Our Network – Academic Leadership Programs

A Community of Academic Experts

The Academic Leadership Programs are produced by a group of dedicated
educators, coaches, mentors, and facilitators committed to supporting
faculty development and success in their administrative journey.
An asterisk (*) denotes ALP Fellows.

Dennis Morris
CEO, MSW and Accredited Master Executive Coach
Institute of Respect

Dennis has provided executive coaching to academic and corporate leaders for 20 years. As a coach and facilitator, he helps executives move beyond their own perceived limitations – to lead with their principles, increase their self-awareness and self acceptance, focus on the person of the leader in tandem with their leadership skills, build on their strengths, manage their signature struggle and become exceptional leaders who achieve higher-level results over the long-term.

Prior to consulting, Dennis spent more than a decade as the vice president of clinical programs in a behavioral health organization. He led a clinical team of psychotherapists, psychiatrists, caseworkers and nurses. This unique background allows Dennis to help his clients to self reflect and think more creatively and strategically to achieve remarkable results. He is an Accredited Master Executive Coach with Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision

Dennis Morris, MSW
CEO, and Accredited Master Executive Coach

Louise Korver, PhD, BCC, PCC
International Coach
UNC Charlotte

Louise is an international coach specializing in global leadership, talent strategies, cross-cultural issues, and succession to support growth and transformation. She works with senior executives and their teams to improve leadership alignment through executive assessment, coaching, and organizational consulting. Louise focuses on C-suite succession, general manager selection and development, building an enterprise mindset in functional leaders with global responsibilities, and coaching women new to senior leadership positions. She is an expert on onboarding mid-career executives during the transition.

She brings 30 years in progressive leadership roles at large, global companies, including AT&T, Bank of America, and EMC. Her most recent book is about onboarding, which focuses on mid-career job changes. She is an adjunct instructor in the MSOD program at Queens University and the Academic Programs Division, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Education

PhD, Human Development, School of Leadership Studies at Fielding Graduate University
MA, Human & Organizational Development, Fielding Graduate University
BS, Management & Industrial Relations, University of Bridgeport

Certification

PCC, Professional Certified Coach, International Coach Federation (coach licensing)
BCC, Board Certified Coach, Center for Credentialing & Education (coach licensing)
Evidence Based Coaching Certificate, Fielding Graduate University

Research/Areas of Practice

Executive identity
Onboarding mid-career executives

Louise Korver, PhD, BCC, PCC
International Coach

Zhongjie Sun, PhD, MD, FAHA
Chair & Professor
University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center

Dr. Zhongjie Sun is Professor and Chair in the Department of Physiology at University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center. He is also Co-Director of the UT Methodist Cardiovascular Institute. Prior to arrival at UTHSC, Dr. Sun was a tenured Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Physiology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. He received MS in Physiology from Tongji Medical University in China. He obtained PhD in Physiology from a joint education program of Shanghai Medical University and University of Florida. He had postdoctoral training in cardiovascular (CV) physiology at the University of Florida. His research interest is molecular mechanism of hypertension and diabetes. His current research focuses on epigenetic regulation of cardiovascular and renal function. His research has been continuously supported by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and American Heart Association (AHA). He received Provost Research Award for Senior Faculty at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (2012). He was awarded A. Ross McIntyre Research Award (University of Nebraska, 2018). He currently serves on editorial boards of two major cardiovascular journals, Circulation Researchand Hypertension. Dr. Sun also serviced in several national and international grant review panels for NIH, AHA, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, American Institute of Biological Sciences, Canada Foundation of Innovation, and Wellcome Trust Foundation, and US Army and Navy. He is past Chair of the NIH Hypertension and Microcirculation (HM) Study Section. Dr. Sun served as the President of the Academy of Cardiovascular Research Excellence (ACRE, 2011-2013) and Chair of the American Physiological Society (APS) Physiological Genomics Group (PG, 2011-2014). He is a receipt of the APS Distinguished Service Award (2015). Dr. Sun also received numerous honors such as Kelly West Award Lecture (2019, University of Oklahoma HSC).

