior knowledge; the acquisition of accurate and inaccurate information; translation of cognitive science research to educational settings; multimedia learning; visualizations as learning tools.

Degrees

• PhD, Cognitive Science, Yale University, 1983
• MA, Psychology, New York University, 1979
• BA, Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 1977

Research Interests

The design of learning environments and curriculum materials for science that support authentic practices including explanation, argumentation, and designing investigations. His research examines the cognitive and social interaction aspects of scientific inquiry, principles for scaffolding practices in software and curriculum materials, teaching practices, and curriculum design frameworks.

Degrees

• PhD, Science Education, University of Maryland, 2013
• MEd, Secondary Science Education, University of Maryland, 2008
• BA, Biology, Political Science, University of Delaware, 2006

Research Interests

 Teacher learning and professional development design; responsiveness to students' and educators' thinking and practices

Degrees

• PhD, Stanford University, 1974

Research Interests

Natural-language understanding, case-based reasoning, authorable learning-by-doing environments, critiquing tools for education.

Degrees

• PhD, Science and Mathematics Education, University of California, Berkeley, 1996
• MA, Physics, University of California, Berkeley, 1989
• BA, Physics, Princeton University, 1985

Research Interests

Conceptual change in science; computational linguistics applied to natural language data; programming environments for learning; external representations in science and mathematics.

Degrees

• PhD, Science and Mathematics Education, University of California, Berkeley, 1996
• MA, Mathematics, University of California, San Diego, 1987
• BA, Mathematics, University of Chicago, 1985

Research Interests

Mathematics teaching and learning; teacher cognition and teacher education.

Degrees

• PhD, Curriculum, Teaching and Education Policy, Michigan State University, 1993
• BA, Education and Geography, St. Patrick's College, National University of Ireland, 1984

Research Interests

Policy implementation; educational policy; organizational change; school leadership; relations between policy and teachers' and administrators' practice.

Degrees

• PhD, Cognitive Studies in Education , University of California at Berkeley, 1999

Research Interests

Learning and activity in a wide range of places and situations; design of learning tools curriculum, activities, and technologies.

Degrees

• PhD, Science and Mathematics Education, University of California at Berkeley, 2015
• BA, Physics, Colorado College, 2002

Research Interests

Science education, the nature of scientific theory building, the role of intuitive knowledge in conceptual change, constructivist instruction and constructionist learning environments, computational thinking

Degrees

• PhD, University of Michigan, 1989

Research Interests

Mental representation, cognitive development, spatial cognition, early symbolization.

Degrees

• PhD, Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology, University of California Berkeley, 2016
• M.S, Electrical Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, 2007
• B.S, Electrical Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, 2006

Research Interests

intersections of technology, race, ethics, and learning; STEM education; participatory design and community-engaged research methodologies; historical and sociopolitical analyses of engineering and computer science education across global contexts; philosophy and history of education

Degrees

• Post-doctoral Fellowship, Stanford University & Exploratorium, 2014
• PhD, Education, University of California, Los Angeles, 2011
• EdM, Education , University of California, Los Angeles, 2006
• BA, History and International Development, University of California, Los Angeles, 2002

Research Interests

Ethnographic study of teaching, learning and educational equity; social, cultural, historical and political dimensions of human development.

Degrees

• PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 1985
• MA, Johns Hopkins University, 1981
• BS, University of Pennsylvania, 1976

Research Interests

Language and conceptual development, early cognitive development, language and thought.

Degrees

• PhD, Media Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1993
• MA, Mathematics, Harvard University, 1980
• BA, Mathematics and Philosophy, Brandeis University, 1977
• MA, Mathematics and Philosophy, Brandeis University, 1977

Research Interests

Mathematics and science education in the context of computation, connected learning, constructionism, computer-based modeling, agent-based modeling and complex systems and education.

