FACULTY

The program is designed and led by Hannah Riley Bowles, Faculty Chair of the program, David Gergen, Director of the Center for Public Leadership, and Ambassador Swanee Hunt, Director of the Women and Public Policy Program. Each year they are joined by experienced faculty from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government as well as by a number of distinguished guest speakers. 

In past years, guest speakers have included:

• Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor, Harvard Business School
• Carol Browner, former Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency
• Jeanne Shaheen, former Governor of New Hampshire
• Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada

Faculty for the program have included:

Hannah Riley Bowles is Faculty Chair of the Women & Power executive program. She is an Assistant Professor at the Kennedy School. Her research focuses primarily on gender in negotiation and the strategies that women use to advance into leadership positions. She teaches and has conducted case research on leadership in crisis and complex multi-party conflict. Earlier in her career, she was a research associate at the Conflict Management Group and Harvard Business School. She was a technical advisor to the Minister of Natural Resources, Energy & Mines of Costa Rica and has been a fellow at the Argentinean National Institute of Public Administration, the West German Parliament, and Oxford University's Forestry Institute. She won the Kennedy School's 2003 Manuel Carballo Award for Excellence in Teaching. She has a DBA from the Harvard Business School, an MPP from the Kennedy School, and an AB from Smith College.

Amy Edmondson, Professor, and Chair, HBS Doctoral Programs, teaches MBA courses on managing change and learning and a PhD course on research methods. Amy's research investigates learning in cross-functional teams in healthcare and other industries. She has published over 40 academic papers and was the recipient of the Academy of Management's award for most significant publication in the field of Organizational Behavior in 1999. Her recent article, "Why Hospitals Don't Learn from Failures: Organizational and Psychological Dynamics That Inhibit System Change" (with A. Tucker), received the 2004 Accenture Award for its significant contribution to management practice. She consults on organizational learning and team effectiveness in organizations in both the public and private sectors. Before her academic career, Professor Edmondson worked as Chief Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller in the early 1980s, and her book, A Fuller Explanation, clarifies Fuller's mathematical contributions for a nonscientific audience. In the late 1980s, Professor Edmondson was Director of Research for Pecos River Learning Centers, where she developed organizational change programs for large companies. She received her PhD in organizational behavior, AM in psychology, and AB in engineering and design, all from Harvard University.  She lives with her husband George Daley, a scientist and physician, and their two sons, Jack (age 7) and Nick (age 5).

Linda Kaboolian is Associate Professor of Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. The focus of her research, teaching and consulting is the design and implementation of public problem solving mechanisms. She has designed systems and written about the paradox of problem solving mechanisms that both encourage employee voice, maintain standards of procedural justice such as confidentiality, and address root causes of problems.  Dr. Kaboolian's work combines practical field experience with theoretical concerns.  Among her recent projects include efforts to infuse innovation into traditional labor-management relations in the public sector and the design and implementation of training materials for the U.S. armed forces on gender integration of combat units and on the institutional context which allow harassment to occur unreported.  She is the third party facilitator of the labor-management partnership in the City of Philadelphia.  She is on the Secretary of Energy's external panel evaluating the employment practices that support the movement of nuclear weapons and strategic nuclear materials.  She is also the chair of the Kennedy School of Government staff ombuds program.  She worked for the Social Security Administration Disability Re-engineering Project, redesigning the process by which initial disability determinations are made.  She conducted a multi-year evaluation of federal efforts to reform labor unions.  She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.  For her dissertation on the reform of manufacturing techniques in the U.S. automobile industry, she spent nearly two years in a factory studying Ford's Taurus production process where the introduction of new technology and a new division of labor changed the nature of the social contract on the shop floor.  She consults and writes about service delivery systems and customer service to diverse communities.  In addition to the Social Security Administration, she has consulted to the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Customs Service and numerous state, local, and nonprofit organizations.

