Higher Education
Leadership ProgramAugust 10-13, 2026 at Cornell in Ithaca, NY

Steven Carvell joined the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration’s finance faculty in 1986 and is currently a Professor of Finance in the SC Johnson College of Business. Over the past 33 years, he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses such as Advanced Corporate Finance, Capital Budgeting, Financial Strategy, and Investments. Dr. Carvell has also been an active teacher in executive education since 1990, working with almost every major domestic and international hotel company to create custom courses for hotel executives with companies like Hilton, Marriott, InterContinental Hotel Group, Taj Hotels, Jumeirah, Accor, Sol Melia, Le Meridien, Shangri La, and Peninsula. Dr. Carvell has also authored eight distance-learning courses through eCornell that are among the most widely demanded courses offered. He has held academic leadership positions at the School of Hotel Administration since 1999, serving as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2007 to 2016 and the Academic Director of the Pillsbury Institute for Entrepreneurship from 2013 to 2016.

Dr. Carvell has published numerous articles in academic and professional journals, including the Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Portfolio Management, the Harvard Business Review, and the Cornell Quarterly, and he is the co-author of “In the Shadows of Wall Street.” His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Institutional Investor, Financial World, and Leaders. Dr. Carvell has recently finished a major project designed to identify the determinants of hotel demand for U.S. hotels and another on economic and capital market antecedents of venture capital commitments. He is currently working on a project to disaggregate hotel room rates within urban markets and another to determine the risk-return characteristics of hotel room rates in major U.S. markets. Dr. Carvell is also involved with evaluating the effectiveness of hotel company business strategies using strategic benchmarking and economic value-added analysis.

Dr. Carvell has worked for professional money managers in the area of applied strategy in the equity market and served as a consultant to the Presidential Commission on the 1987 stock market crash. His consulting interests include valuation and risk analysis in feasibility studies, hotel debt capacity, strategic benchmarking, and corporate and financial strategy.

Andrew Quagliata is a Senior Lecturer in Management Communication at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, where he teaches courses in persuasive communication, interpersonal communication, entrepreneurial communication, real estate communication, and business writing.

Professor Quagliata is the author of “Build Better Slide Decks: Create Sharper Slides, Stronger Stories, and Standout Presentations” (November 2025) and several eCornell courses, including “Building Compelling Slide Decks and Reports,” “Developing Self-Advocacy Skills,” “Generative AI for Written Communication,” and “Preparing for Effective Presentations Using AI.”

Stephen Sauer’s research and teaching activities focus on issues of leadership, team processes, entrepreneurship, and status and diversity in management. His work has been published in a number of academic journals including Leadership Quarterly, Organization Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Human Resource Management. His research has also been featured in a variety of mainstream media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Forbes.com, and USA Today, among others.

His teaching experience includes courses in Leadership, Strategy, Negotiations, and Organizational Behavior at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and he has extensive experience leading executive education workshops and seminars for a number of major corporations. He is also an Entrepreneur in Residence at Cornell’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement and Rev: Ithaca Startup Works and is a member of the teaching team for the NSF Innovation Corps national program.

Dr. Sauer graduated with a PhD in Management and Organizational Behavior from Cornell University, where he also earned an MBA and a Master’s in Business and Policy Administration. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to embarking on an academic career, he worked as an organizational change consultant and as a plant manager, after serving for seven years as an armored cavalry officer in the US Army.

David Sherwyn is the John and Melissa Ceriale Professor of Hospitality Human Resources and a Professor of Law at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. He is also the academic director of the Cornell Center for Innovative Hospitality Labor and Employment Relations as well as a research fellow at the Center for Labor and Employment Law at New York University’s School of Law. In addition, Professor Sherwyn is of counsel to the law firm of Stokes & Wagner. Prior to joining the School of Hotel Administration, Professor Sherwyn practiced management-side labor and employment law for six years.

Professor Sherwyn has published articles in the Arizona State Law Review, Berkeley Journal of Labor and Employment Law, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Fordham Law Review, University of California Hastings Law Journal, Indiana Law Journal, Northwestern Law Review, Stanford Law Review, and the University of Pennsylvania Labor and Employment Law Journal. His research interests include arbitration of discrimination lawsuits and union-management relations.

