Guest Faculty*
Our world-renowned faculty partners bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise in areas such as entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, systems change, technology, finance, operations, workplace dynamics, change leadership, growth, and resilience. Their diverse backgrounds span startups, venture capital, economics, technology, education, politics, social services, the arts, the military, and beyond.
The faculty’s extraordinary talents and experience offer LEADS fellows a unique opportunity to learn, grow, and expand their connections across various sectors.
*Faculty who contribute to LEADS do so in their personal capacity and are not formally representing or speaking on behalf of their home institutions.
Ethan S. Bernstein
Edward W. Conrad Associate Professor of Business Administration
Ethan Bernstein is an associate professor in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School. In an era when the nature of work is changing, Professor Bernstein studies the impact of workplace transparency—the observability of employee activities, routines, behaviors, output, and performance—on productivity, with implications for leadership, collaboration, organization design, and new forms of organizing.
Professor Bernstein’s research has been published in journals including Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Academy of Management Annals, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Harvard Business Review, Research on Organizational Change and Development, and People + Strategy. His work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, NPR, Inc., Forbes, Fast Company, Businessweek, Esquire, Nikkei Business, Nikkei Shimbun, Le Monde, Maeil Business (Korea), and TEDx Boston, among others. He was a 2014 HBR McKinsey Award Finalist, and his research has won numerous awards, including the inaugural J. Richard Hackman Dissertation Award, the Academy of Management’s 2013 Outstanding Publication in Organizational Behavior award, and the Academy of Management’s 2013 Best Publication in Organization and Management Theory award, among others.
Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Bernstein spent five years at The Boston Consulting Group in Toronto and Tokyo. He was tapped by Elizabeth Warren to join the implementation team at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he spent nearly two years in executive positions, including Chief Strategy Officer and Deputy Assistant Director of Mortgage Markets, at the newest United States federal agency.
Professor Bernstein earned his doctorate in management at Harvard, where he also received a JD/MBA degree. While a doctoral student, he was a Kauffman Foundation Fellow in Law, Innovation, and Growth. He remains a member of the New York and Massachusetts Bar Associations. He holds an AB in Economics from Amherst College, which included study at Doshisha University in Kyoto.
Professor Bernstein is a self-declared culinary adventurer and an avid cyclist, runner, skier, reader, and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me listener. Originally from Los Angeles, he now lives in Newton with his wife, Maly (HBS MBA 2006), and their two young sons.
Nicole Brigandi
Founder & Leadership Coach, Adaptive Edge Co
Nicole is an organizational development specialist and certified leadership coach. Her background integrates the study of applied business psychology with nearly 20 years of cross-industry consulting experience in the US, New Zealand, UK, and Europe. She has worked for Deloitte as an organizational design and strategic change specialist, and has extensive in-house experience developing teams and leaders. Most recently, Nicole was a founding member of a growing management consultancy in the UK focused on creating innovative solutions for modern workplace challenges.
Nicole is passionate about creating inclusive, high-performing cultures that are equipped to scale meaningfully. Her research skills, combined with practical expertise and compassion, help her understand systemic barriers and navigate complexity. She supports leaders, teams, and organizations in shaping workplace culture and developing strategies for managing ambiguity and leadership team dynamics.
Jeffrey J. Bussgang
Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School
Co-Founder and General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners
Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board, LEADS
Jeff Bussgang is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School and Co-Founder and General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm. He studies lean startups and the strategy and management challenges faced by founders.
Jeff’s career spans entrepreneurship, venture capital, academia, and civic leadership. He is a co-founder and general partner at Flybridge Capital, an early-stage technology venture capital firm with over $700 million under management. He also serves as a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where he teaches a popular class on entrepreneurship called Launching Technology Ventures. In this role, he has co-authored forty HBS cases, book chapters, and teaching notes on startup management and entrepreneurship. His two books—Entering StartUpLand and Mastering the VC Game—have been praised by The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, TechCrunch, and The Financial Times as essential guides for entrepreneurs.
