Scholars in Residence

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Listen to an interview conducted by CM Scholar-in-Residence Deborah Cai, on Fighting Gun Violence in Philadelphia, with co-host David Brown (Asst. Dean, Klein College of Media and Communiation, Temple University, and executive director of the Civic Coalition to Save Lives), Jennifer Midberry (Assoc. Professor, Klein College, Temple University), and Amy Goldberg (Dean, Katz School of Medicine).

Every two years the CM Division nominates and selects a few distinguished scholars to be our Scholars in Residence. In this role, they advise the executive board and create events to mentor doctoral students and junior faculty, and to help with idea generation and development of conference-related activities.

The 2024-2025 Scholars in Residence are:

Joel E. Cutcher Gershenfeld

Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld | Wilson CenterJoel Cutcher-Gershenfeld is the Florence G. Heller Chair and Professor in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, where he Directs the Social Impact MBA Program. Joel leads research on institutional agility to address societal challenges and teaches classes on strategy, operations, and negotiations. Previously he served as a professor and dean in the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois, United States. Joel is an award-winning author who has co-authored or co-edited twelve books, including: The Consortia Century (Oxford University Press, forthcoming); The Social Impact Case Collection (Brandeis University Press, forthcoming): Designing Reality: How to Survive and Thrive in the Third Digital Revolution (Basic Books, 2017), Inside the Ford-UAW Transformation: Pivotal Events in Valuing Work and Delivering Results (MIT Press, 2015), Multinational Human Resource Management and the Law (Edward Elgar, 2013), Valuable Disconnects in Organizational Learning Systems (Oxford University Press, 2005), Lean Enterprise Value (Palgrave, 2002), Knowledge-Driven Work (Oxford University Press, 1998), and Strategic Negotiations (Harvard Business School Press, 1994), and overone hundred articles, book chapters, and policy papers on high performance work systems, transformation in labor-management relations, negotiations and conflict resolution, economic development, and engineering systems. He has helped to lead large-scale change initiatives in public and private sectors in Australia, Bermuda, Canada, England, Iceland, Jamaica, Japan, New Zealand, Panama, and the United States. Joel’s current research is centered on stakeholder alignment in complex systems – a foundation for institutions in the 21st Century.

Michael A. Gross

Michael Gross - Full Professor of Management - Colorado State University |  LinkedInMichael A. Gross is a Professor in the Department of Management at Colorado State University.  He is a Scholar in Residence, Conflict Management Division, Academy of Management (2024-2026), and is currently on sabbatical at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada as a Visiting Scholar (Fall 2024), and at the London Business School as a visiting full professor (Spring 2025).  He is also a creator and host of the NaC podcast series   Dr. Gross is the past Editor-in-Chief for Negotiation and Conflict Management Research (Volumes 9-12; 2015-2019), a 2017 Dean's Scholar, the 2016 Past Division Chair, Conflict Management Division, Academy of Management (completing a 5 year leadership track), and the 2015 recipient of the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, and the 2021 recipient of the Excellence in Service Faculty Award for the College of Business.  Michael is also a Fellow, Faculty Institute for Inclusive Excellence, and a Fellow, Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Faculty.

He earned his Ph.D. at Arizona State University. His current research interest focused on conflict in the workplace. He has published in a variety of journals including Decision Sciences, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Emotion Review, Journal of Management Inquirythe International Journal of Conflict Management, Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Applied Communication Research, and the Journal of Management Education. He serves on five editorial review boards. He teaches negotiation and conflict management at the undergraduate level and in the graduate and executive programs as well as courses in organizational behavior and human resource management. In addition, he has received numerous awards for excellence in research, teaching, and service. Dr. Gross held previous sabbatical positions as a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in New York City (2016), and as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada (2017).

Deborah A. Cai

Deborah Cai | Klein College of Media ...Deborah A. Cai is an internationally recognized researcher specializing in intercultural communication, negotiation and conflict management, and social influence. She is a fellow of the International Association for Intercultural Research. Her research examines the effects of culture on social networks and cognitive processes related to perceptions of conflict, decision making and planning in negotiation. She has studied variations in social networks and relational obligations across cultures, particularly comparing China with Western cultures. Her scholarship addresses theoretical questions utilizing the full range of statistical techniques, from simple tests of mean differences to analyses of elaborate causal structures.
 
She is the editor of the four-volume set that is a part of the Sage Benchmarks in Communication, Intercultural Communication, and she has published in the premier outlets of the communication discipline, including Communication Yearbook, Human Communication Research, Communication Monographs, the Journal of Applied Communication Research and Communication Research. She has served as editor-in-chief of Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, the official journal of the International Association for Conflict Management.

The 2021-2023 Inaugural Scholars in Residence were:

Ariel Avgar
David M. Cohen Professor of Labor Relations, Law, and History, Cornell University

Mara Olekalns
Professor of Negotiations, Melbourne Business School

Richard Posthuma
Professsor of Marketing, Management, and Supply Chain, University of Texas-El Paso