Degrees

• MPH, Public Health, Northwestern University , 2002
• PhD, Social Policy, University of Illinois, 2000
• BS, Psychology/English , Valparaiso University, 1993
• MA, Learning Sciences, Northwestern University, 2006

Research Interests

Health literacy, risk communication, medication safety and adherence

Degrees

• MS, Computer Science, Stanford University, 2014
• PhD, Learning Sciences and Technology Design, Stanford University, 2014
• BA, Spanish and Portuguese, Stanford University, 2007
• BS, Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, 2007

Degrees

• MA, Spanish Literature, Roosevelt University, 2005
• BA, Spanish, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1996

Degrees

• MA, English, Northwestern University
• PhD, English Education, New York University
• BS, Education, Northwestern University

Research Interests

English teachers' constructs of teaching English

Degrees

• EdD, Reading and Language, National-Louis University, 1994
• MAT, Elementary Teaching, National College of Education, 1982
• BA, Political Science, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 1972

Research Interests

Word study, reading comprehension, professional development for teachers

Degrees

• MSE, Educational Psychology - Gifted Emphasis, Purdue University
• BSE, Secondary Education, University of Central Missouri
• EdD, Leadership Studies, Bowling Green State University

Degrees

• BS, University of Illinois
• MS, DePaul University

Degrees

• Ph.D., Reading and Language, National-Louis University
• B.A., Education, Northeastern Illinois University
• M.A., Bilingual, Multicultural Education, Chicago State University

Research Interests

K-12 Language and Literacy, Dual Language Education, Education of English Learners, Literacy Intervention and Supports fo Striving Learners.

Degrees

• MA, Learning Sciences, Northwestern University, 2005
• PhD, Learning Sciences, Northwestern University, 2011

Research Interests

Holocaust and human rights education; The design of informal learning environments; Collective memory and marginalized narratives; Pedagogies for educating about violence and atrocity
 

Degrees

• PhD, Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2007
• MS, Curriculum & Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1997
• BS, Secondary Education, English, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1994

Degrees

• MAT, Reading with Reading Specialist Certification, Concordia University
• B.S. in Elementary Education, Loyola University Chicago

Research Interests

Equity and diversity in teaching, school culture and climate, middle school ELA and social science

Degrees

• PhD, Curriculum and Instruction, Penn State University, 1999
• MA, English, Northwestern University, 1995
• BA, English and Journalism, Indiana University, 1990

Research Interests

Leadership development, curriculum and instruction, and curriculum integration.

Degrees

• M.A., Education Leadership, American College of Education
• Diploma in Translation, Interpretation and Foreign Correspondence, Scuola Superiore Interpreti e Traduttori, Rome, Italy
• M.A., Urban Teaching, Columbia College
• B.A., Organizational Management, Concordia University
• M.A., Reading, Northeastern University
• Ph.D., Reading and Language, National Louis University

Research Interests

Language acquisition and teacher evaluation systems.

Degrees

• EdD, Education Leadership, National Louis University, 2008
• MS, Education Leadership, University of Illinois, Chicago, 1984
• BS, Education, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, 1977

Degrees

• B.A., University of Michigan
• M.S.Ed. Educational Leadership, Northeastern Illinois University
• M.A.T. Secondary English Instruction, Boston College

Degrees

• AERA/IES Postdoctoral Fellowship, TERC, 2005
• Ph.D in Epistemology and Learning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998
• M.Ed. Early Childhood Education, Kent State University, 1984
• Bachelor of Arts: Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts, Hampshire College, 1983

Degrees

• MA, Educational Leadership, Northeastern Illinois University, 2004
• MEd, Secondary Education, DePaul University, 1994
• BS, Civil Engineering, University of Notre Dame, 1989
• BS, English, University of Notre Dame, 1989

I can Assist you with

• SPSS
• Education Research

Degrees

• PhD, Sociology, University of Chicago, 2007
• MSEd, Advanced Teaching, Northwestern University, 1997
• BS, Elementary Education, University of Illinois, 1993

Research Interests

Teacher education, mentoring, and induction; clinical preparation; features of preparation that promote candidate learning and teacher effectiveness

Degrees

• MAT, Secondary Science with Middle-Level Learning Endorsement, National Louis University
• MS, Entomology , University of Illinois- Urbana/Champaign
• BA, Biology, Boston University

Research Interests

Design of scientific curriculum materials, professional development and cooperative learning

Degrees

• M.A., Early Childhood Education, University of Phoenix
• B.A., Elementary Education, University of Iowa

Research Interests

Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards in Elementary Classrooms

Degrees

• BS, Exceptional Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• MS, Educational Administration, Northern Illinois University
• EdD, Educational Administration, Northern Illinois University
• MS, Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Research Interests

Social-emotional learning, diverse learners, instructional practices

Degrees

• MEd, Curriculum and Instruction, National-Louis University
• BA, Dance and Education, Denison University

Degrees

• B.A. English, Villanova
• MS, Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, 2014

Research Interests

Middle School ELA best practices & curriculum and instruction.

