Organizational Change Leadership Faculty

Core Faculty

  • Dr. David Szabla

    The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
    View Dr. David Szabla's research and publications

    Dr. David Szabla is a faculty member in the Department of Educational Leadership, Research and Technology, College of Education and Human Development, Western Michigan University where he leads and teaches in the MA and PHD Programs in Organizational Change Leadership. For over twenty years Dr. Szabla has been guiding managers and leaders working in not-for-profit, for-profit, education, government, and military organizations to reach increased levels of organizational performance. His consulting expertise centers on organizational design, mergers and acquisitions, and individual, group, and organizational development. Dr. Szabla’s research centers on leadership and organizational change. Research underway include projects that are exploring organizational change momentum, the structuring of resistance to organizational change, and leadership in the era of emerging technologies. Dr. Szabla is also developing and validating two survey instruments: one that assesses perception of change strategy as perceived by those undergoing an organizational change, and one that assesses receptivity to organizational change along cognitive, emotional, intentional, and behavioral dimensions. Currently, he is editor-in-chief of the Palgrave Macmillan Handbook titled, The Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Information Age Publishing Book Series, Research in Management Consulting, and the Edward Elgar Handbook of Research Methods in Organizational Change. Dr. Szabla has been published in several journals including Human Resource Development Quarterly and Research on Organizational Change and Development. Dr. Szabla received his doctorate in Human and Organizational Studies from The George Washington University.

  • Dr. Tova Sanders

    Dr. Tova Sanders is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, Research and Technology, College of Education and Human Development, Western Michigan University where she teaches in the MA and PhD Programs in Organizational Change Leadership.  Tova is recognized as an innovative thought leader with 18+ years of experience instructing undergraduate and graduate courses and leading high-performance teams to create, implement, and scale robust academic curriculum focused on leadership, organizational and adult learning, and organizational change. Recognized for outstanding coaching, mentoring, and facilitation in on-line, hybrid, and face-to-face environments with adult learners from diverse industries including healthcare, technology, manufacturing, not-for-profit, governmental service, and education, Tova has demonstrated success serving as the doctoral advisor for 52 doctoral students representing 9 countries toward the successful completion of their dissertation research and feels fortunate to have this global impact and opportunity to learn from, and with, her students.

    Tova’s research interests align with her practitioner experience in leadership, talent development, and the future of work.  She is keenly aware that transformation is occurring across all sectors, requiring shifts not only in organizations, but also how we develop and deploy talent.  Viewing this from a systems perspective, she recognizes the need to integrate workforce development, talent development, education, and technology in order to meet the needs of organizations and promote economic and inclusive prosperity. Works in progress involves the role of business leaders within cross-sector social partnerships, the impact of AI on corporate talent development, the experience of women leaders in consulting and entrepreneurship, and leadership in the context of the future of work.

  • Dr. Margaret Gorman

    Dr. Margaret Gorman is a seasoned OD scholar-practitioner, consultant, and educator with a deep passion for guiding transformative change that improve systems to help people work more efficiently and that enable high-performing teams to thrive in VUCA World. Thriving in dynamic, forward-thinking environments, she boasts a proven track record of contributing to organizational growth across diverse sectors, from founder-owned companies to university business units.  Dr. Gorman’s primary focus lies in enhancing systems to facilitate effective collaboration and harnessing emerging technologies for empowering individuals to work and learn from anywhere.

    Dr. Gorman has guided managers and leaders in education, energy, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, military, nonprofit, and government agencies. She has held leadership roles in the corporate sector, management consulting firms, and higher education. In the realm of education, Margaret excels in design and delivering curriculum catering to working professions that offer various formats individual and cohort, and various forms including in-person, hybrid, and full on-line. Her teaching spans core content areas related to Organizational Change Leadership and a broad spectrum of research methods, survey design, evaluation, and measurement.  She’s actively contributed to the academic community serving on wide range of committees and administrative roles.  She’s served on dissertation committees at several universities, and she has chaired over eighty (80) dissertations to successful defense. Recognized for her outstanding service and teaching, she’s received multiple awards to include Excellence in Teaching our Outstanding Contribution at Academy of Management. 

