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Faculty in Executive Learning and Organizational Change exemplify the philosophy of the program by bridging scholarship and practice.

ELOC is led by a team of scholar-practitioners, representing diverse expertise and experience within organizations and academic disciplines.

Our expert adjunct faculty hold executive positions or lead consulting practices in organizational change, talent management, human capital strategy, leadership development, learning, organizational design, executive and leadership coaching and strategic planning.

Executive Learning and Organizational Change is a part of the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, which is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

Instructors

Michelle Albaugh

Michelle Albaugh

Michelle Albaugh is a highly regarded leadership and effectiveness coach. She joined the LOC faculty in September 2015 after earning her PhD in Human Development & Social Policy from the Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy. She received a bachelor’s degree in music from DePaul University.

Michelle spent the first 10 years of her career working for a startup in the telecommunications industry, first in a technical capacity and then in establishing client relationships and crafting creative communication solutions for business and government, before shifting to academia. Her research thus far has centered on life narratives at the intersection of personal faith and political ideology.

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Ahmmad Brown

Ahmmad Brown is an assistant professor in the Masters and Executive Learning and Organizational Change programs at the Northwestern School of Education and Social Policy, where he is also the faculty lead for the Leading Equity and Inclusion in Organizations Certificate (LEIOC) program.

Ahmmad is a sociologist who studies inequality in organizations and interventions to support inclusion and belonging. His current research examines racial and ethnic minorities' experiences in historically- and predominantly white organizations, reparative and transformative (rather than punitive) approaches to the experiences of wrongdoing and objectional behavior in workplaces, and dialogic engagement in organizations.

As a practitioner, he is the president and co-founder of Equity Based Dialogue for Inclusion, LLC (EBDI), and a principal advisor at Working IDEAL, through which he supports leaders and leadership teams in the development of organizational structures and cultures that support equity and inclusion.

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Samir Desai

Samir Desai is vice president of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and People Strategy for NorthShore University Health System.  In this role, he is responsible for creating an engaging, healthy, inclusive environment for all team members and patients, and embed equity in everything we do.  His team, as part of human resources, drives this through engagement and experience, DE&I, wellbeing, and using analytics to develop high impact talent strategies across the employee experience  

Prior to this, he was the VP for Talent Management and Organization Development, responsible for developing the leadership and skills of NorthShore physicians, nurses, other clinical and administrative staff, leading learning, leadership development, culture, and performance management.


 

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Corey Flournoy

Corey Flournoy brings 30+ years of experience and recognized leadership in diversity and inclusion programming, strategy development, executive coaching and employee engagement for multi-national corporations, non-profits and educational institutions. Since 1995, Corey has been a founding partner, consultant and trainer for Creative Outreach Consulting LLC. In 2019, Corey became a Certified Professional Diversity Coach through CoachDiversity Institute, accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).   

 

Corey Flournoy is the VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Aurora, the company delivering the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly. Priorly, Corey was Groupon’s first Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity. In October of 2020, Corey was named as one of  North America’s Most Influential D&I Leaders – 2020  by Hive Learning and included in  PerformanceIN List of the The Top 50 Industry Players from 2020 .  

 

In addition, Corey served as the founding director of the Illinois Center for Urban Agricultural Education. During his 30-plus years of experience in agricultural education, he served as the first African American and non-rural president of the National FFA Organization and  its 450,000-plus membership. 

 


 

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Renetta McCann

Renetta McCann is Chief Inclusion Experiences Officer at Publicis Groupe, where she is focused on creating inclusive change for individuals and institutions. She was previously at Leo Burnett, where she oversaw the agency's U.S. recruitment, training, benefits and talent management. She isn’t afraid to try out new models for employee engagement or test new programs to enhance success – she believes that these efforts broaden perspectives and promote creativity. She is a champion for women and for the development of minorities in the advertising industry.

 

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Jeff Merrell

Jeff Merrell

Jeff Merrell is Associate Director of the Master's Program in Learning & Organizational Change (MSLOC). Jeff leads the educational technology strategy for MSLOC and the program's use of social collaboration and social media technologies. His professional background includes experience as both a consultant and corporate leader in organizational learning and knowledge management.

He was founder of Purple Line Associates, a consultancy and research practice established in 2001 to help organizations define knowledge sharing and collaboration strategies and to implement new technologies and practices. His past consulting work included projects for global leaders in the pharmaceutical and retail industries as well as not-for-profit and federal government organizations.

 

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Megan Redfearn (SESP)

A graduate of Northwestern's MSLOC program, Megan researched how the practice of improv translates to leadership in the workplace. Since then, she has focused her work on academic and leadership development as Director of Faculty and Doctoral Student Affairs in the School of Education and Social Policy and as a coach and Instructor in Northwestern’s Leadership Certificate program. As a consultant for Business Improvisation, Megan has facilitated improv-based learning interventions related to leadership, sales, change readiness, and communication for a variety of Fortune 500 companies and top MBA programs. Megan has over 12 years of experience coaching, teaching and performing improv in Chicago. She studied improv and writing at The Second City and iO training centers and performs with the veteran group Virgin Daiquiri.
Kimberly Scott

Kimberly Scott

Kimberly Scott is Assistant Professor and Director of the Master’s Program in Learning & Organizational Change (MSLOC) at Northwestern University. She came to Northwestern with over 10 years of management and consulting experience in a variety of mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies. Her work focuses on improving workplace environments and practices that foster employee wellness, learning and success.

