Human Resource Education

Overview

A Context for Change

Leadership Through Learning

Curriculum

Faculty Biographies

Alumni Case Studies

Program Director's Letter

Community
Location
Admissions
Contact

Faculty Biographies

The Human Resource Education program's faculty members are full-time professors at Boston
University and experienced practitioners from industry. Their expertise provides both the theoretical
knowledge and the practical skills necessary to design, maintain, and expand corporate educational
programs. The collective experience of the faculty, combined with the real-world experience of the
participants, is brought to bear in the form of relevant coursework and projects that focus on the
needs of the corporate educator.

Anthony Di Bella
Adjunct Professor
Associate Professor, National Security and Decision-Making, Naval War College, Newport, R.I.
BA, Sociology, Trinity College; MA, Applied Anthropology, American University; MBA, Marketing &
Management, University of Rhode Island; PhD, Organizational Studies, Sloan School of
Management, MIT
Dr. Di Bella has published articles in a variety of distinguished journals including the Sloan
Management Review and the Journal of Management Studies and has spoken at over 150
professional conferences.
Dr. Di Bella has also written two books: How Organizations Learn: An Integrated Strategy for
Building Learning Capability (Jossey-Bass, 1998); and Learning Practices (Prentice-Hall, 2001).
While studying at MIT, Dr. Di Bella was a visiting scholar at the Center for Organizational Learning
and subsequently a founding member of the Society for Organizational Learning. He is also a fellow
of the Society for Applied Anthropology. Dr. Di Bella has analyzed company operations literally
around the world and consulted with a wide range of organizations including AT&T, the Boston Police
Department, Fidelity Investments, IBM Global Services, the Mellon Foundation, Nortel, SAFECO
Insurance, the Uganda Central Credit Union, and the YMCA. Dr. Di Bella is co-developer of the
Organizational Learning Inventory and the Healthcare Learning Inventory. In the past, Dr. Di Bella
has taught at MIT, Boston College, and the University of Massachusetts.
George Entwistle
Adjunct Professor
Superintendent of Schools, Falmouth, ME
BA, Psychology, University of Massachusetts; MA, Developmental Psychology, Assumption College;
EdD, Human Resource Education, Boston University
Dr. Entwistle is currently the Superintendent of Schools in a growing coastal community outside
Portland, Maine. He is passionate in his belief that human resource development competencies are
critical to the effectiveness of public school leaders. In his leadership role as Superintendent, he is
currently engaged in developing a systems model of local accountability and facilitating
organizational planning that is clearly responsive to local requirements. His teaching, writing, and
research continue to be focused on human resources development, organizational planning
strategies, and creating truly high-performing organizations.
In the past, he has held clinical, leadership, and executive positions both in private and public
organizations associated with the manufacturing, engineering, public education, higher education,
and mental health sectors. He is a member of the Academy of Management and the Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development and sits on the Board of Directors for the New England
School Development Council (NESDEC).

Alan K. Gaynor
Associate Professor
BA, History; MS, Education, Queens College of the City of New York; PhD, Educational
Administration, New York University
Dr. Gaynor is a student of organizational policy analysis and organizational change. His books
include Project Planning (Allyn and Bacon, 1992, with Jane L. Evanson) and Analyzing Problems in
Schools and School Systems: A Theoretical Approach (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998). He also
has a long-time interest in computer simulation modeling as a method for examining organizational
problems and policy options. His current work is focused on organizational learning, especially as it
relates to improving schools.
Edward J. Harris, Jr.
Adjunct Professor
Vice President for Administration, American Antiquarian Society
BA, State University of New York; MA, Pennsylvania State University; PhD, Communication and
Rhetoric, Pennsylvania State University
Dr. Harris was professor and chairman of the Communication and Journalism Department at Suffolk
University from 1978 to 1994, and has been a consultant and trainer for nearly twenty years.
He has written numerous scholarly works, including Rhetoric, Argument and Communication (with
G. M. Boone, published by Kendall Hunt), and Training the Trainer: An Interactive Communication
Approach for the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Training Council. He has published articles in a
number of scholarly journals and presented over twenty papers at national meetings and
conventions, including the Speech Communication Association.
As a consultant, Dr. Harris has worked on projects involving performance management, continuous
improvement, incentive based compensation, communication skills, training the trainer, and change
management. He has specialized in group and team approaches to organizational change and
collaborative measurement of individual and group performance.
Richard P. Kropp
Adjunct Professor
Vice President of Human Resources, Cape Cod Healthcare
BA, Mansfield University; EdM, EdD, Boston University; CAGS, Cornell University
Dr. Kropp's current research interests are the areas of workplace education and organizational
learning. He has written extensively in the area of intra-organizational collaboration and teaches
several courses in that field. Over the past twenty years he has held several senior corporate
positions with such firms as Wang Labs, AT&T, and BankBoston. In each of these assignments Dr.
Kropp's work focused on adult learning and education. Dr. Kropp's most recent book, Self-Directed

