Leadership Institute
Speakers and Directors

Featured Speakers

Gregory B. Northcraft is the Harry J. Gray Professor of Executive Leadership in the Department of Business Administration, at the University of Illinois, and is the Associate Dean of Faculty for the College of Business. Professor Northcraft received his Ph.D from Stanford University (in Social Psychology), and also has degrees from Dartmouth College (Psychology, Russian Language & Literature) and Oxford University (Psychology & Philosophy). Professor Northcraft has held visiting professor appointments in the business schools at Stanford University, Northwestern University and Dartmouth College, and at universities in Australia, Bulgaria, Israel, Thailand, and the Peoples Republic of China. His major research interests include collaboration in teams, conflict management, managerial decision making, and employee motivation and job design, particularly in high-technology manufacturing settings. He has authored or co-authored articles and invited chapters appearing in scholarly journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Decision Sciences, and Organization Science. Professor Northcraft has done consulting and management training for a variety of manufacturing and service sector firms. He has been honored with many teaching awards, and is co-author (with Linda Stroh and Margaret Neale) of the text, Organizational Behavior: A Management Challenge, and is co-author (with Robin Pinkley) of, Get Paid What You’re Worth: The Expert Negotiators Guide to Salary and Compensation. He served as Editor of the Academy of Management Journal, currently serves on the editorial boards of Administrative Science Quarterly, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Academy of Management Review, Group Decision and Negotiation, Journal of Managerial Psychology, and Journal of Managerial Issues, and is Senior Editor at Organization Science.


Directors

Mark Alan Heckler is the 18th President of Valparaiso University (Indiana). He previously served as Provost and Vice Chancellor for the University of Colorado Denver. He has completed the American Council on Education's Institute for Chief Academic Officers and Harvard's Institute for Management and Leadership in Education. Heckler has over 100 academic and professional productions to his credit, including performances throughout the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Other global initiatives have included international education development in China, Russia, Germany, Italy, Nepal, Mongolia and Taiwan. He was founding Dean of the College of Arts and Media at the University of Colorado Denver and has served ATHE in multiple leadership roles, including president.

Dr. Barbara Oliver Korner, Dean, College of Arts and Architecture and Professor of Theatre at Penn State University previously served as associate and interim dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Florida. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the International Council of Fine Arts Deans. She has been recognized as a distinguished alumna of the College of Fine Arts at Ohio University, where she earned a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary fine arts. She has completed Harvard's Institute for Management and Leadership in Education and has served as in several leadership roles for ATHE. She maintains an active role as a performing artist and is the writer and performer of Responding to the Call: African-American Women Preachers. With Carla Waal, she is the co-editor of Hardship and Hope: Missouri Women Writing About Their Lives.

Dr. Marlene Ross serves as a higher education consultatnt engaged in executive coaching, presidential evaluations, campus assessments, and conference and program planning. She recently retired from the American Council on Education (ACE), where she directed the ACE Fellows Program for 17 years, the nation's premier leadership development program that identifies and prepares leaders for senior positions in higher education administration. She also served as Senior Adviser, Center for Effective Leadership, at ACE, developing programs for presidents and members of their cabinet. Ross is co-author of The Well-Informed Candidate: A Brief Guide for Candidates for College and University Presidencies, “So You Want to Be a College President” in Educational Record, and The American College President: 2000 Edition, as well as editions from 1998 and 1993. She also has written widely, conducted workshops, and served as a consultant to colleges and universities on numerous higher education issues. She served as project director for the presidential database, a longitudinal study of the backgrounds and career paths of American college and university presidents. She received her bachelor’s degree from Barnard College, Master’s from Harvard University, and Ph.D. from American University.