Executive Education Faculty List & Bios
Stacy Blake-Beard
stacy.blakebeard@simmons.edu
Senior Faculty Affiliate, Center for Gender in Organizations
Ph.D., University of Michigan
Specialization: Organization behavior, mentoring, diversity
Dr. Blake-Beard's research focuses on the challenges and opportunities offered by mentoring relationships, and on how these relationships may be changing as a result of increasing workforce diversity. She is particularly interested in the issues women face as they develop mentoring relationships. Her research led to a highly publicized study on the growing importance of women mentors, and she also studies the dynamics of formal mentoring programs in both corporate and educational settings.
Before coming to Simmons in 2002, Dr. Blake-Beard was Assistant Professor of Administration, Planning, and Social Policy at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, where she taught organizational behavior, cultural diversity in organizations, and mentoring relationships at work. She consults with a number of organizations on issues of diversity, implementing formal mentoring programs and team building for organizations such as Chase Manhattan Bank, The Compact for Faculty Diversity, and PepsiCo. She currently sits on the advisory boards of Essence magazine's Best Places for African American Women to Work, MentorNet, and the Harvard Project on Tenure.
Carol Frohlinger
execed@simmons.edu
Affiliated Faculty
Carol Frohlinger is a co-author of Her Place at the Table: A Woman’s Guide to Negotiating Five Key Challenges to Leadership Success (Jossey-Bass/John Wiley, September 2004). She also co-founded Negotiating Women, Inc, which provides practical skills training women can use immediately to be more successful at work. Carol gives talks to groups and organizations who understand that promoting and retaining talented women is a “win-win-win” - good for women, good for men and good for the bottom line. She shares stories and “lessons learned” from the thousands of women she has helped to become more successful at work by negotiating more effectively - with clients and colleagues, bosses and boards. Known for her energy and informal style, groups to whom Carol has spoken include the Accenture Women Senior Executives Conference, the Atlanta Women’s Network, the Association of Financial Professionals, Ernst and Young, JPMorgan Chase, KPMG International, Howrey LLP, the National Association of Women Lawyers and White & Case LLP. Carol’s advice has been featured by NPR, Martha Stewart Living Radio and The New York Times among other mainstream media. She is also frequently interviewed by publications serving the legal and accounting professions.
An affiliated faculty member of the Simmons School of Management, Carol is a former sales executive, commercial banker and practicing attorney. She holds a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. Carol serves on the board of Bloom Again Foundation, a not-for-profit dedicated to financial independence for women. In 2007, she was appointed to the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Women in the Profession and serves as chair of its Best Practices Sub-committee. Carol also does pro bono work with The InterOrganizational Network (ION) which consists of eight regional organizations located across the United States. The project is focused on increasing the number of women on the boards of America's publicly held companies.
Susan Hodgkinson
execed@simmons.edu
Affiliated Faculty
MBA Simmons School of Management
Specialization: Leadership development, personal and team brand management
Susan Hodgkinson is Principal of The Personal Brand Company which she founded in 1994. She is a leadership development expert, award-winning executive coach, and professional speaker. Her expertise in personal brand management is built upon her success as a marketing and public relations professional working inside organizations in healthcare, financial services and state government.
Ms. Hodgkinson is the creator of the proprietary Leadership Brand Management™ and Personal Brand Management™ methodologies, which she has applied in the coaching and workshop settings with hundreds of professionals throughout the U.S. who know they must strategically manage their own professional learning, leadership development and personal brand to succeed—for their company and themselves.Clients include professionals at all levels in organizations, including women and people of color, who have significantly increased their impact, confidence and mobility through this work.
Susan Hodgkinson's work has most recently been featured in media outlets including: The New York Times, The Detroit Free Press, The Boston Globe, Fox News, Chronicle. She holds her MBA from Simmons School of Management.She is a frequent presenter at national conferences, and has written articles for Employee Benefits News, The Merger & Acquisitions Advisor, Profiles in Diversity and Women’s Business Journal. She is the author of The Leader’s Edge: Using Personal Branding to Drive Performance and Profit (iuniverse, 2005).