Degrees

• M.Ed., Curriculum and Instruction, American College of Education
• B.S., Elementary Education (Mathematics); Certificate in Science, Business and Language Arts, University of Iowa

Research Interests

Instructional coaching and how to develop strong professional learning communities.

Degrees

• MS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994
• BS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1992

Research Interests

Instructional materials design, professional development of teachers, professional learning communities, scientific modeling, and agent-based modeling.

Degrees

• PhD, English, University of Illinois at Chicago
• AB, Philosophy/English, University of Chicago
• MAT, English, University of Chicago

Degrees

• PhD, Cognitive Science, Yale University, 1983
• MA, Psychology, New York University, 1979
• BA, Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 1977

Research Interests

The design of learning environments and curriculum materials for science that support authentic practices including explanation, argumentation, and designing investigations. His research examines the cognitive and social interaction aspects of scientific inquiry, principles for scaffolding practices in software and curriculum materials, teaching practices, and curriculum design frameworks.

Degrees

• PhD in Education Administration, University of Iowa, 2000
• MS in Educational Administration, Western Illinois University, 1991

Research Interests

Leadership development and curriculum & instruction

Degrees

• Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, The Family Institute at Northwestern University, 2019
• Psy.D., Clinical Psychology, Illinois School of Professional Psychology, 2017
• Predoctoral Psychology Internship (APA accredited), The State of Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, 2017
• M.A., Marriage and Family Therapy, Adler University, 2012
• B.A., Psychology, Sociology, Northern Illinois University, 1999

Research Interests

Dr. Sahebi is a trained scholar practitioner and has a vast interest in translational sciences related to intimate partner relationship health outcomes, cross-cultural psychological and family studies, and culturally-informed parenting practices. More recently, Dr. Sahebi has been involved in publications related to clinical practice and training efforts during the COVID-19 global pandemic. A number of Dr. Sahebi’s scholarships have also focused on  program development and expansion efforts within mental health agencies as well as in corporate settings.

Degrees

• M.Ed., Secondary Education, Loyola University Chicago, 2000
• M.A., English and Hebrew Literature, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1996
• B.A., English and Hebrew and Semitic Studies, University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1992

Degrees

• MA, Educational Leadership, DePaul University, 2007
• National Board Certification, World Languages for Early Adolescence and Young Adulthood, 2007
• BS, Secondary Teaching, Northwestern University, 2002

Research Interests

World languages teaching and learning, teacher education and teacher evaluation

Degrees

• BS, Theater, Northwestern University, 1997
• MS, Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, 2003

Degrees

• M.A., Educational Leadership, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo
• B.A., Spanish, Woman's Studies, University of Michigan, Anne Arbor

Degrees

• Elementary Education and Special Education Teaching, Saint Xavier University
• M.A., Educational Administration, Governors State University
• B.A., Psychology, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL
• M.A., School Psychology, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL
• Ed.D., Administration and Supervision, Loyola University Chicago

Research Interests

Instructional Leadership and Principal Preparation, Building Teacher and Leader Capacity, Professional Learning Communities, Intervention-Based Instruction, Including Students with Special Needs, Racial Equity

Degrees

• MEd, Cultural and Educational Policy Studies, Loyola University Chicago, 2014
• BS, Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, 2010

Degrees

• PhD, Higher Education, Indiana University, 2010
• MA, Higher Education & Student Affairs, The Ohio State University, 1996
• BA, Music, University of Rochester, 1993

Research Interests

College student identity development, assessment & evaluation in higher education. 

Degrees

• PhD, Religious Studies, Northwestern University, 2017
• MA, Comparative Religion, Miami University, 2011
• BA, Religion and Communication Studies, Florida State University, 2009

Research Interests

American religion and mass media, ethnography and narrative, higher education administration and institutional organization.

Degrees

• PhD, Counseling Psychology, Texas A&M University, 2012
• MS, Counseling Psychology, Texas A&M University, 2008
• MS, Student Affairs Administration in Higher Education and Counseling Psychology, Texas A&M University, 2006
• BS, Psychology, University of Miami, 2004

Degrees

• MA, History, DePaul University
• PhD, Higher Education Administration, Loyola University Chicago
• BA, Secondary Education, DePaul University

Degrees

• PhD, History, Purdue University, 2001
• MA, History, Purdue University, 1995
• BA, History & Political Science, La Salle University, 1993
• MS, Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, 2005

Research Interests

Mentoring, conceptions of teaching, student learning, early modern history, world history, learning and teaching in higher education, and the history and philosophy of higher education.

