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Bauer College Announces Next Phase of Inclusive Leadership Initiative
Dean Paul A. Pavlou Names Barbara Carlin as Director
Published on September 29, 2020
Despite the ongoing pandemic, the C. T. Bauer College of Business continues to actively implement its bold 2020-25 Strategic Plan, with Dean Paul A. Pavlou announcing the next phase of the college’s Inclusive Leadership Initiative as a key step toward Bauer’s 2020-25 strategic goal to “set the standard for promoting diversity and inclusion.”
The Inclusive Leadership Initiative (ILI), based on earlier work by former Dean Latha Ramchand, and led by faculty Dusya Vera and Tom George, with many faculty and collaborators, has evolved from the family-friendly and working-families initiatives that have been ongoing within the Bauer College since 2014.
These efforts have resulted in projects such as Women in Leadership (an executive development program offered twice a year), the Phillips 66 Diversity and Inclusion Case Competition, the Working Wisdom Podcast, the Practices that Pay expert panels, and the timely research on the #MeToo movement led by Professor Leanne Atwater. The faculty involved with ILI have established that the initiative’s mission of research, teaching, and community engagement rests on four pillars of diversity-supportive leadership, family-supportive leadership, health-supportive leadership, and socially-responsible leadership.
Derek R. Avery
Barbara Carlin
Juan Madera
“The need for the Inclusive Leadership Initiative is more urgent than ever in order to face the grand challenges of the health and economic COVID-19 crisis, teleworking needs while homeschooling, and the necessity to engage in conversations about and actions aimed at addressing racial injustice and systemic racism,” Pavlou said.
The initiative is charged with creating partnerships with organizations in Houston and serving as the focal point for the development of next-generation inclusive leaders to enable a more diverse set of executives to play leadership roles within organizations. The scope of activities includes research, teaching, and community outreach.
The new phase of the Inclusive Leadership Initiative is expected to formalize and more clearly identify the structure and parameters of the initiative going forward, Pavlou said. To assist in this process, Instructional Assistant Professor Barbara Carlin has been named director of the Inclusive Leadership Initiative.
The Bauer College has also added two new faculty members to the initiative — C. T. Bauer Chair of Inclusive Leadership Derek R. Avery and Professor Juan Madera.
Avery has a lengthy record of research and scholarship in the area of diversity and inclusion, while Madera, who has a joint appointment with the Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management, also brings a depth of research expertise in the area of diversity and inclusion.