J. Bruce Tracey is a Professor of Management at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. Professor Tracey has taught courses in human resources management for undergraduate, graduate, and professional audiences throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, winning several awards for his efforts. He has conducted research on a wide range of strategic and operational-level HR topics, including the roles and relevance of HR flexibility, the impact of training initiatives on individual and firm performance, employee turnover, employment law, and leadership.

Professor Tracey has presented his work at numerous regional, national, and international conferences, and his research has been published in many of the top-tier discipline and applied outlets, including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management, Organizational Research Methods, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, and the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor and Employment Law. Professor Tracey’s sponsors for research and consulting include Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Hilton Worldwide, Marriott International, Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts, Wynn Resorts, Hillstone Restaurant Group, and Uno Chicago Grill, and he has been cited in the New York Times, USA Today, Fast Company, and the Orlando Sentinel, among other popular press outlets.

Katrina Nobles is the Director of Conflict Programs for the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution at the Cornell University ILR School, focusing on educating the next generation of neutrals and practitioners on campus and in the workplace. Professor Nobles designs curriculum, instructs professional programs, and facilitates discussions for organizational workplace conflicts. She also teaches the Campus Mediation Practicum, an on-campus credit course that applies mediation skills to the campus judicial system, allowing students to work as peer mediators. 

Professor Nobles has presented at national conflict resolution conferences on facilitating collaborative problem solving, cross-cultural communication, and conflict diagnosis. She has practiced mediation for over 15 years, and prior to her employment at Cornell, Professor Nobles was the Cortland County Coordinator for New Justice Mediation Services. During that time, she mediated hundreds of community, child custody/visitation, child support, and family disputes. Professor Nobles holds a Master’s degree in Conflict Analysis and Engagement from Antioch University Midwest.

Dr. Sunita Sah is an award-winning professor at Cornell University, an expert in organizational psychology, and national bestselling author of “DEFY: The Power of No in a World that Demands Yes.” She leads groundbreaking research on influence, authority, trust, agency, compliance, and defiance.

A trained physician, Dr. Sah practiced medicine in the United Kingdom and worked as a management consultant for the pharmaceutical industry before earning her Ph.D. in organizational behavior. She currently teaches executives, leaders, and students in healthcare and business.

Dr. Sah is a sought-after international speaker and consultant, advisor to government agencies, and former Commissioner of the National Commission on Forensic Science. Her multidisciplinary research and analyses have been widely published in leading academic journals and media outlets, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Harvard Business Review, and Scientific American.

Dr. Sah writes a newsletter on professional and personal development called Defiant by Design at sunitasah.substack.com. Learn more at sunitasah.com.

Multidisciplinary professional with 24 years of international and domestic experience in the management, design and implementation of public health, engineering, strategic health communication, and community-engaged learning programs. Proven track record of effective stakeholder negotiation, business development, creative problem solving, navigating complex national/state/regional policies, and improving operational efficiency. Recognized expertise in higher education administration, program management, strategic project design, capacity building, advocating for policy change, tracking, and facilitation.

Jake serves as the Associate Director of Strategy and Operations for the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement. In his work with the center, he is responsible for designing and implementing a variety of initiatives and programs that aim to provide every Cornell student with high-quality community-engaged learning experiences, including courses, research and internship opportunities, and various other engaged practices. Since his arrival at the Einhorn Center, Jake has helped to expand the Einhorn Center’s Engaged College Initiative, partnering with leadership teams across each college to infuse community-engaged learning into the core mission and vision of their schools. Jake holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame, specializing in the sociologies of higher education, organizations, and culture. His dissertation “The Weight of an Anchor (Institution): Institutional Inequality, Status, and Mission in University-Community Partnerships” examined the ways in which the status and mission of universities interact to inform the types of programming and partnerships they create.

Linda Barrington is the Associate Dean for External Relations in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business as well as the executive director of Cornell’s Institute for Compensation Studies. Dr. Barrington’s published research addresses employee compensation, gender issues in the workplace, employees with disabilities, and workforce demographics.

