2023 Conference

Five Core Principles to Create Organizational Change

Joseph Patrnchak, Former Chief Human Resources Officer, Cleveland Clinic

During this discussion, Joe Patrnchak, former chief human resources officer for the Cleveland Clinic, will review the strategy and steps taken to transform the organization’s culture and patient experience — and build an engaged workforce.

At the Clinic, Patrnchak developed a “we are all caregivers” culture through innovative employee wellness, serving leadership, and recognition programs that drove engagement to world class levels and contributed to a dramatically improved patient experience. He also implemented a new “people strategy” that transformed the Clinic into an employer of choice, which was recognized by numerous local, regional and national awards.

With servant leadership at the core of the strategy, Patrnchak will share five core principles to create organizational change using Cleveland Clinic as a case study.

James Lemoine, Associate Professor of Organization and Human Resources, UB School of Management and Faculty Director, CLOE

Join us for an interactive session demonstrating some key research takeaways for leading effective team meetings.

Lemoine’s research focuses on leadership, ethics and creativity, and has been published in such prestigious outlets as Harvard Business Review and the Journal of Applied Psychology. His research has been cited more than 3,000 times in management literature, placing him in the top 5% of researchers worldwide. His work also frequently appears in magazines like Forbes, Inc., Fast Company and Entrepreneur. Lemoine is a recipient of the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Marsha King, Adjunct Faculty, UB School of Management, and Director of CLOE Leadership Coaching Certification

Stress is inevitable — we all have it to varying degrees. A certain amount of stress is normal and can even be healthy, but it becomes a problem when it is extreme and prolonged. Many of us are facing this today. This workshop will guide you through a process to more effectively manage a stressed-out team.

King earned a PhD in organization development from Pennsylvania State University and has 25 years of experience leading people, teams and organizations. With expertise in leadership coaching, King is a requested speaker, author and faculty member.

Gerry Murak, President, Murak & Associates

Moderated by Charles Lindsey, Associate Professor of Marketing, UB School of Management

Scenario planning is key to minimizing the impact of adversity such as a pandemic or an uncertain economy. There are both proactive and reactive actions that leadership can take to regain the confidence of their organization to energize them to be a part of the solution. This session will provide participants with specific steps that can be applied to these situations.

Murak has consulted for corporations, banks, family businesses and nonprofits for more than 30 years in several states and four countries. He has authored numerous business articles and given presentations at professional conferences related to business leadership, entrepreneurship, turning around businesses, compensation strategies and ethics.

Anthony DeSimone, President, You’re the Expert Now

Moderated by Prasad Balkundi, Associate Professor of Organization and Human Resources, UB School of Management

This session will include discussions on the difficult hiring market, how to avoid poaching and best ways to find employees.

DeSimone is dedicated to helping small business owners boost profitability, optimize cash flow, and improve operational efficiency. With more than 25 years of experience, DeSimone takes an immersive consulting approach into your business, teaching business owners and executive teams across the country to communicate more effectively through the universal language of numbers, leading to better team dynamics, efficiency, profitability and cash flow.

Kalan R. Norris, PhD in Management Candidate, UB School of Management

Organizational leaders face increasing pressure to recruit a diverse workforce and maintain an inclusive environment. Although most employees and leaders understand diversity and inclusion (DEI) as two sides of the same coin, the distinction between these concepts and their implications remains elusive to individuals in the workforce. In this workshop, Norris will discuss the differences between diversity management and inclusion, what we know (and do not know), and provide recommendations and best practices to begin addressing DEI issues from a position of awareness and understanding.

Norris is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the UB School of Management. In July he will join the University of Minnesota Work and Organizations Department as a post-doctoral researcher until his appointment as an assistant professor of organizational behavior begins in fall 2024. His research and teaching specialize in the areas of organizational behavior, leadership, diversity and inclusion, power and influence, and research methods.

Prasad Balkundi, Associate Professor, UB School of Management

Social networks play a vital role in our lives. Not only do they provide us with resources in our work that are essential for our success, social relationships also shape our happiness — and these benefits apply to individuals as well as teams. I draw on research in social networks to provide key insights and takeaways to improve our work lives.

Balkundi’s teaching and research interests are in social networks and team processes. He has published in the Academy of Management Journal and Leadership Quarterly. He is active in the Academy of Management National Conference and has presented several papers over the years. He received his PhD in business administration from Pennsylvania State University and is a certified leadership coach.

Charles Lindsey, Associate Professor of Marketing, UB School of Management

This session will review the types of data and dashboards managers can use to navigate a crisis. Specifically, we will explore the use of decision-driven data analytics (vs. data-driven decision making) before, during and after a crisis. Business use cases, best practices, and frameworks for decision-driven data analytics as it relates crisis and change management will be presented.