    Dr. Gorman earned her doctorate in Organizational Studies in 2004 and her master’s degree in human resource development in 1996, both from The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development.  Her groundbreaking dissertation, “Creating Organizational Knowledge During Transformational Change: A Multi-Site Case Study,” employed mixed methods in examining firms in the financial services and power industry. Dr Gorman has published chapters in “The Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers” and in “Advancing Doctoral Leadership Education.”  She regularly presents at national and international conferences; served as a reviewer for the British Journal of Management and Leadership Quarterly. University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development.  Her dissertation: “Creating Organizational Knowledge During Transformation Change: A Multi-Site Case Study” in the financial services and power industry using mixed methods.

  • Dr. Jennifer Bott

    Dr. Jennifer P. Bott holds academic rank as professor of management and has earned a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification.

    She served as provost and vice president for academic affairs from 2017 to 2022. As the chief academic officer and chief administrative officer following the president of Western Michigan University, her responsibilities included the oversight of all academic policies and activities throughout the university, as well as the development and execution of long-range planning for—and coordination of administrative support functions of—the University’s academic enterprise. She served as a member of the President’s Cabinet and collaborated with senior executive and vice-presidential colleagues to propel the University forward in pursuit of its mission through innovation and strategic risk.

    Prior to coming to Western Michigan University, she served as dean of the Miller College of Business at Ball State University. During her tenure as dean, Bott raised over $15 million in gifts and donations to expand the scope of the college’s many programs and initiatives. Before serving as dean of the Miller College, Bott was associate provost at Ball State University leading the online and distance education programs. Duties included oversight and administration of over 60 degrees and nearly 10,000 students. Bott garnered a $1.2 million investment to build the Integrated Learning Institute (iLearn), a faculty development unit housing instructional designers, instructional technologists and custom asset developers. She also created iLearn Research, a fully self-supporting research institute generating primary research in best practices for online and blended education. The online programs grew under Bott’s leadership, increasing institutional tuition revenue by $30 million.

    Bott attained her master’s and doctorate in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Akron in 2004. Her research interests center around methodology and statistics to applied business problems as well as pedagogical improvement across modality and discipline. 

    A well published researcher, Bott has more than 25 published articles in some of the best journals in her field, including Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Small Group Research, and the Journal of Business and Psychology. Her teaching evaluations consistently ranked in the top five percent of her college. She was recognized nationally for innovation in teaching and as a frequent recipient of student selected teaching awards. Bott has received national recognition, including being named a Woman of Influence in 2017 by the Indianapolis Business Journal, receiving the Silver Award, Principal, Major and Special Giving Programs from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, and the Innovation in Business Education Award from the Midcontinent AACSB Deans Association. In addition, her work as associate provost for learning initiatives led to Ball State being recognized nationally with Institution-Wide Excellence in Online Education by the Online Learning Consortium and for Strategic Innovations in Online Education by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association. Bott achieved numerous top 20 rankings in U.S. News and World Report’s online program rankings.

  • Dr. Liliana Menses

    The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

    Dr. Liliana Meneses has worked in higher education since 2003, teaching undergraduate and graduate students at George Mason University, Northeastern University, the George Washington University, and the University of Maryland Global College. For several years now, she has developed Organizational Studies and Human Resource Development and Management curriculum at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels. Her teaching roster includes courses in the content areas of organizational culture, organizational change, organizational leadership, organizational communication and qualitative research methods. In addition, she has consulted overseas with a variety of non-profit organizations and educational institutions. Her academic and research focus is on organizational culture, global competency development, cross cultural training, and cultural identity development. She feels fortunate that her work has allowed her to travel and teach all over the world, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Prague, Santiago and Rio de Janeiro. Liliana holds a master's degree in International Education (Framingham State) and a doctorate in Human Resource Development (the George Washington University). She has presented at various national and international conferences primarily on societal and organizational culture based on the topic of her dissertation and has also contributed to the book “Writing Out of Limbo: International Childhoods, Global Nomads and Third Culture Kids” (Cambridge Scholars Press). She has also written a children's book, The Pink Dolphin, which is available on Amazon.