Jeff is an active community member, serving as co-chair of the Leadership Council at the educational non-profit Facing History and Ourselves, co-founder of Hack.Diversity, a private-public partnership addressing the underrepresentation of highly-skilled minority employees in Boston’s innovation ecosystem, co-founder and co-chair of the Global EIR Coalition, an immigration reform non-profit, and co-founder and former chair of The Alliance for Business Leadership, a progressive policy organization. He also serves on the board of EdX, the massively open online course provider created through a joint venture between Harvard and MIT.
Kat Everett
Instructor
Katrina “Kat” Hobbs Everett, M.Ed., is a constructive deconstructionist, anti-racist educator, entrepreneur, curator, activist, writer, spoken word artist, and business owner. She is a senior-level executive with over 25 years of experience in the human and social services field, working in a variety of professional settings, including grassroots organizations, city, state, and federal entities, public K-12 schools, and public and private higher education institutions. With 13 years of experience in diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging (DEIJB) education, Kat also has extensive community engagement expertise working with diverse communities. She has collaborated with cross-sector teams locally, nationally, and globally.
Kat co-founded Power of Self-Education (POSE) Inc., a community engagement and advocacy nonprofit with a mission to “inspire people and mobilize resources to strengthen communities.” She is the founder of Everetts Enterprise LLC and Kateverett.com, a certified Black-owned and woman-owned business that provides large and small-scale consulting, coaching, and facilitation services to individuals, groups, and businesses to assist with transformative culture shifts and foster places of belonging. Kat is also the founder, curator, and owner of COCO Brown, a cultural community healing center, studio, and co-working space that uses art, music, storytelling, and movement to strengthen community relationships. Additionally, she is an adjunct professor in the Social Justice, Women, and Gender Studies program at Merrimack College. Kat’s personal mission is to “Constantly Cultivate Community.”
Jesse Flores
Design Thinker
Jesse is a seasoned strategic designer with 10 years of experience building businesses and consulting for Fortune 500 companies across various industries. His work in design practice spans organizational, service, and product design, with a particular focus on democratizing design methods and approaches for non-design audiences.
Roles in product management, strategic leadership in startups, and operations have provided him with additional practical insights and business acumen to apply to design as a practice. As a BIPOC, first-generation college graduate, Jesse’s work often aims to disrupt traditional power dynamics in both approach and output.
Hise Gibson
Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School
Professor Gibson graduated from West Point Academy, where he was a member of the Division-1A Army football team. Following graduation, he was commissioned in the US Army as an Aviation Officer in the UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopter. He served with distinction in various command and staff positions for over 25 years, with his most recent operational assignment being as a Battalion Commander in the historic 82nd Airborne Division. He earned the rank of Colonel before retiring in 2021. He has led soldiers in combat and his military decorations include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Master Aviator badge, Parachutist badge, and Air Assault badge.
He holds an MS in Operations Research from the Naval Postgraduate School and a Master’s in Operational Art and Science from the Air Command and Staff College. He earned his Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in Technology and Operations Management. Until July 2021, he served as an Academy Professor in the Systems Engineering Department at the United States Military Academy. He also established and directed the Systems Decisions and Analysis Center, directed the department’s core engineering sequence, and engaged in strategic outreach as a Fellow at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
Professor Gibson's research and consulting activities focus on technology integrations, operational effectiveness, leadership, leader development, human capital development, change management, and leading teams through crises. He currently lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, with his wife, Nicole, and their two daughters.
Lane A. Glenn, PhD
President, Northern Essex Community College
Dr. Lane A. Glenn is President of Northern Essex Community College (NECC), with campuses in Haverhill and Lawrence, MA.
Dr. Glenn is focused on student success and is passionate about helping students achieve their educational goals, especially those who are underprepared for college. He is also a strong advocate for colleges and universities as engines of economic and workforce development, particularly in Massachusetts Gateway Cities.
As a researcher, author, and consultant, Dr. Glenn has advanced community colleges through his involvement on numerous regional and national boards. He is the chairman of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s Task Force on Statewide Assessment, was appointed to the STEM Advisory Council by the Massachusetts governor, and chairs the International Advisory Board of the Chair Academy, which provides leadership development programs for college and university leaders worldwide.
