Adam Galinsky

Vice Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Paul Calello Professor of Leadership and Ethics

Adam Galinsky is the Vice Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Paul Calello Professor of Leadership and Ethics at the Columbia Business School. Professor Galinsky has published more than 300 scientific articles, chapters, and teaching cases in the fields of management and social psychology. His research and teaching focus on leadership, negotiations, diversity, decision-making, and ethics.

Professor Galinsky co-authored the best-selling book, Friend & Foe (Penguin Random House, 2015). The book offers a radically new perspective on conflict and cooperation and has received uniformly positive reviews from the New York Times, Financial Times, Economist. His Ted talk, How to Speak Up for Yourself, is one of the most popular of all time with over 7.4 million views.

His research has received numerous national and international awards from the scientific community. In 2016, he received Career Trajectory Award given to one researcher each year for “uniquely creative and influential scholarly productivity at or near the peak of one's scientific career.” Poets and Quants selected Professor Galinsky as one of the World’s 50 Best B-School Professors (2012). In 2022, Columbia University honored him with its prestigious Mentoring Award for demonstrating “an exceptional commitment to faculty mentoring through their work with tenure-track and mid-career faculty in developing their careers.” He has received teaching awards at the Kellogg School of Management and Princeton University.

Modupe Akinola

Faculty Director, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics

Modupe Akinola is the Barbara and David Zalaznick Professor of Business at Columbia Business School and Faculty Director of the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics. Prior to pursuing a career in academia, Professor Akinola worked in professional services at Bain & Company and Merrill Lynch. Professor Akinola examines how organizational environments- characterized by deadlines, multi-tasking, and other attributes such as having low status- can engender stress, and how this stress can have spill-over effects on performance.

She uses a multi-method approach that includes behavioral observation, implicit and reaction time measures, and physiological responses (specifically hormonal and cardiovascular responses) to examine how cognitive outcomes are affected by stress. In addition, Professor Akinola examines workforce diversity. Specifically, she examines the strategies organizations employ to increase the diversity of their talent pool. She also explores biases that affect the recruitment and retention of minorities in organizations.

Sheena Iyengar

S. T. Lee Professor of Business, Management Division

Sheena S. Iyengar is the inaugural S.T. Lee Professor of Business in the Management Division at Columbia Business School, and a world expert on choice and decision-making. Her book The Art of Choosing received the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year 2010 award, and was ranked #3 on the Amazon.com Best Business and Investing Books of 2010. Her research is regularly cited in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Economist as well as in popular books, such as Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance. Dr. Iyengar has also appeared on television, including the Today Show, the Daily Show, and Fareed Zakaria’s GPS on CNN. Her TED Talks have collectively received almost four million views and her research continues to inform markets, businesses, and individuals around the world.

Growing up in New York City as a blind Indian American and the daughter of immigrants, Dr. Iyengar began to look at the choices she and others had, and how to get the most from choice. She first started researching choice as an undergrad at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she graduated with a B.S. in Economics. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Stanford University where her dissertation, “Choice and its Discontents,” received the Best Dissertation Award.

Chris Washburne

Professor of Music and Musician, Columbia University

Chris Washburne is Professor of Music at Columbia University, Chair of the Music Department, and the Founder and of Columbia’s Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program. Chris Washburne has published numerous articles on jazz, Latin jazz, salsa, and popular music. His books include Bad Music: the Music We Love to Hate (Routledge, 2004), Sounding Salsa: Performing Latin Music in New York (Temple University Press, 2008), and Latin Jazz: the Other Jazz (Oxford University Press, 2020). As a trombonist has performed on over 150 recordings, two Grammy winners and seven Grammy nominated.

He has been hailed as "One of the best trombonists in New York..." by Peter Watrous of The New York Times and “one of the most important trombonists performing today” by Brad Walseth of www.jazzchicago.net. He was voted as “Rising Star of the Trombone” numerous times in the annual Downbeat Critics Poll. He has performed with Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Eddie Palmieri, Muhal Richard Abrams, Ruben Blades, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Justin Timberlake, Marc Anthony, Björk, They Might Be Giants, Roscoe Mitchell, and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He is the leader of the highly acclaimed SYOTOS Latin jazz band and the Rags and Roots jazz band.

Valerie Purdie-Greenaway

Professor of Psychology, Columbia University, Affiliate Professor of Management, Columbia Business School

Valerie Purdie-Greenaway's research promotes the development of research regarding people with threatened identities, and examines the consequences of their experiences for intergroup relations. Any individual can have part of his/her identity that is devalued or stigmatized in some way—women in the sciences, gay/lesbian, bi-sexuals in American society, aging workers in technology firms, African-Americans in intellectual settings, certain immigrants in the U.S.