She is a nationally ranked triathlete and lives with her family in Massachusetts
Cynthia Ingols
cynthia.ingols@simmons.edu
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Gender in Organizations
Ed.D., Harvard University
Specialization: Organization behavior, change management, careers
Dr. Ingols combines careers in teaching, consulting, and research. She taught Management Communication at Harvard Business School and quantitative research methodology courses at other institutions. Dr. Ingols focuses her consulting work in three areas: developing interactive executive education programs, particularly using cases, within colleges and corporations; coaching women managers and executives to deepen their self-confidence; and conducting organizational diagnostic work to enhance innovation and creativity. Her research has been published in leading journals such as Harvard Business Review, Organizational Dynamics, Training, and Design Manual Journal. She recently co-authored two books - Your Job Interview: An Easy, Smart Guide to Interview Success; and Take Charge of Your Career - with SOM colleague Mary Shapiro.
Deborah Kolb
deborah.kolb@simmons.edu
Deloitte Ellen Gabriel Professor for Women and Leadership
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Gender in Organizations
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Specialization: Negotiation, gender
Professor Kolb is an authority on gender issues in negotiation, and leadership, especially how women can negotiate the conditions for their own success while at the same time contributing to the effectiveness of their organization. Kolb has co-authored several books on this subject. Everyday Negotiation: Navigating the Hidden Agendas of Bargaining shows women (and men) how they can become more effective in their everyday negotiations by attending to the dual requirements of the shadow negotiation – advocacy for oneself and connection with others. Originally titled, The Shadow Negotiation, Harvard Business Review named it one of the ten best business books of 2000 and it received the best book award from the International Association of Conflict Management in 2001. Her new book Her Place at the Table: A Women’s Guide to Negotiating the Five Challenges of Leadership Success describes how successful women negotiate for what they need to be effective in leadership roles at all levels of an organization.
Kolb publishes extensively on these topics and regularly presents her work to national and international audiences. Kolb has recently done work with: Campbell Soup, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutschebank; Deloitte and Touche; Eli Lilly; EMC, W.L. Gore, IBM, JP Morgan-Chase, Phillips Medical, Pricewaterhouse/Coopers; Time, Inc., and Verizon. Non profit organizations have included The Ford Foundation, The Consultative Group in International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), Girl Scouts, USA, The Society for Human Resource Management, Financial Executives International, Financial Women’s Association, the Mayo Clinic, Network of Executive Women, Women in Technology International, among many others. Dr. Kolb is a principal in Negotiating Women, LLC., a company that provides negotiation training and consultation especially designed for women.
Kolb joined the Simmons faculty in 1977. From 1991-1994, she was Executive Director of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the Program where she co-directs The Negotiations in the Workplace Project.
Gina LaRoche
execed@simmons.edu
MBA Harvard Business School
Specialization: Strategy/strategic thinking, marketing and networking
Professor LaRoche is the Managing Director of INSPIRITAS Corporation, a consulting and training firm advancing the practice of leadership. INSPIRITAS’ executive programs challenge leadership teams to accelerate results using vision, strategy and accountability. She has brought her unique talents to recent clients: Miller Brewing, Harvard University, American Student Assistance and Stamford Hospital. She has 18 years experience in sales, marketing and training at high-tech and emerging growth companies.
In 2000, she founded Ingia Solutions to provide strategic marketing expertise to emerging growth companies. Prior to Ingia, she served as director of marketing for Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), bringing the new Net Markets practice from start-up to revenues of $40 million. In her prior position with CSC, she managed product marketing for the e-Business group where she developed and delivered training programs for both sales personnel and technology consultants. Previously she was a product-marketing manager at Vicorp Interactive Systems, a telecommunications product and services firm.
Ms. LaRoche has worked with many organizations as a consultant, coach and trainer to develop strategic business and marketing plans and execute on them to achieve breakthrough results. Ms. LaRoche started her career as a sales professional at IBM where she has received numerous excellence awards. She is currently the President of the Board of Cambridge Family and Children’s Services.