Ariel Avgar is an Associate Professor at the ILR School at Cornell University and Associate Director for Research and Student Engagement with the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution. His research focuses on two primary areas within employment relations. First, he explores the role that employment relations factors play in the healthcare industry. As such, he examines the effects of a variety of workplace innovations, including new technology, delivery of care models, and innovative work practices, on patients, frontline employees, and organizational performance. Second, he studies conflict and its management in organizations with a focus on the strategic choices made by firms. He seeks to better understand the consequences of conflict for employees and employers. In addition, his research investigates the adoption and implementation of organizational level conflict management practices and systems. His research has been published in a number of journals including: Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Industrial Relations, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, International Journal of Conflict Management, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Negotiation and Conflict Management Review, Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations, Health Services Research and Medical Care. He received the 2008 Best Dissertation Award and the 2013 John T. Dunlop Scholar Award, both from the Labor and Employment Relations Association and serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the association. His paper (with Eric J. Neuman) titled “Blind spots and mirages: A dyadic approach to the study of team conflict” received the 2012 Best Paper: New Directions Award from the Academy of Management Conflict Management Division. He received a Ph.D. in Industrial Relations from the ILR School at Cornell University and a B.A. in Sociology and an LL.B in Law from Hebrew University. He served as Law Clerk for the President of the Israeli National Labor Court before being admitted into the Israeli Bar. Prior to joining ILR, he was an associate professor (2014-2016) and assistant professor (2008-2014) at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Lisa Nishii joined the faculty of the Human Resource Studies department at the ILR School, Cornell University after receiving her Ph.D. and M.A. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Maryland, and a B.A in economics from Wellesley College.

Nishii is an expert on inclusion in organizations. Her research focuses on the confluence of organizational practices, leadership behaviors, and climate for inclusion on individual- and group-level outcomes. Using multi-level and multi-method research designs across a number of large-scale federally funded projects, she has found that leaders play an important role in shaping inclusion. In particular, the extent to which leaders role model inclusive behaviors, clarify the learning and innovation benefits of diversity for the group’s work, and set strong norms related to interpersonal interactions, determines the inclusiveness of their workgroup climates. In turn, workgroup climate has important implications for the authenticity of the relationship that group members develop, the positive versus negative quality of relational ties, the information that is shared among group members, the extent of conflict that is experienced, and ultimately the creativity, financial performance, and turnover rates associated with these groups. Workgroup climate also impacts individual-level experiences of discrimination versus inclusion, as well as engagement and performance. She is currently developing and testing the effectiveness of training interventions for leaders as well as for in-tact teams on how to cultivate workgroup inclusion. Nishii’s earlier research focused primarily on diversity in individual-level cognition and behavior as determined by national culture.

Nishii actively publishes in top-tier journals, including the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, and Science, and serves on the editorial boards for AMR, AMJ, and JAP. She is currently the Chair of the Academy of Management’s Gender and Diversity in Organizations Division, and the Chair of the ILR School’s International Programs. She serves on a variety of college and university-level councils for diversity, globalization, and engaged learning. Nishii also consults with multinational companies, primarily related to diversity and inclusion and organizational assessment.

Jen Kwiatkowski serves as Director of Development for Cornell’s Division of Student & Campus Life and Athletics & Physical Education, where she partners with donors to enhance the student and student-athlete experience and leads all fundraising efforts for the division. Since joining the Athletics and Physical Education AAD team in 2021, she has played a key role in unifying and advancing fundraising across the division.

Previously, Jen served as interim Director of Development at the Johnson Museum of Art and spent 13 years with the Cornell Annual Fund, where she managed university-wide partnerships and helped launch Giving Day and Cornell’s crowdfunding programs. Her work is grounded in the belief that collective generosity drives meaningful impact for Cornell students on and off the field.

Tom Gaube serves as Chief Development Officer for Cornell’s Division of Student & Campus Life, overseeing fundraising for varsity athletics, physical education, and student life programs. Since joining Cornell in 2022, he has built a high-performing team that has surpassed campaign goals, raising more than $300M from over 54,000 donors and setting annual fundraising records, including nearly $60M in FY25.

Prior to Cornell, Tom held senior leadership roles at Binghamton University in admissions and advancement, directing principal and regional giving teams and securing the largest gift in the university’s history—a transformational $75M—while helping launch its most ambitious fundraising campaign.