Fielding’s HOD program director, Kathy Geller, Ph.D., is part of an international team of scholars being honored with the “MED Global Forum Best Symposium Award” at the 82nd Academy of Management Conference

The winning symposium will be presented on Sunday, August 7, 2022.

Founded in 1936, the Academy of Management (AOM) is an internationally recognized professional association for scholars and practitioners of management and organizations. This year’s conference anticipates over 7,000 members in attendance. Each year at the AOM annual conference, divisions within the Academy bestow awards including the MED Global Forum Best Symposium Award. This award recognizes the symposium that best creates the opportunity to address global issues of significance in management education and development.

This year’s MED Global recipient symposium is, “Synchronous and Asynchronous Teaching: Realigning Teaching Approaches to a VUCA World (session 616).” The acronym VUCA is used in leadership scholarship to reflect on the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of various situations. The COVID-19 pandemic brought many VUCA challenges, stress and difficulties and, for many individuals and institutions, unprecedented uncertainty levels including the need to move management education from classroom to online delivery. While causing major disruptions, responses to VUCA situations provide important and acute lessons.

The symposium brings together an international group of authors whose four papers (spanning quantitative, qualitative, and case study methodologies) investigated how students, academics, and their schools responded to the challenges brought on by the pandemic. The four papers discuss complementary issues:

  • Swiss school faculty describe managing emotional reactions and gaining resilience in the move to online delivery;
  • French Canadian business school faculty discuss using Experiential Learning in the virtual classroom;
  • The US faculty team apply Transformative Learning theory and practices in the design and delivery of an online doctoral level qualitative research course;
  • And a leading Indian business school faculty offer an analysis of several ethical dilemmas faced in moving courses online and how they were met.

The insights that these scholars bring are relevant not only for the changes in teaching modes brought about by the pandemic but for a host of unexpected situations faced in an increasingly VUCA world.

The Symposium takes place on Sunday, August 7, 2022, from 8:00 am to 9:30 am PDT. For more information about the symposium and the 82nd annual Academy of Management Conference, please visit the AOM website at https://2022.aom.org.


SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Fielding Graduate University invites Fielding students, faculty, and alumni attending the AOM or based in the Seattle area to a casual gathering on Sunday, August 7th from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. (location to be announced) Contact Kathy Geller (kgeller@fielding.edu) for more information.


SYMPOSIUM PANELISTS

Kathy Geller, PhD

Kathy Geller, Ph.D.

Kathy Geller, Ph.D., is the Program Director for both the PhD in Organizational Development and Change, and PhD in Human Development programs. Dr. Geller came to Fielding in 2021 from Drexel University where she was a faculty member since 2010. At Drexel, Kathy served as Program Director of their Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Management Program. Under her leadership, the Program was selected as the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED), 2019 Program of the Year. Dr. Geller is also a graduate of Fielding Graduate University.

Prior to her faculty role, Kathy worked internationally in organization and management development. She served as Associate Vice President for Organizational Learning and Effectiveness with Stanford University. For the ten years prior to joining Stanford, Kathy lived and worked in Asia and the Middle East. While based in Hong Kong, she served as Global Head of Management Development and Chief Curriculum Architect for Standard Chartered Bank, a 70,000-person British financial services organization focused on Asia, Africa and the Middle East.  While living in Kuwait and Malaysia, she founded and was Managing Principal for Areté Leadership International Ltd, a consultancy whose clients included Microsoft, The United Nations, UBS, Standard Chartered Bank, and other organizations. During this period Kathy taught as an adjunct instructor for the Columbia University Teachers’ College Summer Principal Academy (a Master’s Program) and Nova Southeastern University’s doctoral program in Educational Leadership. Kathy received her Doctorate in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University in 2005.

Dr. Geller is also a graduate of Fielding Graduate University.

Dr. Jacob Eisenberg

Jacob Eisenberg, Ph.D.

Jacob Eisenberg is an Associate Professor at the UCD Smurfit Graduate School of Business in Dublin, Ireland, where he has been teaching on the school’s top-ranked programs: FT MBA, E-MBA, CEMS MIM and the MSc Business. Jacob earned his PhD in Social/Organizational Psychology at Colorado State University (USA) and his research and teaching interests are primarily related to Organisational Behaviour, Human Resource Management and Cross-Cultural Management.

Jacob has lectured in several countries, including Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Singapore and USA. Jacob’s achievements as a lecturer were recognized when he received 2007 the Annual UCD School of Business Best Graduate Teaching Award.

Dr Payal Kumar Dean of Research & Management Studies

Dr. Payal Kumar
Dean of Research & Management Studies

Ruth Puhr Les Roches Global Hospitality Education
Dr. Ruth Puhr
Les Roches Global Hospitality Education
Vasanthi Srinivasan Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
Dr. Vasanthi Srinivasan
Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
Dr. Melanie Robinson, HEC Montreal
Dr. John Fiset, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Dr. Joy C. Phillips, Drexel University
Dr. Sourav Mukherji, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
Dr. Rachel Germanier, Les Roches Global Hospitality Education
Dr. Marine Agogue, HEC Montreal
Dr. Chantale Mailhot, HEC Montreal
Dr. Kristine Lewis Grant, Drexel University

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