We attempt to understand their experiences and, through research, uncover ways to improve how majority and minority group members “get along.” More recently our lab has incorporated broader lines of research that explores cultural psychology and economics as it applies to one’s group membership. To accomplish this mission, our research lab primarily conducts experimental laboratory and field studies.

Our philosophy is to design experiments that closely mirror real-world phenomena. This often takes us into police departments, legal settings, schools, businesses, and beyond. In recent years, we have started to explore the use of psycho-physiological techniques to understand how threats to our identity affect basic biological responses.

Erika V. Hall

Associate Professor of Organization and Management, Emory University

Erika V. Hall is an Associate Professor of Organization and Management at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. As a trained social psychologist, her research explores the powerful impact of stereotypes and the hidden content within them. Hall earned a PhD in Management & Organizations from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Professor Hall's work has appeared in academic journals such as Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Psychological Science, and American Psychologist, and media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and NPR. She was honored as one of the “The World’s Best 40 Under 40 Business Professors” in Poets & Quants in 2016. In 2022, she was also one of Atlanta Business Chronicle's 40 under 40 honorees. Prior to graduate school, Hall was a Research Associate at Harvard Business School

Genevieve Gregorich

PhD Candidate, Columbia Business School

Genevieve (Vivi) Gregorich is a PhD candidate in Management at Columbia Business School with a focus on Strategy. Her research examines the role of business in society, the interaction between social movements and organizations, organizational reputation management, nonmarket strategy, and zero- sum thinking. She has authored cases on personal strategy and innovation with a focus on the psychological conditions that generate innovative ideas and the political processes that push ideas through corporate and bureaucratic labyrinths.

Genevieve served on the Student Advisory Council for the Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership, a program designed to support MBA students in becoming more inclusive leaders and currently volunteers as a mentor for Columbia Undergraduate Business Scholars, a program that exposes a diverse group of undergraduate students to cutting-edge research.

Before joining Columbia Business School, she graduated with a degree in Economics from Macalester College, where she competed as a dual-sport athlete in basketball and softball. Following graduation, Genevieve worked as a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC where she studied a range of topics, including trade policy, unionization, the manufacturing sector, and income inequality.

Kenji Yoshino

Chief Juistice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law, NYU School of Law

Kenji Yoshino is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law and the Director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NYU School of Law. A graduate of Harvard, Oxford, and Yale Law School, he specializes in constitutional law, antidiscrimination law, and law and literature.

He has published widely in academic journals such as the Harvard Law Review and Yale Law Journal, as well as in more popular media such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. He is the author of four books, most recently SAY THE RIGHT THING: HOW TO TALK ABOUT IDENTITY, DIVERSITY AND JUSTICE.

Michael Martin

J.D./M.B.A. Candidate, Columbia Law School, Columbia Business School

Michael is a rising young leader whose career and passion lies at the very intersection of law, business, and real estate. Michael is a current J.D./M.B.A. student at Columbia Law and Business Schools respectively, with an emphasis on leadership and real estate. Michael seeks to utilize her experiences and positions within these industries to accomplish more inclusive and equitable outcomes for underserved communities. She is particularly focused on the following: increasing access to legal processes and addressing housing disparities.

Michael has years of both prior legal and business experience working in her family enterprise, Martin & Martin, LLP. Martin & Martin is one of the largest African American and female-owned law firms in Los Angeles. During her tenure at Martin & Martin, Michael led teams that designed and executed operations management-based projects that centered on the future of work and law. This work within the firm focused on remote platforms and the requisite cultures that are needed for remote businesses to thrive, along with projects that brought business models to bear to increase the access of individuals to legal services. She is a summa cum laude graduate from Drexel University, where she received her B.S. in Business Administration. Michael frequently volunteers for a non-profit that focuses on children and adults with autism in underserved communities.

Wei Cai

Assistant Professor of Business, Columbia Business School, Accounting Division

Wei Cai joined Columbia University in 2020. Her research interests revolve around management accounting, organizational culture, and diversity and inclusion. Her research broadly investigates how to measure and manage key organizational capital. For example, she examines how corporate leaders and managers can deliberately design and shape organizational culture, and improve organizational outcomes through innovative management control systems.

She uses multiple research methods including statistical analyses of archival data sources, field experiments, and surveys. She closely collaborates with practitioners and collects unique data that can provide important managerial implications for the design of management control systems in shaping desirable organizational outcomes.

Maeve DuVally

Founder, Glasheen & Co.