Work Teams, focuses on the creation of autonomous work teams in various organizational work
settings.
Madeline Nold
Adjunct Professor
Director, Creative Action Associates
BA, MA, Sarah Lawrence College; PhD, Columbia University
Dr. Nold is the founder of Creative Action Associates, an organizational consulting and executive
coaching services firm, focused on developing innovative strategies for change. Over the last twenty
years, Dr. Nold has created and delivered workshops for corporations and organizations, both in the
United States and abroad. She has personally delivered these programs in Canada, Malaysia,
Finland, and the Bahamas, as well as having led and created two collaborative leadership sessions in
Vienna at the Society for Organizational Learning's Second Global Forum. From her experiences as
Joseph Campbell's protg and her extensive study of David Kantor's work, Dr. Nold developed an
application of Family Systems theory for effective use in organizations.
Dr. Nold is a founding consultant member and council member of the Society for Organizational
Learning, a group started by Peter Senge and other MIT systems dynamics pioneers. Dr. Nold has
lectured at Oxford University, and she was on the faculty at Wellesley College, among others. Dr.
Nold has been published in the U.S. and abroad. Also, Dr. Nold has had an extensive media
experience on television and radio, including having twice been a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
John M. Poirier
Adjunct Professor
Principal, Poirier & Associates
MS, Human Resource Development, American University; MBA, Bryant College; EdD, Nova
Southeastern University
Dr. John Poirier is the founder of Poirier & Associates, a human resources and organizational
development consulting firm. As part of his practice, Dr. Poirier takes on the roles of consultant,
trainer, coach, speaker, and educator to help clients develop the competencies they need to enhance
organizational effectiveness, team development, and individual competence. Dr. Poirier's particular
areas of expertise are competency-based management and staff development, as well as databased approaches to employee engagement and customer satisfaction.
Dr. Poirier has worked with client organizations both large and small in the public and private
sectors. Corporate clients have included large organizations such as Anheuser Busch, Avery
Dennison, CVS, Cisco Systems, Crabtree & Evelyn, Gillette, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson,
Lifeline Systems, Major League Baseball, Microsoft, and Wachovia. Dr. Poirier has also worked with
privately held organizations such as Action Automation, Domain Home Fashions, Prism Health
Group, TAC Worldwide, and Tuition Management Systems. Public sector and not-for profit clients

