Leadership Deep Dive™ | Weatherhead School at Case Western Reserve University
Executive Education Programs Leadership Deep Dive™

Instructor Bios


World-Class Instruction

The program instructors rank among the most distinguished business scholars and consultants in the world, including the creators of Appreciative Inquiry and emotional intelligence, business concepts that are changing the world through business.

Frank Barrett

Frank Barrett, PhD

Frank Barrett, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Management and Organization Behavior in the Department of Systems Management at the Naval Post Graduate Academy. He is also a faculty member of the Human and Organizational Development Program at Fielding Institute. Frank's professional interests and expertise lie in Appreciative Inquiry, improvisation and organizational innovation, organizational learning, spiritual development, social impact of information technology and information revolution, global studies. He is a consultant to organizations in profit, non-profit, and governmental sectors. He has written and lectured widely on social constructionism, Appreciative Inquiry, organizational change, jazz improvisation and organizational learning. He has published articles on metaphor, masculinity, improvisation, organizational change and organizational development in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science; Human Relations; Organization Science, and Organizational Dynamics as well as numerous book chapters. He wrote "Generative Metaphor Intervention: A New Approach to Inter-group Conflict" (with D. Cooperrider) which won the award for best paper from the Organizational Development Division of the Academy of Management in 1988. Frank was co-author of a paper that won the best paper award in the Organizational Development and Change Division of the Academy of Management in 2003. The paper was titled, "Planning on Spontaneity: Lessons from Jazz for a Democratic Theory of Change". He is co-editor of Appreciative Inquiry and Organizational Transformation (Vermont: Greenwood Books, 2001). Frank is also an active jazz pianist. In addition to leading his own trios and quartets, he has traveled extensively in the United States, England, and Mexico with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.

Diana Bilimoria

Diana Bilimoria, PhD

Diana Bilimoria, Ph.D. is Keybank Professor and Professor and Chair of the Department of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. She received her Ph.D. in Business Administration from The University of Michigan.

Dr. Bilimoria's research focuses on leadership, governance, gender diversity and inclusion in organizations. Her work helps individuals and organizations enhance their leadership contributions and impact to create positive benefits. She studies issues surrounding the representation, careers, quality of life and success of individuals in organizations, especially women and underrepresented minorities, particularly their advancement to and participation in senior organizational ranks such as in top executive teams and on boards of directors. Topics she studies include: How do individuals achieve their fullest potential as leaders and contributors in organizations? What facilitates women and minority group members becoming full participants in organizations, top management teams, and boardrooms? How can workplaces tap into all the capabilities of leadership and diversity? Her work has applications for individual, group, and organizational change. Her research has been used to facilitate the institutional transformation of research universities to become more inclusive of the contributions and development of women faculty. Other applications include the improvement of corporate and nonprofit organizational practices of recruitment, performance evaluation, advancement, and leadership development to attract and retain a diverse workforce.

Dr. Bilimoria has written several books including Women in STEM Careers: International Perspectives in Increasing Workforce Participation, Advancement and Leadership (2014), Gender Equity in Science and Engineering: Advancing Change in Higher Education (2012), Women on Corporate Boards of Directors: International Research and Practice (2008) and Handbook on Women in Business and Management (2007). She has served as the Chair of the Gender and Diversity in Organizations Division of the Academy of Management. She has published extensively in leading journals, has contributed to several edited volumes, and has received multiple research grants. She has been the editor of the Journal of Management Education and sits on the editorial boards of several journals in the business and management field.

Dr. Bilimoria is an expert in how leadership development can transform individuals, teams, and organizations. Her teaching focuses on executive leadership, emotional intelligence, women in organizations, diversity and inclusion, and organizational transformation. She has served as an organizational consultant and management educator for private, public and nonprofit organizations, and as an advisor and coach for executives, managers and professionals.

Dr. Bilimoria received the Weatherhead School of Management's Teaching Excellence Award in 2014, was a Cleveland, OH area ATHENA award finalist in 2013, received the Excellence in Higher Education Leadership Award from the American Council on Education (ACE) Ohio Women’s Network in 2012, the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women’s Spotlight Series Prize for Women’s Scholarship at Case Western Reserve University in 2007, and the Weatherhead School of Management’s Doctoral Teaching Excellence Award in 2002. She has been internationally recognized for her scholarship, leadership and service, including the 1999 Anbar Golden Page Award for her editorship of the Journal of Management Education, and Academy of Management Conference awards in 2010 (Gender and Diversity in Organizations Division), 2009 (Careers Division), 2006 (Careers Division), 1999 (Organizational Behavior Division) and 1997 (Organization and Management Theory Division).

