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 Senior Associate Dean for Executive Education, Associate Professor of Management and Psychology (Organizational Behavior)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
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, he was selected as the East Orange School District and Essex County Public Schools Teacher of the Year and New Jersey Teacher of the Year finalist.
As a middle and high school principal, Principal Kafele emerged as a turnaround school leader which included the turnaround of “The Mighty” Newark Tech, that went from a low-performing school in need of improvement to national recognition, including U.S. News and World Report Magazine recognizing it three times as one of America’s best high schools and Principal Kafele being awarded the coveted Milken Educator Award.
One of the most sought-after school leadership and classroom equity presenters in America, Principal Kafele is impacting America’s schools! For over 35 years, he has delivered over 3000 conference and program keynotes, professional development workshops, parenting seminars and student assemblies. An expert in the area of “attitude transformation,” Principal Kafele is the leading authority for providing effective classroom and school leadership strategies toward closing what he coined, the “Attitude Gap.”
A prolific writer, Principal Kafele has written extensively on professional development strategies for creating a positive school climate and culture, transforming the attitudes of at-risk students, motivating Black males to excel in the classroom, and school leadership practices for inspiring schoolwide excellence. In addition to writing several professional articles for popular education journals, he has authored thirteen books, including his seven ASCD best sellers – Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School & in Life, Closing the Attitude Gap, Is My School a Better School BECAUSE I Lead It?, The Teacher 50, The Principal 50, The Assistant Principal 50 and The Equity & Social Justice Education 50. Principal Kafele is also the creator and host of the popular AP & New Principals Academy, streamed live every Saturday morning on his AP & New Principals Academy YouTube channel at 10:55 ET.
Principal Kafele is married to his wife Kimberley, and is the father of their three children, Baruti, Jabari and Kibriya. He earned his B.S. degree in Management Science/Marketing from Kean University and his M.A. degree in Educational Administration from New Jersey City University. He is the recipient of over 150 educational, professional and community awards which include the prestigious Milken Educator Award, the National Alliance of Black School Educators Hall of Fame Award, the East Orange, New Jersey Hall of Fame Award, the New Jersey Education Association Award of Excellence, recognition as one of the World’s Top 30 Education Professionals by Global Gurus Top 30 for four consecutive years, and the City of Dickinson, Texas proclaiming February 8, 1998 as Baruti Kafele Day.
Beth C. O’Sullivan is a Senior Lecturer in Management. She teaches Communication in the Executive MBA and MBA for Professionals programs, serves on the Action Learning Project Faculty, and teaches in Executive Education. She holds a joint appointment with the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership as a Lecturer in Professional and Engineering Communication. She initiated the international immersion program at the Jones Graduate School and has developed numerous in-class exercises, mini-cases, and on-line/video resources. She also serves as an advisor and pitch coach for several business incubators including TMC/X, the business accelerator unit of the Texas Medical Center, and OWL-Spark.
Prior to joining Rice, Ms. O’Sullivan was Manager of Corporate Communication and Investor Relations for Oceaneering International, Inc., an offshore services company, for eight years. Ms. O’Sullivan also spent one year serving as Corporate Communication Manager for a Houston-based exploration and production company. She maintains an active consulting practice working with executives to develop their interpersonal communication and public speaking skills, and develops customized executive education programs in corporate communication and intercultural communication.
Teaching Interests:
Principles of Communication including Strategy and Organization
Oral Presentations
Written Communication
Visualization of concepts
Listening and Interpersonal Communication
Communicating with Employees
Investor Relations
Intercultural Communication
Public Relations
Graphics for Presentations
Career Planning
Networking
Interviewing
Action Learning Project
Executive Education
Research Interests:
Beth’s most recent research has focused on how US MBA Schools are teaching communication. Other scholarly areas include Communication-General, Action Learning Project, and Executive Education – General.
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.
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.
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. Anthony Muhammad Anthony Muhammad is an author and international thought leader. He currently serves as the CEO of New Frontier 21 Consulting, a company dedicated to providing cutting-edge professional development to schools all over the world. He served as a practitioner for nearly twenty years. Dr. Muhammad served as a middle school teacher, assistant principal, middle school principal, and high school principal. His tenure as a practitioner has earned him several awards as both a teacher and a principal.
Dr. Muhammad is recognized as one of the field’s leading experts in the areas of school culture and Professional Learning Communities at Work (PLC). He also serves as an Associate Professor of School Leadership and Culture at Academica University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Dr. Muhammad is a best-selling author. He most recent books include The Way Forward: PLC at Work and the Bright Future of Education (2024), Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work, 4th Edition (2024), Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work, 2nd Edition (2021), Time for Change: The Four Essential Skills of a Transformational School Leader (2019) and Transforming School Culture: How to Overcome Staff Division 2nd Edition (2018) and The Way Forward: PLC AT WORK and the Bright FUTURE of EDUCATION (2024). He has published 26 peer reviewed articles in education journals and publications in seven different countries.
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. Among his publications are the best-selling The Power of a Teacher, Relationships That Work, and his most recent release, The EQ Intervention: Shaping a Self-Aware Generation Through Social and Emotional Learning.
He currently serves as a supervising psychologist for the Texas A&M Medical School and for the Texas A&M Department of Athletics.
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.
Producer, director and stage manager with extensive experience in developing, organizing, coordinating and executing live hybrid and virtual events, Michael Hauk began his career working both in front and behind the stage, camera and microphone. He demonstrates expert level craftsmanship and acumen in most related industry practices. Educated in acting and directing at Goodman Theatre School, American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Actors Studio and later earned graduate degrees in business and psychology at Xavier University and Antioch College. Michael leverages an international resume in entertainment, business and industry. He has produced, directed and managed events with organizations that include: Procter and Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Gensler International, Great American Life Insurance, Fifth Third Bank and Eastman Kodak to name a few. Michael motivates presenters at all organizational levels to successfully engage and entertain their audiences.
