World-Class Instruction

The program instructors rank among the most distinguished business scholars, coaches and consultants in the world.

Ellen Van Oosten, PhD

Ellen Van Oosten, PhD joined the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in 1995 and has held various positions including Assistant Dean for Executive Education, Managing Director of Custom Programs, Senior Director of Business Development, Master Coach and most recently, Visiting Assistant Professor and Faculty Director of Executive Education. Van Oosten has spent the last 18 years helping individuals and organizations develop their leadership capability. In her coaching practice, she has worked with a diverse group of managers and executives in the U.S. and abroad, including many from Sherwin Williams, Fifth Third Bank, Scottish Enterprises, and Barnes Group as well as numerous participants enrolled in the Weatherhead School’s executive education programs.

As an instructor, she teaches in the MBA, Executive MBA, Masters of Engineering Management, Law and Undergraduate Programs at Case and regularly delivers non-degree workshops in coaching, emotional intelligence, leadership vision and leadership assessment and development to managers and executives.

As a researcher, Van Oosten’s interests include executive coaching, executive development, emotional intelligence and experiential learning. She has authored several articles on the subject of coaching and emotional intelligence and frequently presents at academic conferences.

PhD, Organizational Behavior, Case Western Reserve University
Dissertation: The Impact of Emotional Intelligence and Executive Coaching on Leader Effectiveness

MBA, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University

BS, Electrical Engineering, University of Dayton

She is certified in the Emotional and Social Competence Inventory by the HayGroup (ECI, ESCI) and is a member of the following associations:

Institute of Coaching, Harvard Medical School - Founding Fellow
Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence(CREIO)
Academy of Management (AOM)
Management and Organizational Behavior Teaching Society(OBTS)
International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA)

More information about Ellen Van Oosten

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).

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Ellen Burts-Cooper, PhD

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.

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.

Heidi Blakeway-Phillips, MBA MBA

Heidi Blakeway-Phillips, CPA, is an experienced executive from a financial and commercial background with over 30 years of experience in creating value for the shareholders of international businesses. She has held executive positions and board directorships at companies based in Europe and the U.S., as well as board directorships at nonprofit organizations. Within corporate organizations, her role has been as the COO or CFO and included defining and executing viable and tempered value strategies: reconfiguring operations, migrating to new business models, introducing operational and financial reporting and controls, negotiating exits and alliances, and leading other critical negotiations. Over the past decade, she has been integral to two successful IPOs. She has extensive experience operating internationally, including the challenges of hyper-inflationary and emerging economies. She lived in London for 20 years and throughout the US for the remaining years. She has started-up, owned and operated businesses in both Europe and the US. Within nonprofit roles, she has led the establishment of best practice for the boards and organizations with which she has been involved, the development of new revenue sources, the broadening of memberships and sponsorships, and the alignment of the organization’s practices with its mission. Blakeway-Phillips is a CPA (New York) having worked for a global accounting and advisory firm in both London and New York. Her areas of specialty were mergers and acquisitions, SEC filings, litigation support and other advisory and consulting services. She holds an MBA from Columbia University and London Business School, and a BS Accounting from The University of Akron.

More information about Heidi Blakeway-Phillips

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