Zhongjie Sun, PhD, MD, FAHA
Chair & Professor

Chrystalla Mouza, Ed.D., M.Ed., & M.A
Dean & Professor
University of Illinois

Chrystalla Mouza is Dean of the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Mouza earned an Ed.D., M.Ed., and M.A. in instructional technology and media in education from Teachers College, Columbia University and completed postdoctoral work at the Educational Testing Service. She has expertise in learning sciences and teacher learning, applications of technology in K-12 classrooms, teaching and learning outcomes in ubiquitous and mobile computing environments and computer science education.

Mouza is a principal investigator on several projects funded by the National Science Foundation to advance computer science education through sustainable partnerships, teacher professional development and community engagement. She also has served as a principal investigator on several projects funded by the Delaware Department of Education to improve teacher quality in high-need schools. Previously, she was the learning scientist on two National Science Foundation projects aimed at improving climate change education by providing effective professional development to teachers. Mouza has received multiple awards, including the 2010 Distinguished Research in Teacher Education Award from the Association of Teacher Educators.

In addition to publishing her own work in key outlets, Mouza serves as editor of the journal of Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education. She is also on the editorial board of various journals, including the Review of Educational Research, the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education and the Journal of Research on Technology in Education. She provides editorial assistance to numerous other journals, conferences and book publications.

Chrystalla Mouza, Ed.D., M.Ed., & M.A*
Dean & Professor

Lou Rossi, PhD*
Department Chair and Professor
University of Delaware

Louis Rossi (B.S., Harvey Mudd College, 1988; M.A., University of California Berkeley, 1990; Ph.D., University of Arizona, 1993) is the inaugural dean of the Graduate College. He joined the faculty of UD’s Department of Mathematical Sciences in 2001 after completing a National Science Postdoctoral Fellowship at Northwestern University and serving on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

As the dean of the Graduate College and vice provost for graduate and professional education, Rossi provides oversight and has responsibility for more than 200 graduate programs across all seven colleges and one school. He promotes excellence in graduate and professional education across campus and works to enhance support for graduate student services, increase funding opportunities, strengthen and expand interdisciplinary and cross-college collaborative programs, develop new high-profile initiatives that build on the University’s strengths, and promote the national and international visibility of current graduate students and alumni.

Dean Rossi has served the University in many capacities with colleagues from across campus. As an educator, he has innovated mathematics curriculum and taught courses across the undergraduate and graduate spectrum. He has mentored numerous undergraduate and graduate researchers. As a scholar, he uses analytical and numerical methods to derive and understand the partial differential equations that describe swarms and fluid motion. He is the former chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences.

Lou Rossi, PhD*
Dean & Vice Provost

Ismat Sayed Shah, PhD*
Professor and Senior Policy Fellow
University of Delaware

Ismat is professor in the Departments of Physics and of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Delaware. He is also a senior policy fellow in UD’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, and was a founding fellow of the Center for Science, Ethics, and Public Policy. Ismat currently serves as co-chair of the UD Diversity and Equity Commission, and brings a critical perspective to the ALP team regarding ethics, diversity and policy. He has a passion in partnering with ALP and drawing on his own experience as a participant. Prior to joining UD in 1999, he held a number of positions in business and as a research scientist in the private sector, including at the DuPont Company and the Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing and Advanced Materials.

Education

PhD, Materials Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
BE Metallurgical Engineering, NED Engineering College

Certification

ALP Fellow

Research/Practice Areas

Science and ethics
Diversity and policy

Ismat Sayed Shah, PhD*
Professor & Senior Policy Fellow

Patricia Sloane-White, PhD
Department Chair & Professor
University of Delaware

Patricia Sloane-White is a cultural anthropologist who earned her DPhil at University of Oxford. Chair of Women and Gender Studies, she is also a professor of anthropology and a member of the Asian Studies and Islamic Studies Programs, all at the University of Delaware. Patricia has researched Islam, capitalism, entrepreneurship, corporate business, and gender in Malaysia for over two decades and was a recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship to Malaysia in 2008-2009 and a Fulbright Specialist Scholar to Malaysia in 2014. She has held leadership appointments including Director of Islamic Studies (2011-2014) and was a Faculty Fellow in the College of Arts and Sciences, directing the Plastino Scholars, Dean’s Scholars, and the Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies programs. After nearly a decade of senior-level business experience on Wall Street, Patricia trained as an anthropologist to study the relationship between Islam and modern capitalism in Malaysia.

