Rice University Faculty
Leadership Partners provides its participants with the best professors from the top ten in the nation (#8) Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. School leaders are running complex organizations, and we know from our experience that giving campus and district leaders a CEO mindset helps them lead more effectively.
Dr. Brent Smith Dr. Brent Smith is an award-winning organizational psychologist and has educated, coached, and consulted for over twenty years. Dr. Smith currently serves as the Senior Associate Dean of Executive Education. He previously was a faculty member at London Business School and Cornell University and taught at UC Berkley, Oxford University, INSEAD, Columbia, DTU, and the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.
Dr. Smith has taught over 200 executive programs around the globe for companies including Shell, ExxonMobil, IBM, HSBC, Credit Suisse, Saudi Aramco, Goldman Sachs, Genentech, DeBeers, Microsoft, Citibank, RedBull, Royal Bank of Scotland, among many others. He served as leadership faculty for the corporate universities of TOTALEnergies, Lufthansa, Tenaris, NOV, and Eaton Corporation and is a founding board member of the MD Anderson Cancer Center Leadership Institute.
Dr. Smith co-developed the coaching programs for the MBA programs at Cornell University and London Business School, and used them as models for the Rice Business Executive MBA. He helped develop internal coaching programs for a large investment bank, an international energy company, and a major hospital system. In 2003, he developed the “Leader as Coach” Executive Education program, which he taught until 2016. Dr. Smith has been an active coach since 1997. His practice focuses primarily on the development of executive teams.
Research Interests:
Goal setting
Human resource management
Interviewing
Motivating employees
Organizational behavior
Performance evaluations
Personal selection
Teams
Change management
Employment
Ethics
Influencing people
Leadership
Dr. Steve Klineberg Professor, Department of Sociology and Founding co-Director, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research A graduate of Haverford College, Stephen Klineberg received an M.A. in Psychopathology from the University of Paris and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Harvard. After teaching at Princeton, he joined Rice University’s Sociology Department in 1972. The recipient of twelve major teaching awards, including the George R. Brown Lifetime Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Piper Professor Award, he is a faculty associate and divisional advisor at Lovett College, where he twice served as Interim Master. In March 1982, he and his students initiated the annual “Kinder Institute Houston Area Survey,” now in its 33rd year of tracking the remarkable changes in the demographic patterns, economic outlooks, experiences, and beliefs of Harris County residents. No other metropolitan region in America has been the focus of a long-term longitudinal research program of this scope.
Dr. Eduardo Salas is the Allyn R. & Gladys M. Cline Chair Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Rice University. Previously, he was a trustee chair and Pegasus Professor of Psychology at the University of Central Florida where he also held an appointment as program director for the Human Systems Integration Research Department at the Institute for Simulation and Training (IST). Before joining IST, Eduardo was a senior research psychologist and Head of the Training Technology Development Branch of NAWC-TSD for 15 years. During this period, he served as a principal investigator for numerous R&D programs, including TADMUS, that focused on teamwork, team training, decision-making under stress and performance assessment. Eduardo has co-authored over 450 journal articles & book chapters and has co-edited 27 books. His expertise includes assisting organizations in how to foster teamwork, design and implement team training strategies, facilitate training effectiveness, manage decision making under stress, and develop performance measurement tools.
Dr. Vikas Mital J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Management (Marketing) Dr. Vikas Mittal is the J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Marketing at the Jones Graduate School of Business. Prior to joining Jones, he was the Thomas Marshall Professor of Marketing at the Katz Graduate School of Management. Dr. Mittal holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Management from Temple University. Before joining Katz, he was on the faculty at Kellogg Graduate School at Northwestern University.
In addition to publications in leading marketing journals, Dr. Mittal has published extensively on decision making in journals such as Organization Studies, Organization Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Psychiatry, Organization Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. He currently serves on the editorial boards of numerous journals.
In 2014 his article was included in the top-50 articles for highest impact on marketing academics and practice. In 2013 his paper was one of the top three papers in the special issue on consumer identities for the International Journal of Research in Marketing. In 2006, Professor Mittal was awarded the William F. O’Dell Award for making the most significant, long-term contribution to the theory, methodology, and practice of marketing. In 2009 he was ranked as the 5th most prolific author published in the top marketing journals. He also received the 2001 FedEx Excellence in Service Research award, as well as numerous other awards.
His courses are highly sought after in the MBA as well as the executive education program. He won the excellence in teaching award at the Katz Graduate School three years running, and was voted the best professor by the executives in the 2003- IEMBA program in Brazil. At the Jones School he won the teaching excellence award in 2013 for his teaching in the professional MBA program.