More information about Diana Bilimoria

Richard Boyatzis

Richard Boyatzis, PhD

Richard Boyatzis is a Distinguished University Professor at Case Western Reserve University, and a professor in the Departments of Organizational Behavior, Psychology, and Cognitive Science, as well as H.R. Horvitz Chair in Family Business. While at CWRU, he served as department chair, associate dean of Executive Education and interim director of the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Management. He has won numerous awards at CWRU for research, teaching and service. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the Association for Psychological Sciences.

Prior to joining the faculty at CWRU, he was president and CEO of McBer & Co. from 1976 to 1987, having been with McBer since 1969. From 1983 to 1985 he was chief operating officer of Yankelovich, Skelly & White, while on its board of directors and the board of the Reliance Consulting Group. From 1985 to 1986 he was on the board of the Hay Group when they were owned by Saatchi & Saatchi.

His research interests include: leadership and developing emotional intelligence, competency, coaching, neuroscience of change and outcome assessment. He is the author of more than 200 articles and nine books that include: The Competent Manager: A Model for Effective Performance (in two languages); Innovations in Professional Education: Steps on a Journey from Teaching to Learning, with David Kolb and Scott Cowen; Transforming Qualitative Information: Thematic Analysis and Code Development (in two languages); the international best-seller, Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence with Daniel Goleman and Annie McKee (in 31 languages); Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting With Others Through Mindfulness, Hope, and Compassion, with Annie McKee (in 18 languages); Becoming a Resonant Leader: Develop Your Emotional Intelligence, Renew Your Relationships, Sustain Your Effectiveness, with Annie McKee and Fran Johnson (in eight languages); and Helping People Change: Coaching with Compassion for Lifelong Learning and Growth with Melvin Smith and Ellen Van Oosten (in eight languages).

Boyatzis is a frequent speaker on the international circuit, having delivered speeches and seminars on all seven continents and five countries. He has consulted to many Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and organizations in the Americas, Europe and Asia on various topics, including executive and management development, organization structure, culture change, research and development productivity, economic development, selection, promotion, performance appraisal and career planning.

His Coursera Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), including Inspiring Leadership Through Emotional Intelligence, have over 1.5 million enrolled from 215 countries.

He has over 7,500 hours of coaching, has been teaching and training coaches since 1970 and published several dozen articles on coaching.

Boyatzis has a PhD and MA in social psychology from Harvard University and a BS in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT.

More information about Richard Boyatzis

David Cooperrider

David Cooperrider, PhD

David L. Cooperrider, Ph.D., is a Distinguished University Professor at Case Western Reserve University and holds two chaired professorships: Char and Chuck Fowler Professor of Business as an Agent of World Benefit and the Covia - David L. Cooperrider Professorship in Appreciative Inquiry, both at the Weatherhead School of Management. David is the Founder and Faculty Director of the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit and is also the Honorary Chairman of Champlain College's David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry at the Robert P. Stiller School of Business. Recently David was placed in the Organization Development field’s Hall of Fame and received "The Lifetime Achievement Award"--the highest honor in his field of Organization Development and the OD Network—for his work on Appreciative Inquiry for large group multi-stakeholder planning, and his advancement the concept of Business as an Agent of World Benefit” as the field’s North Star.

David is best known for his original theoretical articulation of "AI" or Appreciative Inquiry with his mentor Suresh Srivastva. Today AI's approach to strengths-inspired, instead of problematizing change, is being practiced everywhere: the corporate world, the world of public service, of economics, of education, of faith, of philanthropy, and social science scholarship-it is affecting them all. Jane Nelson, at Harvard's Kennedy School of Leadership, recently wrote “David Cooperrider is one of the outstanding scholar-practitioners of our generation.”


David has served as advisor to prominent leaders in business and society, including projects with five Presidents and/or Nobel Laureates such as William Jefferson Clinton, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kofi Annan, and Jimmy Carter. David advises a wide variety of corporations including Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Keurig Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Verizon, Hunter Douglas, Cleveland Clinic, National Grid, Smuckers, Clarke, Fairmount Minerals, McKinsey, Parker, Dealer Tire, Webasto, and Wal-Mart as well as the Navy, Red Cross, United Way of America, USAID, United Nations, the UN Global Compact, and hundreds of international private voluntary organizations (the GEM project.) David is also a founding Board Member of the International Association of Positive Psychology, the Taos Institute, and a Fellow of the World Business Academy and International Academy of Management. Early in the growth of the UN’s Global Compact David was called upon by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to facilitate (using Appreciative Inquiry) the largest summit in history between business CEOs and leaders of government and civil society. It was one of the high point moments in David’s career and shifted the focus of his work to the discovery and design of positive institutions and a world of full-spectrum flourishing, that is “a world where businesses can excel, all people can thrive, and nature can flourish now and across the generations.”