She has designed and taught courses that include learning and performance improvement, leadership development and change management. As an independent consultant, Dr. Scott has designed leadership development and organizational change initiatives in addition to coaching leaders and action learning teams.

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Ryan Smerek

Ryan Smerek

Ryan Smerek has researched, taught, and published in the areas of learning and new executives, decision-making, innovation, and organizational learning. He is the author of Organizational Learning and Performance: The Science and Practice of Building a Learning Culture. In the book, Ryan explains mindsets that foster learning, how “big picture thinking” or understanding the “why” behind our actions fosters learning, and the social norms needed to foster innovation and creativity.

Before coming to Northwestern University as Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of Academic Affairs in MSLOC, Ryan taught organizational behavior at Hiram College. He also worked at Denison Consulting — a culture and leadership assessment firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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Teresa Torres

Teresa Torres

Teresa Torres is a product discovery coach who helps teams gain valuable insights from their customer interviews, run effective product experiments, and drive product outcomes. She teaches teams how to connect the dots between their research activities and their product decisions. Before becoming a coach, Teresa was VP of Products at AfterCollege, an Internet startup that helps college students find their first job. She was CEO of Affinity Circles, an online community provider for university alumni associations and a social recruiting service used by Fortune 500 companies.

Teresa has a BS in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University and an MS in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University.

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Coaches

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Judah Kurtz

Judah Kurtz is a trusted advisor, coach, strategist, and consultant who is passionate about driving transformative growth and sustainable change.  With a career spanning over 25 years, Judah has partnered with mid- and senior-level leaders and their teams across multiple global industries and sectors, through his internal organizational work, external consulting roles at Accenture and BPI group, and nearly 20 years in private practice.  He brings deep expertise in coaching, leadership and team development, learning, and strategic change, with a concentrated focus on helping his clients uncover their hidden potential and barriers to success to facilitate meaningful, high-impact outcomes.

As adjunct faculty at Northwestern, he teaches and coaches students in the executive education (ELOC), master’s degree (MSLOC), and organizational and leadership coaching certificate (OLCC) programs. 

Judah holds both a master’s degree in Learning and Organizational Change and bachelor’s degree with honors in Psychology and Organization Behavior from Northwestern University.

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Bob Corbett

Bob Corbett is an internal Professional Certified Coach (PCC) focused on leadership and executive coaching with EY. Prior tEY my background encompassed 20+ years in HR leadership, Consulting and Executive Coaching in multiple countries and across multiple industries, including, healthcare, manufacturing, aerospace, energy and financial services. I'm certified in a range of coaching and assessment tools. I help clients discover and intentionally live their purpose both personally and professionally.

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Beau River

Beau River is a Partner at Vantage Leadership Consulting, Beau is committed to building transformative relationships with clients based on mutual trust and a deep understanding of their business needs. His coaching is fundamentally focused on bringing the best out of people by helping them adapt their leadership to operate in new and enhanced ways to lead with equal parts humility and confidence. With a background as a professional athlete and former member of the United States Squash Team, he brings a personal perspective on what it takes to address psychological barriers, build upon natural abilities and lift performance to new levels.

His professional experience reflects his appreciation of diversity, with clients from the middle market to family/privately operated companies and Fortune 500 organizations. He has supported leaders across functional disciplines and worked in a range of industries. As an adjunct faculty member, Beau has been involved with coaching at Northwestern University for seven years. He has also presented his research on high-potential leaders and the future of executive coaching at conferences hosted by the Society of Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Society of Consulting Psychology, and SHRM. He frequently publishes his insights and is a regular contributor to Forbes in the area of leadership strategy.

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Margaret Sullivan

Margaret Sullivan is an independent coach and consultant specializing in helping individuals, groups, and organizations identify, clarify, design, and implement effective, sustainable paths forward. Prior to launching her practice, she was the Senior Advisor – Organizational Effectiveness at Wiss, Janney, Elstner and Associates, Inc. She began her career at Accenture as both an internal and external consultant. Her expertise and interests include organization and leadership development, knowledge sharing, community building, sustainable changes, and career transitions. Margaret is certified in facilitation, career coaching, Hogan Assessments, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Her coaching training includes Co-Active Coaching (CTI), Immunity to Change, Quiet Leadership (NeuroLeadership Institute) and EQ-i (High Performing Systems).

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Karen Terry

Formerly an award-winning writer and video producer, Karen redirected her career mid-life to focus on coaching and adult human development. She enjoys helping people fashion lives that they love and are proud to lead, and is fascinated by the story of how we become the people we are. Karen earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and her first Master’s degree from Northwestern University. She earned her subsequent Master’s degree and doctorate from Wright Graduate University for the Realization of Human Potential. Dedicated to fostering the systems and conversations that support adults to stay meaningfully engaged in the world, Karen also serves at The Village Chicago, a non-profit committed to helping Chicagoans successfully navigate the new longevity.

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