World-Class Instruction

Jeremy Hunter, PhD is a global authority on mindfulness and leadership as well as the great-grandson of a sumo wrestler.

He serves as the Founding Director of the Executive Mind Leadership Institute as well as Associate Professor of Practice at the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management. He is also co-founder and partner of Transform LLC in Tokyo, Japan.

For nearly two decades, he has helped leaders develop themselves while retaining their humanity in the face of monumental change and challenge. He is primarily concerned with the quality of human experience and how to live a meaningful, engaged and effective life.

He works with healthy companies that aspire to greatness. He has designed and led leadership development programs for a wide variety of organizations, including Fortune 200 aerospace, Fortune 50 banking and finance, the arts and civic non-profits. Program impacts have led to both positive professional, personal and financial outcomes for participants.

Hunter has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Financial Times, the Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio's Morning Edition.

His work is informed by the experience of living day-to-day for 17 years with a potentially terminal illness. When faced with the need for life-saving surgery more than a dozen former students came forward as organ donors.

Dr. Hunter received his Ph.D. from University of Chicago. He also holds degrees from Harvard University and Wittenberg University.

Carmen F. Foster, EdD, is an inclusive leader with more than three decades of service in the government, higher education, and nonprofit sectors. Dr. Foster provides executive coaching for senior executives in federal agencies and, most recently, served as a faculty member for the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia. She is the great-great-granddaughter of an enslaved nurse and healer from the American South.

Since 1991, she has served as Director of Master's Program in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, Executive Director at the University of Richmond's Jepson School of Leadership Studies, and Executive Director of the Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University.

During her tenure at the Kennedy School, she received a Kellogg National Leadership Fellow grant for a self-designed study throughout Ghana, South Africa, China, and Brazil to investigate the global nexus of leadership, spirituality, and healing for women and communities of color.

Carmen received her doctor of education degree from the University of Virginia and holds additional degrees from Harvard University, Clarion University, and Virginia Commonwealth University. She has also completed Harvard's Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government, the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program with Jon Kabat-Zinn, and is a certified administrator for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

While she has significant expertise in adaptive leadership, organizational analysis, and social capital development, her historical scholarship researches the dynamics of race and education, and the use of genealogy for healing.

Ellen Burts-Cooper, PhD, is the senior managing partner of Improve Consulting and Training Group, a firm that provides personal and professional development training, coaching and consultation. Improve has been featured in Time Magazine, Black Voices, Smart Business Magazine, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Cleveland Jewish News, Cleveland.com and Crain’s Cleveland Business. Burts-Cooper works across numerous industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, education, retail, utilities, governmental agencies, not-for-profit and small businesses.

Burts-Cooper is on faculty at Case Western Reserve University in the Weatherhead Executive Education Program and The Institute for Management Studies (IMS). She currently serves on the board of directors of First Federal of Lakewood and Sea-Land Chemical Company. She is the author of the books: aMAZEing Organizational Teams: Navigating 7 Critical Attributes for Cohesion, Productivity and Resilience and Canine Instinct: A Guide to Survival and Advancement in Corporate America.

Previously, Burts-Cooper served as a senior vice president and senior director of operational excellence, IT performance management and governance for PNC Financial Services. Prior to the financial services industry, Burts-Cooper worked in the electronics industry where she led global teams in several functions at 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota.

She earned a BS in chemistry from Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, her PhD in organic/polymer chemistry from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, her MBA from the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Business, her Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt certification from 3M Company, her Multicultural Competency in Wellness and her Resilience and Thriving Facilitator Certificates from the National Wellness Institute.

Burts-Cooper is also an active volunteer and supporter for a host of community-related organizations across the U.S. and provides college scholarships through her fund at The Cleveland Foundation. She is a member of the Private Directors Association and the National Wellness Institute.

Heather E. Burton, PhD, a graduate of The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and African-American Studies with a minor in Theater, a Masters of Social Work, University of Akron, a Masters of Public Administration and a Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies and Public Affairs both from Cleveland State University.

Dr. Burton is Senior Director for Faculty and Institutional Diversity with Case Western Reserve University, specializing in gender and racial equity. Dr. Burton works to create to encourage individual and systemic change through policy and practice. Dr. Burton serves as Acting Co-Director for the African and African American Studies Program. She is adjunct faculty in theater and social work teaching on concepts of race, racism and social policy.

