Organizational Systems Faculty

Saybrook faculty members are leaders in their fields, combining academic and publishing expertise with extensive consulting and business experience. They choose to teach at Saybrook because of the unique philosophy and academic opportunities it offers..

Core faculty members in Organizational Systems degree programs include:

Organizational Systems Faculty


	Nancy Southern , MBA, EdD OS Program Co-Chair Organization and Leadership Dr. Southern has served as a consultant to numerous public, corporate and non-profit organizations and executive teams since 1989. Her research focuses on how cultural beliefs and assumptions affect an organization's ability to achieve desired change. Her doctoral work at the University of San Francisco was a cross-cultural examination of U.S. and Chinese leadership and change strategies.
	Kathia Castro-Laszlo , PhD Director Leadership of Sustainable Systems MA program Human Science A Saybrook graduate, Dr. Laszlo is a founding partner of Syntony Quest, which works with sustainability projects in the US and Mexico. As a consultant, she is the facilitator and designer of innovative learning systems within corporations, educational institutions, and communities. She has conducted numerous action-research projects on social change and sustainable development.
	Dennis Jaffe , PhD Sociology An advisor to families about family business, governance, wealth and philanthropy, Dr. Jaffee is one of the founders of the field of family wealth management. A former Adelaide Thinker in Residence for the government of Australia, he is author of numerous books on organizational development, family business dynamics, and the impact of wealth on families. He received his BA degree in Philosophy, MA in Management, and Ph.D. in sociology, all from Yale University, and is a licensed psychologist.
	John Adams , PhD Organizational Behavior Dr. Adams is the author of Thinking Today as if Tomorrow Mattered: Rise of a Sustainable Consciousness (2000) and Life Changes (1990). He is also the editor of Transforming Work and Transforming Leadership (2nd editions 1999). Currently, involved with the implementation of a variety of large-scale organizational change programs, his research interests are in the area of deep pattern change at the individual, organizational and societal levels
	Alan Briskin , PhD Psychology Dr. Briskin is a management consultant who for twenty years has been helping business leaders wrestle with how to create more effective and humane workplaces. A leading voice in the field of organizational development, he is the author of The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace, winner of the 1997 Body Mind Spirit Award of Excellence, and co-author of The Power of Collective Wisdom and Bringing Your Soul to Work: An Everyday Practice.
	Marvin Brown , PhD Organizational Systems Faculty The author of Working Ethics (Regent Press, 2000), The Ethical Process (Prentice Hall, 2003) and Corporate Integrity: Rethinking Organizational Ethics and Leadership (Cambridge University Press, 2005), Dr. Brown has 25 years experience as a teacher, writer, and business ethics consultant. He teaches business ethics in the Philosophy Department at the University of San Francisco and at Saybrook University, and has worked as an ethics consultant with such corporations as Levi Strauss and Company, California Automobile Association and Veolia, North America.
	Prasad Kaipa Organizational Systems Faculty "We explain things with our mind but we do things with our heart, and our emotions drive organizational behavior a lot more than we usually acknowledge."
	Alexander Laszlo , PhD Science and Technology Policy The co-founder and President of Syntony Quest, a global consulting firm, Dr. Lazlo is on the Editorial Boards of 'Systems Research & Behavioral Science', 'World Futures', 'Organizational Transformation & Social Change', and 'Latin American Business Review.' A Saybrook graduate, he has received the Sir Geoffrey Vickers Memorial Award as well as the "Föderpreis Akademischer Klub" award of the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, for work in social innovation and sustainable development.
	Gary Metcalf , PhD Human Science The Vice President of the International Federal for Systems Research, based in Vienna, Austria, Dr. Metcalf is an international consultant and speaker who serves on the faculty of business schools in the US and India. A Saybrook graduate, he is Past President for the International Society for the Systems Sciences (2008), and teaches at the Federal Executive Institute of the U.S. government. His primary research interest is in the nature of social systems.
	Tim O'Brien , PhD Interdisciplinary Arts and Science Organizational Behavior An Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Finance at North Park University, Dr. O'Brien has 30 years experience in a variety of management, consulting, and teaching roles in commercial, non-profit, and religious organizations. His work integrates finance and operations, project planning and implementation, change management, nonprofit board development, and staff training and development.
	Chuck Piazza , PhD Interdisciplinary Studies Organizational Behavior Dr. Piazza's work critically examines the behavior of contemporary sociotechnical organizational systems and the human dynamics related to them. He explores organizational communication and social networking in a Digital Age, and the practical and ethical issues and challenges related to global knowledge ecologies in a virtual workplace.
	Yongming Tang , PhD Systems Management An internationally known consultant. speaker, and trainer, Dr.Tang specializes in leadership in a global context. He is the creator of Synergic Inquiry methodology and Synergic Coaching which has been applied to different settings in different nations and cultures. A resident of China, Dr. Tang is the CEO of the Global Leadership Institute, which applies a synergy of Eastern and Western approaches to developing relationships to support effective management and leadership practices in both cultures.
	Sharada Gwen Gibbs-Wade , PhD Social and Personality Psychology A researcher with over 35 years experience, Dr. Gibbs-Wade has worked with local, national, and global organizations including governments, health systems, and institutions of higher learning. Her research focuses on "programs of change" that reduce the impact of poverty and inequities in target populations such as urban areas and indigenous reservations.
	Doug Walton , PhD Organizational Systems President of the International Systems Institute, Dr. Walton has over 20 years experience as a researcher, manager, and organizational change consultant in the computer industry. He received his PhD in Organizational Systems from Saybrook, and teaches seminars on systems thinking, authentic participation, and measurement of well-being in society.
	Diana Whitney , PhD Founder and President of Corporation for Positive Change and a Founder of the Taos Institute., Dr. Whitney is an internationally recognized consultant, speaker, and thought leader on the subjects of Appreciative Inquiry, positive change, and spirituality at work. Diana teaches and consults in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The focus of Diana's consulting is strategic planning, mergers, large-scale transformation, and service excellence.