Teaching Interests
Marketing research
Customer focused strategy
Advanced marketing research
Research Interests
Customer satisfaction
Customer insights
Customer-focused
Dr. David Tobin Senior Lecturer in Communication Dr. Tobin joined the full-time faculty of the Jones Graduate School in 2007 after 25 years in the advertising business. Prior to advertising, he taught English at Colorado State University and Emory University after earning a Ph.D. at Princeton. As a copywriter and creative director, first with Ogilvy & Mather for 18 years and then Richards/Carlberg, he worked on multimedia advertising campaigns for clients such as Shell Oil, the Shell MasterCard, IBM, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the Houston Chronicle, H-E-B, Central Market, METRO, Child Advocates, the Houston Texans, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. He handled everything from writing and co-producing national TV commercials to managing speechwriting duties for C-level executives. He has been a guest speaker at a number of college campuses, from Duke to Texas Tech, on behalf of the New York-based Advertising Educational Foundation.
Dr. Balaji Koka Assistant Professor of Strategic Management He joined the Jones School in 2008 from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He teaches in the Executive MBA and Full-time MBA programs and received the Teaching Excellence Award from the EMBA program in 2014. Professor Koka received his BE from Madurai Kamaraj University in India, his MBA from Indian Institute of Management in India and his Ph.D. in strategic management from the University of Pittsburgh.
National Faculty
We also utilize an all-star cast of national faculty for our Leadership Summit and for our other programming, again providing school and district leaders with tools and mindsets that help them improve their schools.
Leader. Visionary. Entrepreneur. Disruptor. Change Maker. Angela Maiers embodies each of these descriptors with passion, commitment and fierce determination. She has been creating and leading change in education and enterprise for 31 years, teaching every level of school from grade school to graduate school and consulting with companies around the world.
Angela founded Choose2Matter to bring the world hope by helping every individual embrace their value and potential contribution. Initially launched to challenge and inspire students to work collaboratively to develop innovative solutions to social problems, Choose2Matter has evolved into a movement that support parents, educators, and employees around the world. Her work in 60,000 classrooms across 100 countries has rallied more than a million children who have banded together to launch 170 social enterprises and pass 17 laws. And organizations across all industries are finding new ways to ignite the genius of their employees, successfully addressing a $15 trillion employee engagement problem
Angela earned a BS in Education with a minor in Neuroscience and Master Degrees in Literacy and Ed Leadership.
She is the author of eight books, including Liberating Genius,The Habitudes and The Passion Driven Classroom. Angela is widely recognized as one of most influential voices on social media today, consistently ranking in the top 1% and a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.
Dr. Rick Hess Resident Scholar and Director of Education Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute, where he works on K-12 and higher education issues. He is also the author of the popular Education Week blog “Rick Hess Straight Up” and has served as executive editor of Education Next since 2001. Before joining AEI, Dr. Hess was a high school social studies teacher. He has also taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, Rice, and Harvard University. His books include the forthcoming Letters to a Young Education Reformer (Harvard Education Press, 2017), The Cage-Busting Teacher (Harvard Education Press, 2015), Breakthrough Leadership in the Digital Age (Corwin, 2014),_ Cage-Busting Leadership_ (Harvard Education Press, 2013), and The Same Thing Over and Over (Harvard University Press, 2010).
Dr. Jason G. Irizarry is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and faculty associate in El Instituto: Institute for Latina/a, Caribbean and Latin American Studies. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in multicultural education, culturally responsive curriculum development, participatory action research, and urban education. A central focus of his work involves promoting the academic achievement of youth in urban schools by addressing issues associated with educator preparation. His first book, The Latinization of U.S. Schools: Successful Teaching and Learning in Shifting Cultural Contexts, was awarded the Phillip C. Chin Book Award from the National Association for Multicultural Education. He is also the co-editor of Diaspora Studies in Education: Toward a Framework for Understanding the Experiences of Transnational Communities. Irizarry has an Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Dr. Anthony Muhammad One of the most sought after educational consultants in North America. Hecurrently serves as the CEO of New Frontier 21 Consulting and is recognized as one of the field’s leading experts in the areas of school culture and organizational climate. Dr. Muhammad is a best-selling author. He is the author of the books _The Will to Lead and the Skill to Teach; Transforming Schools at Every Level _(2011);_ Transforming School Culture: How to Overcome Staff Division _(2009); and a contributing author to the book _The Collaborative Administrator: Working Together as a Professional Learning Community _(2008). He has published 26 articles in education journals and publications in seven different countries.
Dr. Marguerite Roza Director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University and Senior Research Affiliate at the Center on Reinventing Public Education. Her calculations of dollar implications and cost equivalent tradeoffs have prompted changes in education finance policy at all levels in the education system. She’s led projects including the Finance and Productivity Initiative at CRPE and the Schools in Crisis Rapid response Paper Series. More recently she served as Senior Economic Advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Roza is author of the highly regarded education finance book, Educational Economics: Where Do School Funds Go?