David has published 26 books and authored over 100 articles and book chapters. He has served as editor of both the Journal of Corporate Citizenship with Ron Fry and the current academic research 4-volume series on Advances for Appreciative Inquiry, with Michel Avital. In 2010 David was honored with the Peter F. Drucker Distinguished Fellow award. David's books include Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change (with Diana Whitney); The Organization Dimensions of Global Change (with Jane Dutton); Handbook of Transformative Cooperation (Stanford Press) Organizational Courage and Executive Wisdom (with Suresh Srivastva); and The Strengths-based Leadership Handbook (with Brun & Ejsing.) David's work has received numerous awards including Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning by ASTD; the Porter Award for Best writing in the field of Organization Development and the Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer Award in the domain of Sustainable Development. In 2016 David was named as one of the nation's top thought leaders by Trust Across America, and honored as one of "AACSB's Most Influential Leaders in the Field of Management." He was recently named Distinguished University Professor at Case Western Reserve University.

In perhaps the highest recognition of his thought leadership, Champlain College's Stiller School of Business honored David’s impact with an academic center in his name. Opened in 2014 it is called the David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry, and David serves as its Honorary Chair. For the center's dedication Professor Marty Seligman, the father of the positive psychology movement wrote: "David Cooperrider is a giant: a giant of discovery, a giant of dissemination, and a giant of generosity." Likewise, Jane Dutton, University of Michigan thought leader and former President of the Academy of Management said:

"David Cooperrider is changing the world with his ideas and who he is as a person. There are few who combine such insight, inspiration and energy."

David is the founder of the Global Forum for Business as an Agent of World Benefit—it was launched in partnership with the UN Global Compact and with the Academy of Management. David’s most recent book, co-authored with Audrey Selian and others, is called: The Business of Building a Better World: The Leadership Revolution That is Changing Everything.

Key websites:
https://weatherhead.case.edu/faculty/david-cooperrider
https://weatherhead.case.edu/news/2017/09/15/david-cooperrider-to-receive-
https://weatherhead.case.edu/centers/fowler/

More information about David Cooperrider

Vanessa Druskat

Vanessa Druskat, PhD

Vanessa Druskat is a Weatherhead Affiliate Instructor and an internationally recognized expert on work team effectiveness, team leadership, and emotional intelligence. When she isn’t teaching, she spends her time researching and consulting on topics of work team effectiveness and team leadership in organizations that range from Fortune 100 Companies (e.g., Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, and Whirlpool), to nonprofit organizations such as the Houston Public School System and the Boston Aids Action Committee. She is passionate about identifying the behaviors and strategies that differentiate the highest performing leaders and teams from those that perform at average levels.

Druskat is an award winning researcher and instructor and has published her work in the most prestigious journals in her field including the Harvard Business Review and M.I.T.’s Sloan Management Review. She has been invited to present her ideas and research at dozens of universities in locations as varied as the Harvard Business School; the Stanford University Business School; ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain; Ege University in Izmir, Turkey; Corvinus University in Budapest, Hungary; and The PSG Institute of Management in Coimbatore, India.

Professor Druskat joined the Whittemore School faculty as an Associate Professor in 2003 after spending eight years on the faculty of the Department of Organizational Behavior at Case Western Reserve University. She lives in Durham, New Hampshire with her husband and two children.

Shannon French

Shannon French

Shannon E. French, Ph.D., began her tenure as director of the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence and Inamori Professor of Ethics at Case Western Reserve University on September 8, 2008.

Prior to leading the Inamori Center, French was the associate chair of the Department of Leadership, Ethics and Law at the United States Naval Academy, where she had been a member of the civilian faculty since 1997.

At Case Western Reserve, she'll serve as a tenured faculty member in the philosophy department in the College of Arts and Sciences in addition to her leadership duties at the Inamori Center.