    Highlighted presentations and publications:

    1. Meneses, L.(2012)  Reconceptualizing “Internationalization” in Distance Higher Education. Business Research Yearbook, vol. XIX (1), pp. 151-157. A publication of the International Academy of Business Disciplines  
    2. Meneses, L. & White, B. (2012) Impact of Direct Instruction on Student Perception of Teaching Presence in Online Learning. Journal of Teaching and Education, vol. 1 (2). 
    3. Gamification in Higher Education. Maryland Distance Learning Association Annual Conference, March 2014 
    4. Intercultural competence and Distance Learning. 2013 Keynote Distinguished Guest. Dialogue of the Civilizations. May, 2013, Boston. 
    5. Developing Intercultural Competence in Online Education Programs. 13th International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change in Organizations. June, 2013. Vancouver. 
  • Dr. Debra Rockey

    Dr. Debra M. Rockey, Psy.D., teaches courses in talent management and organizational change leadership and coaching within the Masters of Arts in Organizational Change Leadership program at WMU. Her dissertation research investigated the role of efficacy in organizational change capacity. She continues to study self-efficacy and group-efficacy in environments of continuous and transformational change from the lens of the emerging leader and their career. Dr. Rockey is a Global Career Development facilitator, an ICF certified coach and a ProSCI certified change practitioner. She is also certified in DiSC, SennDelany Cultural Transformation and Human Centered Design. Dr. Rockey continues to work in the healthcare industry serving her organization as a regional director of organizational development and talent management, providing oversight to regional transformation, the leadership academies, organizational culture and colleague engagement. Her teaching and facilitation philosophy is grounded in evidence-based studies and incorporates both positive psychology and applied improvisation. Dr. Rockey is a member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychologists, the OD Network, Michigan Inforum and the Applied Improvisation Network.

  • David E. Reva

    David E. Reva is a part-time faculty member in the Department of Educational Leadership, Research, and Technology, College of Education and Human Development, Western Michigan University where he teaches courses in the Organizational Change Leadership Program. David has been teaching various courses in organizational change, organizational learning, and organizational consulting in the department for over 15 years. David is known in the department as an excellent instructor. In fact, David was a 2018 recipient of the CEHD Mary L. Dawson Teaching Excellence Award for Part-time Faculty at WMU. In addition to his years of teaching experience, David also has over twenty-five years of consulting experience with leadership at various levels in the education sector through which he helps organizations to reach increased levels of performance. More specifically, his consulting expertise centers on learning management system design, deployment, and individual, group, and organizational development. His research interests center on HRD, Design Thinking, Needs Analysis and Evaluation and their impacts on technology-driven organizational change.

  • Vanessa Hills

    Vanessa Hills, MA, teaches in the Organizational Change Leadership Program and is enrolled in the Organizational Change Leadership Doctoral Program at Western Michigan University. She brings to the classroom a deep understanding of organizational culture and communication with a special interest in diverse environments. Vanessa has lived and worked in North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa, settling in Kalamazoo in 2017. Her career includes over a decade of writing, communication strategy, and consulting for organizations around the world. Vanessa’s research interests include Dialogic Organization Development, Generative Change, and psychosocial approaches to organizational change.  

Educational Leadership, Research and Technology Faculty

  • Dr. Brian Horvitz

    Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
    View biography

    A specialist in educational and instructional technology, Dr. Horvitz teaches the program’s instructional design course.

  • Dr. Eric Archer

    Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK
    View biography

    Dr. Archer brings his research and practice knowledge of international education to the leadership, systems and change course.

