Monica Worline Appointed New Faculty Director at the Michigan Ross Center for Positive Organizations
October 10, 2023
The Center for Positive Organizations is pleased to announce that Monica C. Worline, PhD, will begin her tenure as Faculty Director, replacing Wayne Baker who recently retired.
In this role, Monica will set the strategic direction of the Center and oversee its operations and growth, working closely with stakeholders and the Center’s Managing Director, Michelle Hunt Bruner. Monica will provide guidance for research programs, activities, and events and oversee current programs and new initiatives. Monica will also oversee stewardship and marketing and communication strategies. She will continue to foster positive and collaborative relationships throughout Michigan Ross and across the University of Michigan campus.
“It is an honor to serve The Center for Positive Organizations in this position,” Monica commented, “and I am eager to explore new opportunities to realize the Center’s mission in the changing landscape of work and in the midst of such global need for forms of organizational excellence that uplift humanity.”
About Monica Worline
Monica is a faculty member in the Organizations and Management group at Michigan Ross and has been a member of the Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) community for over two decades. Monica has dedicated her research, writing, and teaching to understanding how we can cultivate more courageous thinking, compassionate leadership, and forms of organizing that bring people’s best work to life. Monica is a leading voice in advancing integrative models that synthesize work across POS, supporting leaders and changemakers to build organizations that–from the ground up and the top down–are designed to thrive. Her current research focuses on a powerful social architecture framework for designing flexible structures and architecting the capability for human and social thriving into organizations so they can reliably and strategically produce excellence grounded in extraordinary human well-being.
Monica co-authored the book Awakening Compassion at Work: The Quiet Power that Elevates People and Organizations with Jane Dutton and she leads the CompassionLab, a global research collaboratory focused on compassion in organizations. Her research has been published in academic journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, and Strategic Organization. An award-winning teacher, Monica has written about innovations in management education in Academy of Management Learning and Education and Management Learning, and she regularly features in media, podcasts, and events where she is passionate about inviting people to learn more about this transformational field and become architects of their own thriving organizations.
Monica has previously served as associate director and research scientist at Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, where she continues to teach as a visiting faculty member in the Applied Compassion Training Program. Monica has also served on the faculties of Goizueta Business School at Emory University, the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California Irvine, and the UC Irvine School of Social Ecology. Monica completed her doctoral work in organizational psychology at the University of Michigan and earned her BA with distinction and honors at Stanford University.