Academic Co-Director

Judi Neal, Ph.D.

After receiving her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Yale University, Judith worked 9 years full-time in industry, including 5 years as a manager for Honeywell. She has consulted to organizations for 28 years, and taught management at the University of New Haven and other universities for over 17 years. She has served on the Boards of Directors of several professional, community, and academic organizations. Her clients include Pfizer, Unilever, Electric Boat, Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, Rodale Press, Rockport Company, Yankee Gas, Jackson Newspapers, and numerous other organizations. In 1992 Judith made faith and spirituality in the workplace a central focus of her research and has since gained a reputation for her work in the national and international media.

As Founder and Executive Director of the International Center for Spirit at Work, Judith helped to provide resources, information, and community to those seeking greater integration of faith, spirituality, and work. She currently serves as the founding Director of the Tyson Center for Faith and Spirituality at the Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas. She is the author of Edgewalkers: People and Organizations that Take Risks, Build Bridges, and Break New Ground (Praeger 2006), Creating Enlightened Organizations: A Practical Guide to Unleashing Full Human Potential in the Workplace (forthcoming) and co-author with Alan Harpham of The Spiritual Side of Project Management (forthcoming).

Academic Co-Director

Daryl R. Connor, M.A.

Daryl R. Conner is chairman and co-founder of Conner Partners®, an Atlanta-based consulting firm that specializes in strategy execution. He is an internationally recognized leader in organizational change and serves as an advisor and mentor to senior executives around the globe. He founded ODR®, a training and consulting firm specializing in large-scale organizational change, in 1974. In 2004, he re-launched the company as Conner Partners, incorporating ODR’s tools and methodologies into a larger strategy execution framework called Execution Engineering™.

In more than 30 years of practice, Daryl has worked with many of the most successful organizations in the world, including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and non-profit institutions, to help them achieve the full intent of their most urgent and critically important initiatives. A dynamic public speaker, he has addressed thousands of executives in corporate settings, national conferences, and public programs.

Daryl’s work is built on a strong foundation of research, extensive consulting experience, and a deep spiritual focus. He holds a Masters degree in Psychology and has authored two books—Managing at the Speed of Change (Random House, 1993) and Leading at the Edge of Chaos (John Wiley & Sons, 1998)—and more than 250 publications, including journal and magazine articles, monographs, book chapters, and videos.

Scholar-in-Residence

Melvin Toomey, D.H.L.

Mel Toomey is the founder of Generative Leadership Group, an internationally recognized consulting and advisory services firm. At Generative Leadership Group, Mel works with executives who are committed to developing breakthrough as a strategic advantage. Much of his current work centers on documenting the source of extraordinary results. Today he is best known for his work in integrating organizational change, leader development, and executive coaching.

Mel holds an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters for his contributions to establishing leadership as a profession. He serves as Scholar in Residence at The Graduate Institute, where he works to advance his methodology for rapid leader development. In addition to serving as a principal designer for the M.A. in Organizational Leadership, Mel is also co-designer of the first certificate program in the emerging field of leadership, faith and spirituality sponsored by the Tyson Center for Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace, University of Arkansas, Sam Walton School of Business.

Mel is the founder of The Center for Leadership Studies, which provides research, development and program material for degree and certification programs.

He is convinced that the notion that leadership is a quality that some of us are born with – and others are not – is unsupportable and very disempowering. Mel believes that anyone who commits to his or her own personal development can become a highly effective leader.

Program Coordinator

Andrew Summa, Ph.D., Ed.D.

Andrew Summa received his Masters and Ph.D. from the University of Miami and his Ed.D. from Columbia University. He served as Executive Assistant to the President of the University of Miami, FL, Chief Administrative Officer of the Mercy College Extension Program in New York, Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Mercy College, and as an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Pace University in NY. For more than thirty years Andrew dedicated his professional efforts to the New York Public School System as a teacher, English department chair, high school Associate Principal, elementary school Principal, Director of Strategic and Magnet School Planning, and Assistant to the Superintendent for special projects. He has studied at the Equity Assistance Center at New York University, the Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Columbia University, the National Writing Project at the University of California at Berkeley, the Institute on Crucial and Creative Thinking at the University of Massachusetts, and St. Peter’s College, Oxford University. Dr. Summa is also a professional grant writer and program evaluator for public and private institutions.

Recent Visiting Faculty includes, among others:

Elisa Maselli, MBA
Vice President of Communications, Generative Leadership Group

Joyce Dowdall
Managing Partner, Generative Leadership Group

Heather Marasse
Partner, Generative Leadership Group

Al Bhatt, M.A.
Managing Director of Advisory Services, Center for Leadership Studies

A. Harris (Bud) Stone, Ed.D.
Founder and Chancellor, The Graduate Institute

John Norris, Ph.D.
President, The Graduate Institute

Sandra Thompson
Organizational Consultant

Mike Rechtiene, MBA
Organizational Consultant