  • Dr. Ramona Lewis

    Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI
    View biography

    Fervent about adult development and global engagement, Dr. Lewis teaches the principles and practices of adult learning course.

Guest Speakers

  • Dr. Dan Denison

    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

    Over the past 25 years, Dan has advanced the field of Organizational Development and is one of its leading scholars, practitioners and teachers. His work has made many key contributions to the understanding of organizational culture and its relationship to bottom-line business success. The Denison Model of Organizational Culture is the basis for one of the industry’s leading organizational culture assessment tools. His research has shown a strong relationship between organizational culture and business performance metrics such as profitability, growth, customer satisfaction, and innovation. He has consulted with many leading corporations regarding organizational change, leadership development, and the cultural issues associated with mergers & acquisitions, turnarounds, and globalization. “It’s amazing getting to work with top level executives around the world who are trying to build their organizations for the future,” says Dan. “We get to have an impact in companies from India to China, to Russia, to Saudi Arabia, to Japan, to Columbia, to Malaysia. And despite all of the travel, I really enjoy it!” From 1999 through 2016, Dan was Professor of Management and Organization at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland. Starting in January 2017, he took the title of Professor Emeritus. Prior to joining IMD, Dan was an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management at the University of Michigan Business School, teaching in MBA, PhD, and Executive Education programs. A prolific author, Dan’s latest book, co-authored with IMD colleague Robert Hooijberg, is Leading Culture Change in Global Organizations (Jossey-Bass, 2012). He is a frequent speaker at professional conferences, is widely published in leading journals, and has contributed chapters to many books. Having lived, taught and consulted in Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, the Pacific Rim, the Middle East and the Far East, Dan brings a broad understanding and breadth of experience to Denison clients worldwide. Dan earned his B.A. in Psychology, Sociology & Anthropology from Albion College, his M.A. in Sociology from Kent State University, and his Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan.

    Learn more: Denison Consulting.

  • Dr. David W. Jamieson

    University of California, Los Angeles

    Dr. Jamieson is President of the Jamieson Consulting Group, Inc. (providing consultation, leader coaching & speaking), an Executive Fellow, and retired Professor, Organization Development & Change at the University of St. Thomas. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Scholar in 3 other graduate OD programs. He has over 50 years of experience consulting to organizations on leadership, change, strategy, design, and human resource issues. He is a Past National President of the American Society for Training and Development (now ATD) and Past Chair of the Management Consultation Division and Practice Theme Committee of the Academy of Management (AOM). He has been honored with The Lifetime Achievement Award from the Organization Development Network (ODN), Distinguished Scholar-Practitioner Career Achievement Award from AOM, Distinguished OD Educator from the OD & Change Division of the AOM, Sharing OD Knowledge Award from the ODN, a past-Chair of the Organization Development Education Association and will deliver the 51st Annual Lecture at Benedictine University in Spring 2021 on Use of Self for Leaders & Change Agents. He received his Ph.D. in Management from UCLA, majoring in Organization Design & Development and a BS in Business Administration from Drexel University, with a Behavioral Science minor. Dave is co-author of Managing Workforce 2000: Gaining the Diversity Advantage (Jossey-Bass, 1991), co-author of The Facilitator’s Fieldbook, 1st, 2nd, 3rd Edition (AMACOM, 2012), co-author of Consultation for Organizational Change (IAP, 2010), Consultation for Organizational Change, Revisited (IAP, 2016), co-author of Handbook for Strategic HR: Best Practices in Organization Development from the OD Network (AMACOM, 2012) and co-author of Enacting Values-Based Change: Organization Development in Action (2018). He has also published 17 chapters and dozens of articles in journals and newsletters. His current writing includes a practitioner book on Use of Self and a new book on Strategic Organization Design. He recently became Editor, OD Review and Assoc. Editor, Journal of Management Inquiry and serves on 2 other editorial review boards: Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences and Journal of Organization Change Management.