Sylvia Maxfield
sylvia.maxfield@simmons.edu
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Gender in Organizations
Ph.D., Harvard University
Specialization: Global economics, corporate social responsibility
Through Dr. Maxfield’s experience in both the academic and business worlds she has become a specialist in the global economy. Before coming to Simmons, Maxfield taught Business and the International Economy and Comparative Government-Business Relations as a professor at Harvard and Yale Universities, and also served as the academic director of Yale’s M.A. Program in International Affairs. In business, Dr. Maxfield was the Senior Sovereign Analyst for Latin America at Lehman Brothers. She also has consulted widely with organizations such as the World Bank and Mitsubishi International. Maxfield is the author and editor of several books, most recently Gatekeepers of Growth. Her cases and research projects have appeared in many publications, including The Wall Street Journal.
Dean Deborah Merrill-Sands
deborah.merrill-sands@simmons.edu
Dean
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Gender in Organizations
Ph.D., Cornell University
Specialization: Organization behavior, leadership, gender
Deborah Merrill-Sands has served as Dean of the Simmons School of Management since 2004. Dr. Merrill-Sands is an authority on gender dynamics in the workplace, women and leadership, and organizational change. As Dean, Dr. Merrill Sands has overseen the development of the School's nationally-ranked entrepreneurship program, integrated business ethics and corporate social responsibility into the curriculum, strengthened faculty research, and expanded global education and partnerships. In her previous role as the School's Associate Dean, she was responsible for executive education, research, development and alumnae relations, and corporate relations. She partnered with Deloitte to fund the School's first endowed chair in Women and Leadership and secured new Fortune 50 companies as Executive Education clients. Dr. Merrill-Sands is a co-founder and former co-director of the Center for Gender in Organizations, the research arm of the School of Management focused on deepening understanding of gender and diversity dynamics in the work place and their impact on women's opportunities for leadership. The Center was launched with a major grant from the Ford Foundation.
Before joining the School of Management in 1998, Dr. Merrill-Sands was the leader of a major women's initiative in a large, global, consortium of prestigious international research centers. Previously her research, executive training, and consulting focused on strengthening research management in public sector research organizations in developing countries. Her research focused on research methodologies and organizational mechanisms that enable the integration of the perspectives of poor farmers into agricultural research priority-setting and technology development.
Dr. Merrill-Sands has considerable international experience, particularly in Europe, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. She has consulted widely with major foundations and international development organizations, including the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, and several UN agencies. She has served on the boards of not-for-profits and international research organizations. Currently she is a member of the Board of Miss Porter's School in Farmington, CT.
Dr. Merrill-Sands has received fellowships and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and Fulbright-Hays. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in applied anthropology from Cornell University and her B.A. from Hampshire College.
She is the author of numerous monographs, book chapters, and journal articles. Recent publications include: "Women Pursuing Leadership and Power: The Myth of the 'Opt-Out' Revolution", CGO Insight, 2005; "Creating and Sustaining Diversity and Inclusion in Organizations: Best Practices for Today and Tomorrow" in The Psychology and Management of Workplace Diversity (2003); and "Social Differences Lens" in Reader in Gender, Work, and Organization (2003).
Recent speaking engagements include 'Principled Leadership: Aligning profitability and social responsibility," keynote at TEC Women and Leadership Forum; "Gender Dynamics in the Workplace: Implications for women and leadership," keynote for Hewlett-Packard's Women's Forum; and "Women as Leaders: Paradox of Success - Claiming your leadership value," delivered at Northern Trust, JP Morgan Chase, Sun Life Financial, State Street Bank, and Goldman Sachs.
Dean Merrill-Sands is quoted frequently in the media as an expert on women and leadership, including recent coverage in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Radio, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, NY Times, and Boston Globe.