French's research and scholarly interests are primarily in the area of military ethics, but also include leadership ethics, professional ethics, moral psychology, biomedical and environmental ethics. She has contributed articles and chapters on present-day conduct of war issues such as defining terrorism, the use of torture, warrior transitions and the moral responsibility of leaders not to erode values that provide the foundation for restraint and limit the awful scope of war. Her 2003 book, The Code of the Warrior: Exploring Warrior Values, Past and Present, features a forward by Senator John McCain.

Currently working on her second book, French has published numerous other works and is an associate editor for the Journal of Military Ethics and the Encyclopedia of Global Justice.

French has presented papers at prestigious international conferences around the globe. In 2004, she helped design and present four-day training seminars on moral reasoning and ethical advisement for the U.S. Navy's Chaplain Corps at Navy and Marine Corps bases around the United States and in Italy and Japan. The success of that program resulted in the development and presentation of a similar series of seminars on the subject of character development in 2006.

French received her bachelor's degree in philosophy, classical studies and history from Trinity University in San Antonio in 1990. She was recognized in 1990 as one of the 20 "Best and Brightest College Students in America" by USA TODAY. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in philosophy from Brown University before joining the Naval Academy faculty.

Ronald Fry

Ronald Fry, PhD

Ron Fry is a Professor in the Department of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. He holds a BS in Engineering at the University of California at Los Angeles (1969), and an SM in Management from the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1971) where he also received a PhD in Organizational Psychology (1978).

A co-creator of Appreciative Inquiry, Fry has conducted research and consulted with industrial, service and public sector organizations in the areas of human resource development and organizational change for more than twenty-five years. His work with such organizations as Ford, General Electric, Northern Telecom, Mittal Steel, and the Greater Houston Mental Health Association has focused on projects related to employee involvement, participatory management systems, fundamental cultural change, team building and executive development, and strategic planning.

Fry joined the faculty of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in 1978 and was tenured in 1984. Fry directed the redesign and launch of the new Masters Program in Positive Organizational Development and Change, after having directed the Executive MBA Program for fifteen years. Both programs have consistently earned high national and international rankings in their respective areas.

Fry is widely published in the areas of Organizational Development, Appreciative Inquiry, Team Building, Change Management, Executive Development and the role and functions of the CEO. He continues to both apply and study the applications of AI in the field. His books include Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Approach to Building Cooperative Capacity, with Frank Barrett and Appreciative Team Building (with Diana Whitney, Amanda Trosten-Bloom, and Jay Cherney). He also co-edited Appreciative Inquiry and Organizational Transformation: Reports from the Field (Quorum, 2001).

He has developed and conducted a Certificate Program in Appreciative Leadership and Organizational Capacity Building for over 150 leaders of voluntary social change organizations in more than 30 countries. With David Cooperrider, he co-directs the Case Weatherhead Certificate Program in Appreciative Inquiry in Positive Business and Society Change. He is Editor and Chief of the Case Center for Business as Agent of World Benefit’s global inquiry and directs the Center’s Institute for Advances in Appreciative Inquiry. He currently oversees AI applications in a variety of systems including World Vision, Lubrizol, Roadway Express, and the US Navy.

Fry has served as a visiting faculty to Canterbury University in Christchurch, New Zealand, Katholieke University in Leuven, Belgium and to the Administrative Staff College of India. He has been honored with the University Award for Outstanding Teacher in the Professional Schools and the Weatherhead School’s Lifetime Service Award.

More information about Ronald Fry

Jeremy Hunter, PhD

Jeremy Hunter, PhD

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.

Melvin Smith

Melvin Smith, PhD

Melvin L. Smith is a Professor in the Department of Organizational Behavior and Faculty Director of Executive Education at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. Smith holds a BS degree in General Management and Accounting from Purdue University and an MBA in Marketing from Clark-Atlanta University. He received his PhD in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management from the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business.

Smith’s research and teaching focus on leadership and emotional intelligence in the workplace, as well as social exchange relationships, social networks, and leadership development through executive coaching.

Smith has provided training and/or consulting services to executives in the United States, Canada, Scotland, Dubai, New Zealand, India and Trinidad. In addition, he has served as a visiting professor at ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain where he co-taught a senior executive education course on emotionally intelligent leadership.

Prior to completing his doctoral work at the University of Pittsburgh, Melvin spent more than fifteen years in a series of sales/marketing management, and organization development positions with a number of Fortune 500 companies including IBM, Pepsi-Cola, and H.J. Heinz.

Smith is co-author of the book Helping People Change (with Richard Boyatzis and Ellen Van Oosten). He has also published in a variety of journals including: Harvard Business Review, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Journal of Management Development, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science and Organizational Dynamics.

More information about Melvin Smith

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