Dr. Glenn has been described as an “optimistic thought leader” who actively promotes the community college mission through various publications, social media, and his blog, “Running the Campus.” In 2018, he was named “Pacesetter of the Year” by the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations for his higher education advocacy efforts.
He holds a PhD in Theater from Michigan State University, a Master’s degree in Speech from Oklahoma State University, and a Bachelor’s in English from Northeastern State University. He is proud to say he started his education at Rose State College, a community college in Midwest City, Oklahoma.
Sandy Schultz Hessler
Professor Start Up Intensive at Central Wyoming College and Founder of Six Minutes Daily
Sandy has spent her career helping individuals and organizations develop their vision and make it a reality. With over 30 years of experience working with businesses ranging from Fortune 50 companies to start-ups, along with a lifetime of study on human potential and consciousness, Sandy began her career in brand management at Procter & Gamble. She then co-founded a marketing services start-up called Imagitas, which was sold to Pitney Bowes in 2005. Sandy has taught leadership, communications, and marketing at Tufts University, Miami University of Ohio, and Harvard Kennedy School, where she served as Assistant Dean, running the Office of Career Advancement (career services).
For the last seven years, Sandy has created and taught leadership classes and the Start-Up Intensive, a 10-week, 200-hour boot camp in Jackson, WY. She takes great pride in witnessing the success of numerous clients and organizations as they ignite their inner wisdom to manifest their powerful future through her company, Six Minutes Daily, Inc. Six Minutes Daily is currently developing accountability tools, including a habit-building app, to help people and teams build their daily practice toward alignment, health, connection, and prosperity. Her book, Six Minutes Daily, is set to be released in Winter 2022.
Sandy has an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, and advanced degrees from Harvard University, Miami University of Ohio, and the University of Santa Monica. She is a mother of five and an avid hiker, snowboarder, and adventurer.
Jan W. Rivkin
C. Roland Christensen Professor of Business Administration
Jan W. Rivkin is a Professor in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. He has previously served as Faculty Chair of the MBA Program, Senior Associate Dean for Research, and head of the Strategy Unit. His research, course development, and teaching focus on two main areas: business strategy and U.S. competitiveness.
Rivkin's scholarly work has been published in journals such as Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Research Policy. Much of his work employs simulations of complex adaptive systems to explore the theoretical implications of cross-cutting interactions. His empirical research includes large-scale statistical studies, field research, and case studies.
Rivkin also co-chairs HBS's project on U.S. competitiveness. In this role, he collaborates with a faculty team to identify strategies that leaders can use to enhance the ability of U.S. firms to compete globally and support American living standards. His work in this area focuses on (a) how managers decide where to locate business activities and (b) how business leaders can effectively collaborate with policymakers, nonprofit leaders, educators, and others to foster shared prosperity in America’s cities.
Rivkin received his Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard. He also studied chemical engineering and public policy at Princeton and earned an M.Sc. in economics from the London School of Economics on a Marshall Scholarship.
Brian L. Trelstad
Senior Lecturer of Business Administration
Joseph L. Rice, III Faculty Fellow
Brian Trelstad is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School in the General Management Unit, teaching an elective course on Social Entrepreneurship and Systems Change, as well as the first-year required course on Leadership and Corporate Accountability (LCA). His teaching and research focus on social entrepreneurship, systems change, impact investing, and the role of business in society.
Brian is also a Partner and Board Member at Bridges Fund Management, an impact investing fund that invests in health, education, and environmental services businesses. Prior to Bridges, Brian was the Chief Investment Officer at Acumen, where he oversaw investments in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. He is a co-chair of Impact Capital Managers, a national membership association of impact investors in the United States, and a founding board member of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE). Before Acumen, Brian worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, was a lead environmental staff person at the Corporation for National Service, and has been involved in a range of non-profit and for-profit startups.
Brian serves on the boards of VisionSpring, Candid, and New Jersey Future, and is both a Kauffman Fellow of the Center for Venture Education and a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute.