Deborah A. O’Neil, PhD

Dr. Deborah O'Neil has 30+ years' experience in management, leadership, and organization development. She is actively engaged in both the academic and the business worlds as a professor, executive coach, and organizational consultant. Dr. O'Neil is a Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Department of Management, Schmidthorst College of Business, Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, USA. She teaches classes in organizational behavior, organization development, and change management in the Executive Master of Organization Development (EMOD) and Doctorate in Organization Development and Change (DODC) programs. She serves as Director of the EMOD program. Prior to her appointment at BGSU she was a member of the Organizational Behavior faculty at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, teaching classes in leadership development in the MBA, Executive MBA, MS in Nonprofit Management, and Executive Education programs. She remains affiliated with Case as an instructor and executive coach for the Weatherhead School's Executive Education programs.

Dr. O'Neil's most recent executive coaching and consulting practice has focused on leadership and emotional competency development, career development, mentoring, and strategic change management. She is a consultant in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. A sample list of organizations with which she has worked includes Alcoa, Cleveland Clinic, the Cleveland Municipal School District, Ernst and Young, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Fifth Third Bank, Goldman Sachs, KeyCorp, McKinsey & Company, Roadway Express, J.M. Smucker, and University Hospitals.

Dr. O'Neil's research is focused on the processes that assist individuals and organizations in being effective, successful, and productive, with a particular focus on women's careers and leadership development. She has published articles in such venues as Consulting Psychology Journal, Gender, Work and Organization, Human Resource Management, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Career Development International, Journal of Change Management, Journal of Management Education, and in numerous edited volumes.

She is an Editorial Board member of the Organization Development Review and served as an Associate Editor for Career Development International from 2018 to 2022. From 2016-2022, Dr. O'Neil served as Chair of the Organization Development Education Association (ODEA), a consortium of schools and programs whose purpose is to advance and enhance education in the field of OD. She is also a Board Certified (BCC) Executive Coach.

Prior to her academic career, Dr. O'Neil was a Senior Consultant with Citibank working with leadership teams in the Retail, Real Estate, and Business & Professional Groups. She was responsible for employee coaching and development, competency modeling, and curriculum design and delivery. She also managed credit training for the New York Bank.

Dr. O'Neil holds a PhD in Organizational Behavior from the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, a Master of Science Degree in Organization Development/Human Resource Development from The American University, and Bachelors' Degrees in Secondary Education, Journalism, and English from the University of Rhode Island.