Education

DPhil University of Oxford

Certifications

ALP Fellow

Research/Areas of Practice

Social anthropology
Relationship between business and work culture
Reconfiguring workplace identities and relations

Patricia Sloane White, PhD*
Department Chair & Professor

Kevork Horissian, MA, MBA
Chief Analytics Officer
Bucknell University

Kevork Horissian holds a M.A in Slavic Linguistics and an M.B.A from the University of Oregon. He is currently working at Bucknell University where he serves as the inaugural Chief Analytics Officer. In his role as a CAO, Kevork strategically leads the comprehensive Institutional Research and Analytics program at Bucknell University and provides a vision for data collection, analysis, and utilization. He also leads the development of advanced analytic strategies including AI, ML, and sophisticated data modeling techniques, fostering a culture of data-informed actions.

Most of his research and work are dedicated to analyzing and improving student, faculty and staff experiences. Kevork has participated in the creation and the analysis of dozens of surveys, the findings of each have been used in institutions’ strategic and operational planning. He is also an avid supporter of data democratization and transparency and has presented his research at numerous national and international conferences. Under his leadership Bucknell has received the Excellence in Assessment Designation from the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment.

Kevork Horissian, MA, MBA
Chief Analytics Officer

Kathryn Meier, PhD, MBA
Vice Dean
Drexel University

Katie Meier holds nearly 20 years of experience across higher education, the pharmaceutical and nonprofit sectors, plus consulting for small business. She joined Drexel Engineering in 2019 as the inaugural Assistant Dean for Strategy and Innovation, where she accelerated the creation and launch of the college’s strategic plan, redefined and expanded marketing and communications operations, and led the implementation of new college-wide initiatives, like the annual State of the College. Dr. Meier manages industry relationships, including planning and engagement for the Dean’s Executive Advisory Council, and Drexel Engineering Alumni Industry Board (AIB). She also managed the launch and foundational year of the AIB, as well as the Drexel Engineering Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Alumni Advisory Board. Dr. Meier is an invited member of the President’s Executive Council, serves as deputy to the Dean on the President’s Corporate Engagement Council, the Provost’s Deans and Academic Councils, and has been actively involved in Drexel 2030 committee work. She brings an interdisciplinary perspective to STEM education, having participated in the invitation-only Engineering One Planet 2022 Scaling for Impact; she is also guest lecturer for first-year engineering courses on technical communication and stakeholder engagement, as well as a professional lecturer on personal branding, having delivered a workshop most recently to ELATES at Drexel.

Prior to her appointment overseeing strategy, Dr. Meier held various roles at the University of Delaware from 2006 to 2019, including inaugural chief of staff in the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as an adjunct Assistant Professor in Business Administration and in English. She recently completed the Institute for Management and Leadership in Education at Harvard University. She holds a Ph.D., MBA, and B.A. in English/Business and Technical Writing, all from University of Delaware.

Kathryn Meier, PhD, MBA
Vice Dean

David Wilson, PhD
Senior Associate Dean
University of California, Berkeley

David C. Wilson is the dean of the Goldman School and a Professor of Public Policy.

Wilson’s research examines how individuals formulate their political preferences about race and justice, and how social cognition shapes broader survey response behaviors. His research is published widely in areas of inquiry that include the application of double standards in evaluating racial groups and related policy issues, attitudes toward voter identification laws and electoral malfeasance, blame attributions toward elected leaders and political groups, and how diversity culture and climate affect organizational employee engagement. He is also the co-author Racial Resentment in the Political Mind (University of Chicago Press, 2022).

Wilson’s academic specializations include survey research methods and experiments (psychology of survey response), political psychology, and American politics, with an emphasis on the measurement and analysis of intergroup attitudes and political behavior. He holds life memberships in several organizations including the American Political Science Association (APSA), the International Society for Political Psychology (ISPP), Midwest Political Science Association, Pi Alpha Alpha National Honor Society for Public Affairs and Administration, the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS), and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated. He most recently served on the executive council for the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers, and on the Advisory Committee and Editorial Board of Public Opinion Quarterly (POQ).

Prior to joining the Goldman School, Wilson was the senior associate dean for the social sciences in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Delaware and a full professor in the department of political science and international relations with a joint appointment in the department of psychological and brain sciences.