Because of her diligence and dedication to reflect change within the community and Case Western Reserve University, she has received the Feminist Mentor Award, Staff Diversity Award, Qgrad Outstanding Faculty and Staff Mentor Award, Mather Spotlight & Women of Achievement Award, YWCA Women of Achievement, RH Boyd Award for Excellence and Who’s Who of Black Cleveland.

She was Co-Chair for the Ellipsis Institute for Women of Color in the Academy, CWRU (2018, 2019, 2020) and now serves as a member of the Board of Directors. She also serves on the Boards of The Greater Cleveland Delta Life Development Center and SHINE, Inc. She is founder of Crimson Heights, Ministries, Inc. a 501 (c)(3) geared towards the holistic development of women. As an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Greater Cleveland Alumnae Chapter, she serves as Co-Chair of Arts & Letters, Sergeant of Arms

Poppy L. McLeod is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University. Previously she was a member of the faculty in Weatherhead’s Department of Organizational Behavior and Chair of the curriculum in Leadership Assessment and Development. Her PhD in Social Psychology is from Harvard University.

Professor McLeod is a leading expert in the areas of teamwork, and leadership development, and she teaches extensively in these topic areas for both individual companies and in open enrollment courses. The individual companies she has worked with include KeyCorp, The Lubrizol Corporation, The OgleBay Norton Company, The Swagelok Company and the Sparrow HealthCare System. In addition, she has taught in Weatherhead’s Physician Executive Institute.

Professor McLeod’s international teaching experience includes visiting professorships at the SDA Luigi Bocconi Business School in Milan, Italy, and at the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration in Finland. In addition, she has conducted leadership development training in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Professor McLeod’s research focuses on communication and decision making in teams, the effects of electronic tools on team work and teams in social service agency collaboration. Her work has been published in the top scholarly journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Information Systems Research, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, the Journal of Management Education, and Small Group Research, and in several important books such as Theories of Small Groups: An Interdisciplinary Perspective and Research on Groups in Organizations. She currently serves on the editorial boards of the journals Small Group Research and the Academy of Management Learning and Education.

Dr. Courtney L. McCluney (she/her) is an award winning educator, researcher, consultant, and advisor reimagining ways to foster equity and wellness in the workplace. Trained as a social scientist, Dr. McCluney has received several grants and recognition for her work on racial equity and inclusion including groundbreaking research on the emotional tax and racial codeswitching as factors that affect Black workers' well-being and success. Her work is featured in several peer reviewed academic publications and she is a contributing writer to Forbes and the Harvard Business Review. Dr. McCluney completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, earned her PhD in Psychology at the University of Michigan and BA in Psychology and Interpersonal/Organizational Communications at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a former Research Fellow at Catalyst, Inc. and previously served as an AmeriCorps Social Impact Fellow. Dr. McCluney aims to disrupt organizational processes and norms that maintain systemic inequities in society.

Dr. K. Shelette Stewart has over 20 years of leadership experience as a business practitioner and academician with leading organizations including Harvard Business School, The Coca-Cola Company, and BellSouth / AT&T in strategic business planning, business development, and marketing. She is a Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Program Specialist and holds a Doctorate in Business Administration.

A graduate of Harvard University, Dr. Stewart is the founder and principal of Stewart Consulting, LLC, launched in 2007, with a mission for helping organizations with strategic planning and leadership development so that they drive performance, productivity, profitability and ultimately achieve success and significance.

Dr. Stewart is also the author of Harvard Business School Cases and the award-winning book, Revelations in Business: Connecting Your Business Plan with God's Purpose and Plan for Your Life© which has been formally endorsed by several industry leaders including Dan Cathy, Chairman of Chick-fil-A.

A highly sought-after international speaker, Dr. Stewart has served as the keynote speaker for many leading organizations including: Harvard Business School, Texas Instruments, The Coca-Cola Company, Chick-fil-A, Women's Foodservice Forum, and Yunnan University in China. She served as the 2020 Commencement Speaker for Judson University and has also appeared as a guest on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), Daystar Television Network - Marcus & Joni Lamb Show, and a host of other TV and podcast programs.

Dr. Stewart is among 50 women leaders, from over 100 countries, who received the prestigious Women Economic Forum 2020 “Iconic Women Creating a Better World for All” Award in New Delhi, India. She is the recipient of The YWCA of Greater Atlanta & The Coca-Cola Company Salute to Women of Achievement Award and her Board memberships include the International Alliance for Christian Education (IACE), the LEAD Program, and New Hope Compassion (NHC) for China. She is available for consulting and speaking engagements nationally and globally. Schedule an Appointment: shelette@shelettestewart.com.