Degrees

• PhD, Stanford University, 2007
• MA, Sociology, MA, East Asian Studies, Stanford University

Research Interests

Organizations and entrepreneurship; institutions and networks; comparing public, private, and non-profit forms of organizing; university-industry interfaces; public and private science.

Degrees

• MA, English, Michigan State University
• JD, Law, Michigan State University
• BS, Speech Communications, Syracuse University

Degrees

• PhD, English, Northwestern University
• BA, Vassar College

Research Interests

Quality standards and evaluation in international education

Degrees

• PhD, Public Affairs, University of Colorado at Denver
• BS, Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Colorado at Boulder
• MPA, Public Management, University of Colorado at Denver

Research Interests

Leadership, especially assessment, coaching and development; Teamwork, especially assessment and development; Enterprise level learning software for coaching, leadership and teamwork

Degrees

• MA, Public Administration, University of Illinois at Springfield
• AA, Southwestern Illinois College
• PhD, Higher Education Administration, University of Michigan
• BS, Education, Northern Illinois University

Degrees

• PhD, Higher Education, University of Michigan, 2014
• MA, Education Research Methods, University of Michigan, 2011
• MSEd, College Student Affairs, Purdue University, 2007
• BS, Public Relations, Purdue University, 2001

Degrees

• PhD, Higher Education Administration, University of Michigan, 1996
• MA, Higher Education Administration, University of Michigan, 1993
• BA, History, Plymouth State University, 1981

Degrees

• PhD, Union Theological Seminary, 1987
• MDiv, Divinity, Union Theological Seminary, 1978
• BA, Religion, Princeton University, 1971

Research Interests

American religion, social gospel, progressivism, and diversity in higher education.

Degrees

• MA, Counseling and College Student Development, University of Maryland
• PhD, Higher Education, Loyola University Chicago
• BA, Speech Communications, Drake University

Degrees

• MS, Developmental Psychology, Johns Hopkins University
• PhD, Educational Psychology, Loyola University Chicago
• BS, Psychology, Philosophy, and Humanities, Valparaiso University

Research Interests

Improved educational pathways to college completion for underserved students; issues of access, affordability, and successful degree/career outcomes of low-income and underrepresented minority college students; addressing racial, ethnic, and income disparities in educational outcomes through improved institutional support; community colleges; doctoral education; and event history analysis.

Degrees

• PhD, Educational Leadership, Administration and Foundations, Indiana State University, 2009
• MEd, Student Affairs Administration in Higher Education, Texas A&M University, 1996
• BS, Genetics, Texas A&M University, 1994

Research Interests

• Student affairs

Degrees

• MEng, Management of Technology, Vanderbilt University
• BS, Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University

Research Interests

Data analysis methods, process improvement and change management

Degrees

• BA, Communications and International Studies, Juniata College
• MS, Educational Administration, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• PhD, Higher Education Leadership and Policy Analysis, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• MA, African Languages and Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Degrees

• PhD, Sociology, Harvard University, 1973
• MA, Sociology, Harvard University, 1968
• BA, Culture and Behavior, Yale University, 1966

Research Interests

High schools, community colleges, youth transitions to work and adulthood. School and college reform and restructuring. Sociology of education.

Degrees

• MS, Polymer Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University
• BA, Chemistry, College of Wooster
• PhD, Higher Education Administration, University of Michigan

Research Interests

Engineering education research including retention and recruitment of female and underrepresented undergraduate students and faculty, interdisciplinary skills, contextual competence skills, and design and problem solving skills.
Faculty productivity, enhancing research and teaching, faculty motivation, enhancing faculty-student interaction, and new and junior faculty issues.
Student development research that includes holistic and spiritual development of undergraduates.
Gender issues, females in STEM disciplines.