Wilson has also held senior positions with the Gallup Polling Organization, leading national and international survey projects examining topics ranging from workplace creativity to prejudice in politics. He served as a product application consultant for the SPSS statistical software corporation, assisting public and private sector clients in data analysis and market research.

He earned a BA in government from Western Kentucky University. He holds an MPA (public policy and administration), MA in political science, and a PhD in political science, all from Michigan State University.

David C. Wilson is a military veteran with 19 years of service to the US Army Reserves, including combat tours for Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom.

David Wilson, PhD
Dean & Professor

Abe Feuerstein, PhD
Department Chair and Professor
Bucknell University

Abe Feuerstein is chair of the Education Department at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where he has taught since 1996. At Bucknell, he has held a variety of administrative positions including: being named the first associate dean for the division of social sciences; serving as Director of the Writing Program; and chairing the university’s Institutional Review Board. During his five-year term as associate dean, Abe worked to define the division’s learning goals within the broader university curriculum and to establish the Bucknell Institute for Public Policy (BIPP). During this time Abe worked closely with the Dean on issues ranging from chairs’ compensation to Middle States Accreditation. He has also worked with several departments experiencing difficult personnel conflicts and provided one-on-one coaching for department leaders. Abe is dedicated to solving problems and coaching others, and as chair, has helped his department to clarify goals and align resources. In transferring this experience to ALP, Abe hopes to help academic departments better understand their priorities and how to achieve them. His work has been published in a variety of journals including Educational Administration Quarterly and the Journal of School Leadership, and his career highlights prior to Bucknell include high school chemistry teacher and middle school administrator.

Education

PhD, MEd, University of Virginia
BA, Dartmouth

Research/Practice Areas

School reform
Educational politics
Systems theory
Democratic forms of accountability
Teacher preparation

Abe Feuerstein, PhD
Department Chair and Professor

Benjamin Gatling, PhD, MA
Director & Associate Professor
George Mason University

Benjamin Gatling is an Associate Professor in the English Department at George Mason University, Director of the Folklore Program, and Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from The Ohio State University and a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests include personal narrative, performance, the ethnography of communication, and Persianate oral traditions. His first book, Expressions of Sufi Culture in Tajikistan, was published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2018. His current book project considers the experiences of Afghan refugees and migrants in the US.

Benjamin Gatling, PhD, MA*
Director & Associate Professor

David Redlawsk, PhD, MA, MDA*
Chair & Professor
University of Delaware

David P. Redlawsk, PHD (Rutgers University, 1997) is the James R. Soles Professor and Chair of Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware. In addition to the PhD, he holds an M.A. degrees from Rutgers University, an M.B.A. from Vanderbilt University, and a B.A. from Duke University. Dr. Redlawsk served as President of the International Society of Political Psychology for 2018-2019. He previously served ISPP as a Vice President and as an elected Governing Council member. He was a co-editor of the journal Political Psychology from 2010 through 2015. Dr. Redlawsk is an author or editor of 9 books and has published more than 50 articles and book chapters. His newest books are the Oxford Encyclopedia of Political Decision Making, for which he is Editor-in_Chief, and A Citizen’s Guide to the Political Psychology of Voting, with UD Ph.D. student Michael Habegger (2020, Routledge).Dr. Redlawsk’s research focuses on campaigns, elections, the role of information in voter decision making, and on emotional responses to campaign information. Dr. Redlawsk has received several grants from the National Science Foundation, and served on the Board of Overseers for the American National Election Studies from 2009-2013. Typically, he teaches courses that include Political Campaigning, Voting Behavior, Political Psychology, Decision Making, and Experimental Methods.

Political psychologist who studies voter behavior and emotion.
Research focuses on how voters process political information to make their decisions.
Has written several books on politics, worked behind the scenes on campaigns and ran for local office — winning and losing as a member of both major parties.