Christine Letts is the Senior Associate Dean for Executive Education and the Rita E. Hauser Lecturer in the Practice of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She has extensive experience in private, non-profit and public management. Letts joined the faculty of the Kennedy School in 1992 and teaches courses to both degree and Executive Education students in nonprofit leadership and philanthropy. After graduating from Connecticut College with a degree in history, she started her career working in New York City government. After receiving her MBA from Harvard Business School in 1976, she joined Cummins Engine Company in Columbus, Indiana and spent 12 years in labor relations and manufacturing management roles, the last of which was Vice President - Columbus Plant Operations.  In 1988, Letts became the first Secretary of the Indiana Department of Transportation, and later led the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, a new agency formed from the three existing departments of Social Services, Welfare and Mental Health. At the Kennedy School, Letts participated in the founding of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations in 1995. She co-authored "Virtuous Capital: What Foundations Can Learn from Venture Capitalists", (Harvard Business Review 1997), High Performance Nonprofit Organizations (John Wiley and Sons 1999) and "Social Entrepreneurship and Societal Transformation", (The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science September 2004).  Letts’ research interests include high engagement philanthropy and the value exchange between nonprofits and funders.

Laura Morgan Roberts is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Harvard Business School. Raised in Gary, Indiana, Roberts was a member of the inaugural class of the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities, located on the campus of Ball State University. She completed her B.A. in Psychology with highest distinction and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Virginia. Roberts received both her M.A. and Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan. Roberts has taught several courses in Organizational Behavior and Organizational Psychology, including: Managing for the Future, Group Behavior, and Research Methods. She currently teaches Leadership and Organizational Behavior (LEAD) in the first year curriculum at the Harvard Business School.  She also teaches in executive leadership programs in the United States, Europe and Africa.  Roberts examines the pathways by which individuals become extraordinary within organizations. Her research identifies systems and practices that build competence, agency and purposeful connection in work organizations. She investigates how challenging and affirming social experiences enable people to discover their strengths, talents and organizational contributions. She also focuses on the self-presentation strategies that individuals employ to demonstrate their capability, establish credibility and develop high quality relationships with diverse constituents in a variety of professional settings, including: medicine, academia, journalism and financial services.  Her work has been published in the Harvard Business Review, Academy of Management Review and the Journal of Organizational Behavior. Based on her research, Roberts conducts workshops and training sessions on authenticity, professional image construction, and cultural competence in diverse organizations. Roberts is a member of the Academy of Management, American Psychological Association, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

David Gergen is a Professor of Public Service and Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School.  Over the past three decades, he has served as a White House advisor to four presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. He most recently served for 18 months in the Clinton administration, first as Counselor to the President and then as Special Advisor to the President and the Secretary of State. In the mid-1980s, he began a career in journalism, becoming Editor of U.S. News & World Report and a television commentator. He joined the Kennedy School faculty in January 1999 while remaining Editor at Large for U.S. News, and a regular analyst on ABC News Nightline.  In the fall of 2000, he published a best-seller, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.  He is also active on nonprofit boards and chairs the National Selection Committee for the Innovations in American Government program sponsored by the Kennedy School of Government.  He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School and holds ten honorary degrees.  He served three-and-a-half years in the Navy and is a member of the Washington, D.C. Bar.  His wife, Anne, is studying at the Jung Institute in Boston.

Swanee Hunt, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, is Director of the Women and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School. Ms. Hunt is the Co-Chair of the Women and Power Executive Program Planning Committee, with David Gergen.  Her past accomplishments include extensive work in domestic and foreign policy. As the U.S. Ambassador to Austria for four years, She focused her energies both on peace projects concerning the conflict in the neighboring Balkan states and work with women leaders throughout Eastern Europe culminating in a major piece published in the Journal of Foreign Affairs, the July 1997 "Vital Voices: Women in Democracy," and the film documentary "Voices." In recognition of her extensive work, she was named "Woman of Peace" by the Together for Peace Foundation in Rome. Hunt has contributed scores of articles to American and international newspapers and professional journals and is currently a contributing editor of The American Benefactor. She has a BA in philosophy, two master's degrees (in psychology and religion), and a doctorate in theology.