A highly-regarded urban educator in New Jersey for over twenty years, Principal Baruti Kafele distinguished himself as a master teacher and a transformational school leader. As an elementary school teacher in East Orange, NJ, in addition to his selection as the East Orange School District and Essex County Public Schools Teacher of the Year, Principal Kafele was a New Jersey State Teacher of the Year finalist and a recipient of the New Jersey Education Association Award of Excellence. As a middle and high school principal, Principal Kafele led the transformation of four different New Jersey urban schools, including “The Mighty” Newark Tech, which went from a low-performing school in need of improvement to national recognition, which included U.S. News and World Report Magazine recognizing it three times as one of America’s best high schools. He has delivered more than one thousand conference keynotes and professional development workshops over the past seven years since leaving his principalship in 2011.
How did he go from juvenile detention to two doctorates, with training at Harvard Medical School and Oxford University? Dr. Adam Sáenz will tell you: it was the power of community. Whether you’re searching for a reason to believe or you just need a hope-filled reminder, the bottom line is that you do have tremendous power to make a difference in your world, and Dr. Sáenz’ message will compel you to engage your calling with passion, with purpose, and with vision. Now, as a licensed psychologist and theologian, Dr. Sáenz conducts workshops across the country in the areas of stress management, self-care, and the dynamics of effective relationship and team-building. Dr. Sáenz earned his Ph.D. in School Psychology from Texas A&M University with clinical training at Harvard Medical School. He completed his post doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He also earned a Doctorate of Ministry in Pastoral Counseling from the Graduate Theological Foundation with residency at Christ Church College of Oxford University.
Dr. Muhammad Khalifa is a professor of Educational Administration and the Executive Director of Urban and Rural Initiatives at The Ohio State University. His research examines how urban school leaders enact culturally responsive leadership and anti-oppressive schooling practices. He was previously as teacher and administrator in Detroit Public Schools, and he has also contributed to community-informed education projects in Africa, Latin America, and Asia in various capacities.
Dr. Khalifa has written extensively on minoritized student identities in school, how schools can become liberatory spaces for youth, and how schools can begin to recognize and value community and ancestral knowledges in and around schools. He is the author of the top-selling book, Culturally Responsive School Leadership (Harvard Education Press, 2018). He is also coeditor of three other earlier books and has published in the highest ranked education journals, including Review of Educational Research, Teachers College Record, QSE, Urban Review, Educational Administration Quarterly, and Race, Ethnicity, and Education.
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” —Helen Keller
We appreciate and value all of our partners and our alumni network, from school districts to non-profits and other organizations with whom we work and learn.
Leadership Partners Network
We partner with school districts across Texas, and we are always expanding! We are also a TEA vetted School Transformation Partner and a System of Great Schools (SGS) Provider.
Consultants
Leadership Partners collaborates with national and international consultants to support our work with school leaders.
Dr. Kenneth Leithwood is a Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership and Policy at OISE/University of Toronto. He has long time research interests in leadership, policy and school improvement. These interests have been pursued through more focused inquiries about alternative conceptions of leadership, the cognitive and emotional processes of leaders, leadership development, organizational learning and leadership for both local and large-scale school reform. his most recent studies concern leadership in both highly accountable policy contexts and in schools with diverse student populations. Through several large-scale, longitudinal studies underway, he is presently trying to better understand the complex practices and processes through which successful leaders improve teaching and learning in their schools. Dr. Leithwood has published more than 75 referred journal articles, and authored or edited more than thirty books.
Dr. Jing Ping Sun is an assistant professor in education leadership at the University of Alabama. She is committed to understanding educational leaders: what they do, why they do what they do, and how they use it to promote teaching and learning at school, district and state levels. Her areas of interest in research, instruction, and dissertation advising include leadership model development, leader development, leadership for teaching and learning, school organization design, data-informed decision and policy making, policy evaluation, research synthesis, and the international comparative study of leadership. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Alabama, she worked on and reported the evaluation results of the comprehensive Ontario Leadership Strategy as well as its 13 initiatives as a policy lead. She also developed an evaluation framework to guide and support the Ontario Ministry of Education staff to conduct policy evaluation internally and/or externally. Her work may be found in refereed journals and book chapters, including a recent article co-authored with Professor Kenneth Leithwood, an international leading scholar, published in Educational Administration Quarterly 2012, the premier journal in the field of educational leadership, as a lead article, on transformational school leadership. Dr. Sun has won awards for her research and research manuscripts and promotes dialogue on leadership studies between countries and between the West and the East.
Christie Huseman is a consultant with Leadership Partners, working with leaders and educators on building trust and the power of knowing and telling your story. Her unique and interactive presentations provide new insights for leaders to leverage to build high quality relationships with those they lead. She is the AVID and International Baccalaureate Coordinator for Humble ISD, where she is able to engage in critical work around equity and engagement. She also works for AVID Center as a National Staff Developer, training educators on closing the opportunity gap for all students. She has previously worked in Alief ISD, College Station ISD, and Katy ISD. She is a proud wife to her husband Kolby, who is a head basketball coach in Klein ISD, and mother to Levi.