Maeve is a multi-cultural communications specialist, storyteller and LGBTQ+ advocate. She has spent the bulk of her career as a journalist and corporate spokesperson, most recently at Goldman Sachs. After a lifetime of working for large companies, she is forging her own path, now consulting for corporations and other organizations on communications strategy and diversity, equity and inclusion. Maeve also mentors transgender people and is a frequent public speaker on LGBTQ+ workplace issues.

She was a managing director in corporate communications at Goldman Sachs over an 18-year career. Prior to joining Goldman, Maeve worked in media relations at Merrill Lynch. Before that, she was a financial journalist and editor at Bridge News for nearly 15 years with stints in Tokyo, Washington D.C. and New York. She spent ten formative years in Japan in the 1980s and is fluent in the language. Maeve serves on the boards of GLAAD; the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship, a journalism non- profit; Connecticut-based LGBTQ+ health provider Anchor Health Initiative; and Trans New York. She earned a B.A. in English from Providence College in 1983 and was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism School in 1994. Soon to be a published author, her memoir, “Maeve Rising,” is due out through Sibylline Press in August 2023.

Claire Shipman

Reporter/Author/Board Co-Chair, Columbia University in the City of New York

Claire Shipman ’86CC, MIA ’94 is a journalist, author, and public speaker. She is also Co-Chair of Columbia University's Board of Trustees. An expert on confidence and women’s leadership, she’s written four New York Times bestselling books, The Confidence Code, The Confidence Code for Girls, Living the Confidence Code and Womenomics. Her latest book, which came out in June, focused on women and power--The Power Code.

Her co-author on all five has been the BBC’s Katty Kay. Shipman spent 15 years at ABC News, reporting on politics, international affairs to social issues. Before moving to ABC, she covered the White House and the Clinton administration for NBC news. Shipman also spent a decade at CNN, where she covered the White House, and five years at CNN’s Moscow bureau covering the collapse of the Soviet Union. She’s received numerous awards for her reporting, including a Peabody, a DuPont, and an Emmy. Shipman holds a graduate degree in international affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Russian Studies from Columbia College.

Juan A. Rios

Assistant Professor of Social Work, Seton Hall University

As a practitioner scholar, I believe in the importance of integrating our theoretical knowledge to our practice in the field of Social Work. It is my academic mission to ensure our students are constantly applying scholastic thought with applied learning. My experience is both in non-profit and government sectors and presently the Clinical Director of a multiservice specialty practice and serves as a clinical consultant to community mental health agencies.

My research interest are the following: Clinical phenomenological field narratives and self-reflexivity, Chinese philosophy on modern philanthropy, mindfulness intervention with immigrant and first generation children, and cultural intersection among men and masculinity. I have presented nationally and internationally at various Social Work conferences regarding the above and extremely passionate about this profession and equally as passionate about educating the future leaders of this field on deconstructing oppressive social systems.

Social Work is the quintessential transdisciplinary field, and as educators and student scholars we must upload the charge to lead discussions about social change and interpersonal healing both in the classroom and with our respective communities. It is my intent to provide a learning environment that breeds ontological thought in order to move our legislation, communities and most importantly ourselves through the stages of change.

Iliana G. Perez

Executive Director of Immigrants Rising

Over the past decade at Immigrants Rising, Dr. Perez has developed resources and training to inform undocumented people about entrepreneurship; has developed programming to help undocumented people start and grow their businesses; and has worked closely with individuals and organizations across the U.S. to build an ecosystem geared toward connecting and supporting undocumented entrepreneurs.

Dr. Perez's research has focused on immigrant entrepreneurs, the occupational and educational attainment of immigrant students, and economics of immigration. Her Ph.D. dissertation analyzed the determinants to pursue entrepreneurship, characteristics, and the economic returns of Latinx millennial undocumented entrepreneurs.

Dr. Perez immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico alongside her mother, father and younger brother to the U.S. at the age of eight. She grew up in the California Central Valley and was undocumented for 27 years before adjusting her status. Iliana holds a B.A. in Mathematics

Tessa West

Professor of Psychology, New York University

Tessa West is a Professor of Psychology at New York University and a leading expert in the science of interpersonal communication. She has received several career awards, including the early career award from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Theoretical Innovation Prize from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology.

Tessa’s work has been covered by Scientific American, the New York Times, ABC World News, CNBC, TIME, the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Bloomberg, Strategy and Business, and the US Supreme Court. She has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, The Daily Blast, and Ireland AM, and is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal.

She is the author of the book “Jerks at Work: Toxic coworkers and what to do about them” and the upcoming book "Job Therapy: What you need to know about yourself to find the job you love."