Featured Professors CWLN 2022

PhD, is a political economist and a designer of learning environments with several management and academic leading roles at Columbia University in the fields of international education programs, institutional design and sustainable development. As a trust-builder he strives to develop new collaborative approaches to address issues of coordinated action around the world. He has experience at the management level in the U.S., Europe, South-East Asia, the Middle East and Africa. André has had research published in several areas of Social Economics and Institutional Development and has received multiple research awards. He currently leads programs in NYC, Kazakhstan, Egypt, China and Portugal.

Dr. Brian K. Perkins is the Director of the Summer Principals Academy Program at Columbia University Teachers College Department of Organization and Leadership. As director, Dr. Perkins has reorganized the transformative graduate program under a dynamic new conceptual framework. He is also the former Director of the Urban Education Leadership Doctoral Program at Columbia University Teachers College.

CINDY PACE Vice President, Global Diversity and Inclusion at MetLife, is the strategy lead for the Global Women’s Initiative, U.S. Diverse Talent, and the Purpose at Work initiatives. She is also a lecturer in professional development and executive education and adjunct professor of organizational leadership at the School of Professional Studies – Columbia University.

 is an instructor of Management Communication at the Wharton School of  The University of Pennsylvania, and teaches Leadership Communication for Columbia  Business School’s Women in Leadership Program. She is also on the faculty for Duke Corporate Education, and has served as a Visiting Professor of Executive Communications at the Beijing International MBA Program at Peking University, China, where she prepared senior leaders from around the world to present and communicate more effectively in a growing global Marketplace.

DÉBORA THOME is a visiting Scholar at Institute of Latin American Studies (Columbia University). PhD Candidate at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro - Brazil) she studies how institutions shape women’s representation in politics. Beyond her research, she has fought for women’s rights in Brazil, speaking in various conferences about feminism and organizing cultural activities and pro-abortion advocacy groups. Debora also trained more than 300 women from all over Brazil planning to run for office in a program of the Brazilian Government Agency for Women’s Policy. In her master, she studied Conditional Cash Transfers and policies to reduce inequality. Author of a children's book about Brazilian women leaders called "50 brasileiras incríveis para conhecer antes de crescer". She has just finished a book about women and power in Brazil (coming on April).

EUGENIA MCGILL is a Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of International and Public Affairs and the Interim Director of the Economic and Political Development Concentration at SIPA, where she directs the Workshop in Development Practice and teaches courses in Methods for Development Practice and Gender, Politics and Development. Her teaching and research interests include the social impacts of globalization, development interventions and development finance, particularly gender-related impacts, as well as innovative and inclusive approaches to development planning.

is a career + leadership expert whose mission is to help women and people of color navigate the workplace, make more money and become industry leaders. Her personal and professional development company, Manifest Yourself, LLC, provides organizations with tailor-made solutions to hire, develop, engage, and retain women and people of color. Through her experience as a career development adviser in some of the nation’s top universities and diversity + inclusion professional in a Fortune 500 company, she has learned that there is so much more to career + leadership development besides having a high paying job; it's about creating actionable strategies that enable professionals to do more, be more, and achieve more. Her highly anticipated book, Next Move, Best Move: Transitioning Into a Career You'll Love, will be released in June 2021.

leads the Obama Foundation Scholars Program at Columbia University. She was previously a Vice President at Goldman Sachs where she was head of employee community engagement, leading the creation of pro bono advisory programs to strengthen non-profits and small businesses. She also oversaw grants administration and management for the Goldman Sachs Foundation. She has held positions in philanthropic program development and management at Time Warner, TCC Group, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Lisa is a graduate of the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and Drexel University.

is Public Executive at the Municipality of São Paulo since 2016. Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Technology (2017-2019) and Legal Affairs (2014) in the Municipality of São Paulo. Master and Ph.D. candidate in Public Administration and Government at Fundação Getúlio Vargas, School of Business Administration in São Paulo (FGV/EAESP), Bachelor of Law at the University of São Paulo (USP). Award for best thesis in the area of Public Administration and Government in 2017 by FGV/EAESP. Cohort (2018-2019) and mentor (2020-2021) of Brazilian Women’s Leadership at Columbia Global Center - Rio de Janeiro. Areas of expertise: innovation in government, digital inclusion, digital government, citizen service, and democratic innovation.

is an experienced Talent Consultant and Executive Coach who drives organizational change for fast-moving companies. Areas of expertise include scalable company culture engineering, leadership development, interpersonal/communication skills, peak performance, and strategic growth. Natalie has held senior leadership roles, most recently as Chief Coaching and Learning Officer, and has managed large distributed teams in matrixed organizations. She teaches a course on career readiness at Lehman College in New York City and has facilitated workshops at universities and companies across the US. Natalie is credentialed as Professional Certified Coach, ELI-Master Practitioner, and Certified Leadership Development Specialist, and holds a B.A. in Anthropology and Sociology.

is the Founder and CEO of Success Leaders, an Executive Coaching and Leadership Development firm that focuses on building global senior leader strength and creating high performance teams. Dr. Cooper has spent over twenty years advising and coaching leaders and teams to achieve success in their roles, having coached over 850 leaders, trained over 2000 executives, run over 500 team sessions, and designed and delivered over 200 leadership training programs. Previously, Dr. Cooper worked at JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch and Bell Labs in Talent Management and Organizational Development. She has been on the faculty of Hofstra University’s Frank Zarb School of Business, where she has taught Executive Leadership Skills in the executive and traditional MBA programs for the last 14 years. Dr. Cooper has published articles in several leadership journals, and holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University’s Teachers College. She is currently a member of the HANC Board of Education and has been board president for several community non-profit organizations. She is also Co-Chair of the Athena Leadership Council.

has worked in the public and nonprofit sector for 25 years. She is currently a full-time member of the SIPA faculty where she teaches Nonprofit Financial Management and Social Entrepreneurship. In addition to teaching, she runs the school’s Management Specialization—a set of courses and activities that support knowledge and skill building in non-profit, for-profit and social enterprise management. 

Sarah is a member the Boards of the NYC Foundation for Computer Science Education (CSNYC), The Armory Foundation, Mission Restore, Five One Labs Columbia Entrepreneurship. She is a former board member of The Institute of Play, LIFT Investments, the Ft. Tryon Park Trust, Friends of Public School 187, and the New York City Workforce Investment Board.

THOMAS TREBAT is the Director of Columbia Global Centers | Rio de Janeiro. He joined Columbia after a lengthy career on Wall Street dedicated to economic research on Latin America. He formerly served as Executive Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University and of the Institute’s Center for Brazilian Studies.  Prior to joining ILAS in February 2005, Tom was Managing Director and Head of the Latin America team in the Economic and Market Analysis department of Citigroup. He joined Citicorp Securities in 1996 as the head of Emerging Market Research.

is the Constance Hess Williams ‘66 Director of the Athena Center for Leadership at Barnard College, where she works with young women building a better world. Previously, Umbreen led the innovation lab at KQED, the Bay Area’s NPR | PBS station, and, as a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, developed and hosted the podcast “Kaleidoscope: Reflections on Islam.” Umbreen also serves on the board of Global Press, a news organization dedicated to reinventing the craft and business of international journalism by recruiting diverse populations of local women and training them to become professional, ethical journalists. Beyond media, Umbreen has guided universities, libraries, local government, and nonprofits in their efforts to meet the needs of their communities in new and exciting ways.