have included government agencies such as the Academy for Educational Development, Head Start,
the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Massachusetts Dental
Society, and the U.S. Forest Service.
Jill S. Silverstein
Adjunct Professor
National Learning Director, Deloitte Services, LP
BM, DePauw University; MM, New England Conservatory of Music; EdM, EdD, Human Resource
Education, Boston University
Dr. Silverstein is an accomplished learning and organizational development professional with more
than twenty years business experience, most recently delivering bottom-line results through
business consulting, development of OD and education strategies, and implementation of corporate
education programs. Dr. Silverstein's areas of expertise include leadership development,
organizational development, and change management.
Dr. Silverstein is currently responsible for building a learning and development function for the
emerging national Financial Advisory Services practice at Deloitte. Prior to her position at Deloitte,
Dr. Silverstein served as the Vice President and Director of Corporate Education and Development at
State Street Research and Management Company, a $40 billion institutional and retail asset
management company. In this role, she was responsible for all of its corporate learning and
organizational development strategies and initiatives. Before her tenure at State Street, Dr.
Silverstein worked for The Thompson Company supporting learning and developing initiatives for a
$300 million group of specialty publishing businesses, spanning 29 sites throughout North America,
as well as supporting corporate leadership education and development initiatives worldwide.
Reza Sisakhti
Adjunct Professor
Founding Director, Productivity Dynamics, Inc.
National Learning Director, Deloitte Services, LP
MBA, University of New Hampshire; PhD, Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University
Dr. Sisakhti has been a workplace learning and performance improvement practitioner for over two
decades. Dr. Sisakhti's areas of expertise include human performance improvement; competency
modeling, learning, and development program design; evaluation and business impact
measurement, as well as business, performance, needs, audience, and task analyses. Dr. Sisakhti
founded Productivity Dynamics, a research and consulting firm dedicated to helping clients achieve
significant business results through creating effective learning and performance environments.
Productivity Dynamics clients include but are not limited to organizations such as HP, Verizon,
Corning, Cisco, and Nortel Networks. Prior to founding Productivity Dynamics, Dr. Sisakhti was the
director of learning strategy practice at Gartner Group. In 1998, the American Society of Training
and Development published Dr. Sisakhti's book entitled Effective Learning Environments; creating a

successful strategy for your organization. Dr. Sisakhti has extensive teaching experience both in
academic and corporate environments. He has taught graduate courses in computer-based
instruction and instructional design at Boston University's School of Education since 1986. Dr.
Sisakhti also taught instructional design at Indiana University.
Marc L. Spaulding
Adjunct Professor
Principal, Change Management Associates
BA, MA, PhD, Sociology, Bowling Green State University
Dr. Spaulding founded Change Management Associates (CMA) in 1994 to assist executives in the
design and implementation of mission critical projects to achieve outstanding individual, team, and
organizational performance. Dr. Spaulding works with executive teams to effectively create and
execute company-wide strategic initiatives including mergers and acquisitions, culture change,
performance measurement systems, quality and customer service initiatives, business process
improvement projects, and market and organizational research. In addition to his work in largescale organizational change, Dr. Spaulding advises senior teams on leadership, building highperformance teams, and executive development issues.
Dr. Spaulding also has extensive experience in change management, strategic planning, executive
coaching, learning theory and design, customer and organizational assessment, and continuous
quality improvement. In the past, Dr. Spaulding has taught at Bowling Green State University, Ohio
Northern University, and the University of Guam.
Klara Sztucinski
Adjunct Professor
Principal, Millennium Consulting Group
BA, Hiram College; EdM, Boston University; EdD, George Washington University
Dr. Sztucinski has been working for 18 years in the areas of organizational and executive
development. In 1994, Dr. Sztucinski founded with three of her colleagues Millennium Consulting
Group, a Boston-based consulting company that provides in-depth organizational and executive
development services to a wide array of industries including broadcast, financial services, health
care, technology, and education. Previously, Dr. Sztucinski served as Director of Training and
Organizational Development at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. Sztucinski's doctoral
research is in the area of leadership development with a specialization in executive coaching. She is
a member of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), the Organizational
Development Network, the International Communication Association, and the Academy of
Management, as well as the Past Vice-President for Professional Development, Massachusetts
Chapter of ASTD.

Leonard D. Zaichkowsky
Professor
BPE, University of Alberta; MEd, University of Oklahoma; PhD, University of Toledo
Dr. Zaichkowsky is an internationally renowned expert in the psychology of human performance and
high abilities. His current research interests include the management of performance anxiety,
information processing, and the development of expert performance. Dr. Zaichkowsky has published
more than 75 articles on sport and exercise psychology, as well as a standardized self-concept scale,
and has co-authored or edited six books on sport and exercise psychology and motor performance.
He has served as a consultant in research design and statistics, and is a member of numerous state,
national, and international organizations.
He is director of the graduate specialization in sport psychology-a joint offering of the Boston
University School of Education and School of Medicine. Dr. Zaichkowsky is on the Registry of Sport
Psychologists for the U.S. Olympic Committee and is a fellow and past president of the Association
for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology. He has consulted with the National Hockey
League, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and the National Basketball
Association.