    Books:

  • Dr. Sandra Janoff

    Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

    Sandra Janoff has twenty-five years experience planning, designing, and facilitating whole-systems interventions in the public and private sector. She co-developed the principle-based methodology called Future Search, a process used world-wide to get the whole system in the room, focusing on the future and creating values-based action strategies. Sandra consults to organizations and communities in Africa, Asia, Europe, India, North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. She has worked on a vast array of complex social, technical and economic issues and has taught Future Search principles to over 4000 people. Organizations with whom she has worked include: Haworth Furniture, 3M Plant Engineering, Cigna Insurance-Global Risk Management, FAIRWAY Filamentos, Brazilian Institute of Quality and Productivity, Quaker Foods Topeka Pet Foods Division, British Airways-Human Resource Division, Whole Foods Market, Federal Aviation Administration, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Maryland, Reichhold Chemical, Quaker Foods, The Alliance –a joint venture of AT&T, CWA and IBEW, Federal Reserve Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Kepler’s Books, New Leaf Distributing Company, Malloy Lithography, Forte Consulting, Rose Glen Capital, Community Resource Exchange, Ashridge Business School, Auburn University, Austin Community College, Drexel University, Johns Hopkins University, National Lewis University, Peabody College, Resources for Human Development, National Baptist Ministries, Boy Scouts of St. Louis, Missouri, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and Tearfund Foundation.

    FUTURE SEARCH

    Books:

  • Dr. Bill Pasmore

    Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

    Professor, Columbia University; Senior Vice President, Center for Creative Leadership; Founder & Principal, Advanced Change

    Bill is a leading authority on change. As a thought leader in the field of organization development, he has published thirty books and numerous articles, including Advanced Consulting, Leading Continuous Change, Braided Organizations, Designing Effective Organizations, Creating Strategic Change, and Relationships that Enable Enterprise Change. He was the inaugural co-editor of the annual book series Research on Organizational Change and Development, and editor of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. As a practitioner, he has been advising leaders for decades. As a coach and consultant to senior leaders, he assists in both personal and organizational transformation. As a teacher and mentor, he helps develop consultants into trusted advisors. His current efforts focus on understanding the implications of future technologies for organizations and leadership, equipping leaders with the skills they need to lead change and understanding what gets in the way of changing things we want to change, from our own behavior to organizational strategies to societal issues such as diversity, equity and inclusion. Before joining Columbia and CCL, he was a senior partner with the New York-based consulting firm, Oliver Wyman Delta Consulting, and prior to that, a professor in the School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. He resides in New York with his wife, Mary and is the proud father of two young professional women pursuing careers in consulting. Bill holds a BS in Aeronautical Engineering/Industrial Management and a Ph.D. in Administrative Sciences, both from Purdue University.

    Find out more at Advanced Change.

  • Dr. Joanne Preston

    Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

    Dr. Preston is an internationally recognized management consultant who specializes in organizational development across large, complex systems.  She provides viable solutions and management development breakthroughs for major corporations and family business that focus on measurable outcomes and results. Joanne enjoys management challenges in which there exist cross-functional teams, including executive, middle, and line management that need to demonstrate forward strategic thinking in family business, non-profit, government and NGOs.  She frequently involves executives in open systems planning and transorganization development at the organizational and national levels to include culture change, organizational learning, organizational effectiveness, knowledge management and self-designing organizations. Joanne received her Ph.D. and MA in Psychology from Louisiana State University.  A former Professor of Organizational Development at the prestigious Pepperdine University in Culver City, California and recently the University Dean of the Doctorate of Management, Colorado Technical University. Joanne has more than 40 years of organizational development and management development consulting experience with governments, business and industry plus community interventions domestically, in developing countries and NGOs. She was recognized in 1994 as the Outstanding Organizational Development Consultant of the Year by the Organizational Development Institute for her work in Global Change.  Joanne is the Editor of the Organizational Development Journal.  She has been listed every year since 1997 in the Who's Who of International Professionals.

    Joanne C. Preston and Associates