Debra Noumair
execed@simmons.edu
Ph.D. Teachers College Columbia University
Specialization: Group and organizational dynamics and the application of systems thinking to individual, team, and organizational performance
Dr. Noumair teaches courses on group dynamics, organizational change and consultation, organizational dynamics and theory, and process consultation. She is the author of articles and book chapters on group relations and the analysis of diversity issues in groups, organizations, and social systems. She is recently edited Group Dynamics, Organizational Irrationality, and Social Complexity: Group Relations Reader 3, which brings the theoretical and practical application of group relations concepts to life in teams, organizations, communities, and society.
Dr. Noumair is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Education in the Department of Organization and Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition, she is Director of the Advanced Organization Development and Human Resource Management Program (ODHRM) sponsored by Teachers College, Columbia University and The University of Michigan and she is on the core faculty of leadership development programs sponsored by the Department of Executive Education at the Columbia University Business School. A licensed psychologist in the State of New York, Dr. Noumair maintains a private practice of organizational consultation and executive coaching.
Dr. Noumair does executive coaching using multi-rater feedback with senior executives. She consults to groups and organizations on team effectiveness, inter-group and inter-organizational relations, and issues related to diversity at work.
Mary Shapiro
mary.shapiro@simmons.edu
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Gender in Organizations
M.S., Economics and MBA, Wright State University
Specialization: Communication Strategies, Career Strategies, Public Speaking
For more than 20 years as a consultant, executive trainer, and faculty member, Professor Shapiro has worked with public and private companies to develop the infrastructure and competencies critical to reaching organizational goals. She joined the Simmons MBA faculty in 1993, and has developed and delivered Simmons Executive Education programs since 1988. Shapiro specializes in four areas: team building and intervention, communicating in a diverse and virtual environment, personal effectiveness in influence and motivation, and strategic career management. She developed "The Communication Styles Diagnostic," a tool that has been used by more than 4000 managers to improve their effectiveness with individuals and teams. She recently co-authored two books—Your Job Interview: An Easy, Smart Guide to Interview Success; and Take Charge of Your Career with SOM colleague Dr. Cynthia Ingols—which extend an understanding of interviewing and work strategies to include the nuances of gender and many dimensions of diversity. She continues her research in the area of women, their careers, and their relationship with power.
Throughout her professional career, Shapiro has consulted with public and private Fortune 500 clients, such as ESPN and Merck Pharmaceuticals. She continues to create and deliver an inventory of seminars, serve as an executive speech coach, and help organizations launch teams and turn around teams in crises.
Fiona Wilson
fiona.wilson@simmons.edu
MBA, Simmons College School of Management
D.B.A. Candidate, Boston University School of Management
Specialization: Marketing, strategy, entrepreneurship
Professor Wilson joined the faculty of the School of Management in 2002, and currently devotes her time to teaching and research, She is also the Faculty Director of the Silverman Business Plan Competition. Wilson has a wide-range of experience across both large multinationals and smaller organizations, and has worked in venture funded, high growth entrepreneurial environments, as well as on social entrepreneurship and corporate innovation projects.
Prior to joining the faculty, Wilson was Vice President of Marketing for CMGI, aprominent Internet investment and development companywith ownership or investment in over 70 Internet related companies. At CMGI, she consulted to venture capital partners and senior management teams of portfolio companies on strategic marketing initiatives. Previously, Wilson served as Vice Consul Commercial at the British Consulate General in Boston, promoting technology trade between Britain and the United States and was responsible for advising small/medium sized British firms on their marketing and entry strategies for the U.S .market. For eight years, Wilson worked in various roles for Ogilvy & Mather Advertising in London and Barcelona, with clients including Guinness, Ford, American Express and Reebok, She also worked as lead media strategist on launch of a new national newspaper in the United Kingdom. She continues to consult to venture-funded, technology companieson their marketing strategy. In addition, she has undertaken extensive work, both as a volunteer and board member, with not-for-profit organizations, establishing various fundraising and awareness-building programs.
Executive Education Faculty
- Stacy Blake-Beard
- Carol Frohlinger
- Susan Hodgkinson
- Cynthia Ingols
- Deborah Kolb
- Gina LaRoche
- Sylvia Maxfield
- Dean Deborah Merrill-Sands
- Debra Noumair
- Mary Shapiro
- Fiona Wilson
See Also