David Redlawsk, PhD, MA, MBA*
Chair & Professor

Ann Ardis, PhD
Dean & Professor
George Mason University

Ann Ardis (PhD, University of Virginia, 1988) is a distinguished scholar and academic leader. She is known for her interdisciplinary research on late nineteenth and early twentieth-century British literature and culture. That work focused on the formation of the modernist canon, and the voices, particularly women’s voices, that were often left out of the traditional definitions and literary forms of modernism. More recent work has connected the study of new technologies for literary and cultural production to the recovery of more expansive views of modernist literary and periodical press history. Her books include New Women, New Novels: Feminism and Early Modernism (Rutgers, 1990), Modernism and Cultural Conflict: 1880-1922 (Cambridge, 2002; reprinted, 2008), and the co-edited collections Transatlantic Print Culture, 1880-1940: Emerging Media, Emerging Modernisms (Palgrave, 2008), Women’s Experience of Modernity (Johns Hopkins, 2002), and Virginia Woolf Turning the Centuries (Pace, 2000). She recently completed a term of service as co-editor of Modernism/modernity, the flagship journal of the Modernist Studies Association.

Before taking up leadership of Mason’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr. Ardis served at the University of Delaware, first as an associate dean and deputy dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, and then as the senior vice provost for graduate and professional education. She was the founding director of Delaware’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Research Center, which supports collaborative multidisciplinary research and teaching. She brings this emphasis on multidisciplinary collaboration, and on public scholarship, to her leadership of the college at Mason.

Ann Ardis, PhD
Dean & Professor

Cortney Hughes Rinker, PhD*
Director & Professor
George Mason University

Cortney Hughes Rinker is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Director of the Global Affairs program. She earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Irvine with emphases in Feminist Studies and Medicine, Science, and Technology Studies. Her teaching and research interests are in medical anthropology, Islam, aging and end-of-life care, public policy, reproduction, Middle East Studies, development, science and technology, and applied anthropology. She conducted long-term research (2005-2009) on reproductive healthcare among working-class women in Rabat, Morocco, which turned into her book Islam, Development, and Urban Women’s Reproductive Practices (Routledge, 2013). This research focused on the ways the country’s new development policies impact how childbearing and childrearing practices are promoted to women and how women incorporate these practices into their ideas of citizenship. AnthroWorks, a popular academic blog, selected her dissertation on this subject as one of the Top 40 North American Dissertations in Cultural Anthropology for 2010. Before joining George Mason, Cortney was a postdoctoral fellow at the Arlington Innovation Center for Health Research at Virginia Tech where she worked in conjunction with a healthcare organization in southwest Virginia developing projects to improve end-of-life care and psychiatric services in a rural Appalachian town.

Cortney Hughes Rinker, PhD*
Director & Professor

James Willis, PhD*
Chair & Professor
George Mason

Police organizations, police reform, police decision making, police technology, punishment in an historical context

Since elected Chair in 2019, I have focused on increasing graduate student support, strengthening the department’s infrastructure, fostering a welcoming and productive work environment, and helping to raise the department’s national and international profile. My next goals include strengthening alumni relations and continuing to find ways to help and advance our CLS undergraduate students.

My scholarly interests include police organizations and organizational reform, police discretion, police technology, and penal history. My current projects include an examination of prosecutors’ views on body-worn cameras, and of police officers’ perceptions of the contributions that craft and science make to the decisions they make on the street (both with Marthinus Koen, PI, SUNY-Oswego).

Along with my co-authors, in 2008 I was awarded the Law and Society Association’sArticle Prize for research that used different theoretical perspectives to explain Compstat’s implementation in three police departments. In 2011, I was the recipient of a George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award.

James Willis, PhD*
Chair & Professor

George Watson, PhD*
Dean & Professor Emeritus
University of Delaware

George H. Watson holds a Ph.D. in Physics and is Unidel Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Delaware; he served nine years as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at UD. As Dean of its largest college, he was responsible for the leadership and administration of the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences at UD. George is founding director of the Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education, created to promote reform of undergraduate education through faculty development and course design. He has advanced international problem-based learning (PBL) conferences and was one of the founders of the Pan-American Network for PBL. He has been supported by grants for development of PBL curricula for introductory physics, science education reform in Peru through PBL, and most recently for the GK-12 Project “Improvement of Science Education in Vocational Technical High Schools through Collaborative Learning and Coteaching”.

George’s physics research has been in experimental condensed matter physics and laser spectroscopy.

George has been active in the Delaware Arts Alliance, serving recently as President of the Board for two years. He currently serves on the boards of Delaware Shakespeare, the Delaware Contemporary, and the Friends of the University of Delaware Library.

George Watson, PhD*
Dean & Professor Emeritus

Recent Posts

A Community of Academic Experts