Degrees

• PhD, Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin

Degrees

• MS, Organization Development, Loyola University-Chicago, 1995
• BA, Political Science, Religion, American University, 1974

Degrees

• MA, English, Northwestern University
• PhD, English Education, New York University
• BS, Education, Northwestern University

Research Interests

English teachers' constructs of teaching English

Degrees

• MA, Learning Sciences, Northwestern University, 2005
• PhD, Learning Sciences, Northwestern University, 2011

Research Interests

Holocaust and human rights education; The design of informal learning environments; Collective memory and marginalized narratives; Pedagogies for educating about violence and atrocity
 

Degrees

• PhD, Stanford University, 2007
• MA, Sociology, MA, East Asian Studies, Stanford University

Research Interests

Organizations and entrepreneurship; institutions and networks; comparing public, private, and non-profit forms of organizing; university-industry interfaces; public and private science.

Degrees

• PhD, Northwestern University, 1979
• JD, University of Pennsylvania, 1975
• BS, Northwestern University, 1972

Research Interests

Supreme Court issues

Degrees

• PhD, Curriculum and Instruction, Penn State University, 1999
• MA, English, Northwestern University, 1995
• BA, English and Journalism, Indiana University, 1990

Research Interests

Leadership development, curriculum and instruction, and curriculum integration.

Degrees

• PhD, Organizational Theory, University of Chicago , 2000
• MBA, Management, University of Chicago, 1998
• BS, Business, Miami University, 1992

Biography

Dr. Briellen Griffin (she/her) is a critical educator, researcher, and scholar of education. Her work is dedicated to Black humanity and the uprooting of antiblackness in all of its forms and manifestations.

Dr. Griffin's identity as a multiracial Black woman informs her approach to collaborative teaching and learning. She is committed to nurturing conversations and projects that encourage anti-racist action. Her research interrogates mechanisms of antiblackness in the classroom, with a focus on teacher-student interactions. Her most recent project examines how teachers' ideas and beliefs about race manifest in their behavior toward and interactions with students. She is most interested in understanding how teachers can confront racism in their practice and learn to create humanizing educational experiences for every student.

Degrees

• PhD Cultural & Educational Policy Studies, Loyola University Chicago, 2021
• MSW Community Organizing & Advocacy, University of Minnesota, 2011
• BA English, University of Minnesota, 2007

Research Interests

• Race & racism in education
• Black & African American studies
• Education policy & practice
• Urban education
• Resistance/Social change
• History of American education (US)
• Qualitative research methods

Degrees

• PhD, Sociology, Northwestern University, 2005

Research Interests

Marriage and the family, interracial relationships and marriages.

Degrees

• MA, French Language and Literature, University of Wisconsin, 1971
• AB, French Language and Literature, University of Michigan, 1970
• PhD, Human Development and Social Policy, Northwestern University, 1993
• MA, Teaching & Learning Processes, Northwestern University, 1984

Research Interests

Stability and change over time in adulthood, especially during midlfe and beyond: wisdom, regret and life themes; gender differences in these areas.

Degrees

• MEd, Curriculum and Instruction, National-Louis University
• BA, Dance and Education, Denison University

Degrees

• MBA, Marketing, Finance, Not-For-Profit Management, Northwestern University, 1982
• BS, Commerce, University of Illinois, 1979

Research Interests

Failure-tolerant strategy; predictive competencies for leadership success; domains of leadership: outcomes, process and connections; succession management; action learning

Degrees

• PhD, English, University of Illinois at Chicago
• AB, Philosophy/English, University of Chicago
• MAT, English, University of Chicago

Degrees

• BS, Psychology and Sociology, Iowa State University
• PhD, Counseling Psychology, Arizona State University
• MS, General Psychology, DePaul University

Degrees

• PhD, Sociology, Harvard University, 1973
• MA, Sociology, Harvard University, 1968
• BA, Culture and Behavior, Yale University, 1966

Research Interests

High schools, community colleges, youth transitions to work and adulthood. School and college reform and restructuring. Sociology of education.

Degrees

• PhD, Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago, 2012
• BA, English and Vocal Performance, Oberlin College
• AM, Social Sciences, University of Chicago

Research Interests

Sociology, social psychology. Specific research interests include identity, life story and narrative, ethnicity, religion, assimilation and immigration, ethnicity and biology, race, American culture, diaspora experiences/transnationalism, class and social location, qualitative methods.

Degrees

• BA, Journalism, University of Wisconsin, 1975
• MS, Interactive Journalism, American University

Degrees

• PhD, Counseling Psychology, Northwestern University, 2001
• MA, Counseling Psychology, Northwestern University, 1998
• BA, Psychology & Women's Studies, University of Michigan, 1995