Hannah titled her Fall 2013 thesis: Expanding the Mind: Leadership for the 21st Century and provides us with this abstract: Advances in the fields of neural science and cognitive psychology have changed the way leadership development can be conceived of and implemented. The research on adult cognitive psychological development provides extensive evidence for the benefits of brain-based training as the solution to our current leadership crisis. Complex challenges of the postmodern world call for much more than technical capacities and skills, they demand that leaders be able think broadly and systemically, and are comfortable with ambiguity such that creativity can occur despite environmental insecurity. The challenges faced by leaders today demand advancement to a more sophisticated level of mental development, a new way of seeing and thinking about the world. The solution to the leadership crisis lies not in training individuals to be better leaders, but developing them to be better thinkers. Hannah writes: “The breadth and depth of my interdisciplinary education has prepared me for a career in leadership and organizational development.” Hannah will be working for the Great Place to Work Institute in San Francisco, an international management research and consulting firm that specializes in improving workplace culture and leadership. She will be working as an Analyst assisting in the Client Insights department, developing new products and services to meet changing client needs; she will also work with Consultants on analysis and delivery of client solutions. Hannah plans to stay in the Bay Area, living in San Francisco for the next few years before going to graduate school to earn both a masters in Organizational Development/Psychology and an MBA.