Lindsey earned his PhD from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. He has published academic articles in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, and Journal of Advertising. Lindsey also has written for Fortune magazine and been quoted in major media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, NPR Marketplace, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, USA Today and NBC News.

Cheryl Emerson, Clinical Assistant Professor, UB School of Management

Have you ever wondered why inclusion always comes last, in the DEI triangle? Does diversity + equity = inclusion, or does the DEI triangle simply follow alphabetical order? I suggest that despite the apparent progression of terms, forward strides in diversity and equity do not guarantee inclusion. This workshop takes a hard look at the difficulty of cultivating a climate of inclusion in today’s troubled times, seeking new strategies to navigate the rising pressures of polarization and social unrest. As the opposite of “consensus,” an ethics of dissensus can help to foster a deeper, more genuine sense of inclusivity in an organizational setting.

Emerson is a clinical assistant professor of communication literacy in the Department of Organization and Human Resources in the UB School of Management. Her research explores the role of human perception in communication settings, across the interdisciplinary fields of philosophy, language, and literature.

Nicole Zeftel, Clinical Assistant Professor, UB School of Management

This session will address how the ability to tell good stories and understand narrative — while usually thought of as skills belonging to the humanities — can be essential tools for effective communication in business leadership. 

Zeftel is a clinical assistant professor of business writing and communications in the UB School of Management. Her teaching focuses on writing across digital platforms and the ways storytelling can be a tool for effective business communication. She holds a PhD in comparative literature from the CUNY Graduate Center.

When You’re Not in Kansas Anymore: Managing Successfully Under Disrupted Conditions

Natalie Simpson, Professor and Chair of Operations Management and Strategy, and Associate Dean for Graduate Programs, UB School of Management

Efficiency and control are the stars we steer by under normal conditions. Disruption throws us into a different hemisphere, where those stars aren’t helpful, or even present in the sky above us. To learn how to navigate this new world, we’ll examine the successful practices of professionals and organizations that routinely operate under disruption. Emergency response, rapid product development, and even large-scale artistic endeavors are all examples of complex project work without precise control over the circumstances, and all these groups share intriguing operational habits we can adopt when we’re suddenly thrown into the same situation.

Simpson’s research in supply chains and emergency services appears in journals including the Journal of Operations Management, the Journal of the Operational Research Society, and the European Journal of Operational Research. Simpson received a BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and both an MBA and PhD from the University of Florida. Her teaching interests include operations management and analytics, and she has earned numerous distinctions for instruction, including the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Production and Operations Management Society’s Wickham Skinner Award. She currently serves as President of the Decision Sciences Institute.

She Persisted: A Journey to Improve Health through a Food System Social Enterprise

Rita Hubbard-Robinson, Associate Director, CEO, Community Health Equity Research Institute, Neuwater & Associates, Buffalo Center for Health Equity

This presentation will share the process of identifying and solving a problem, using a business model to generate wealth in a disinvested community.

Hubbard-Robinson has been committed to the improvement of health and social determinants of health for more than 30 years. As a lead member of the African American Health Equity Taskforce, Hubbard-Robinson is building infrastructure of the newly formed community-based Buffalo Center for Health Equity. She is also one of four associate directors of the recently launched UB Community Health Equity Research Institute. She is a pioneer in efforts to bring health equity strategies to the City of Buffalo through several important partnerships and collaborations with health care, national and local foundations, and government. She is a leader in reimagined food systems: senior planner of the Healthy Community Store Initiative, Northland Avenue Food Oasis Initiative and visionary/developer of Project Rainfall, a food system social enterprise.

Danielle Tussing, Assistant Professor of Organization and Human Resources, UB School of Management

Have you ever felt reluctant to lead? Contrary to advice that one must be completely confident to lead, recent research indicates that reluctant leaders have the potential to be effective on the job. In this session, we will explore common reasons why people are hesitant to be a leader, when and why reluctance to lead can be a resource, and how to help other employees manage their reluctance.

Tussing teaches Organizational Behavior and Administration, and her research interests include work motivation, leadership and work-life boundary management. Her work has been published in the Academy of Management Journal and Journal of Organizational Behavior and featured in the Wall Street Journal. Danielle received her PhD in management at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where her advisor was Adam Grant. Prior to joining the faculty at UB, she was an assistant professor of management at the University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business. She received her Bachelor of Science with Honors in psychology from Davidson College and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Ginine Capozzi, Founder and President, KnowledgeForce Consulting LLC

Moderated by Dorothy Siaw-Asamoah, Clinical Associate Professor of Organization and Human Resources, and Faculty Director of Global Programs, UB School of Management

Over the past year I have been continuously asked questions about how to find people and keep employees. I believe (and recent data supports) employee recruitment and retention will continue to be a challenge for many years to come.

Capozzi is a strategic, dynamic and pragmatic learning and development professional known for her deep business insights and the ability to create learning experiences grounded in the best practices of adult learning theory and cognitive/behavioral research. She specializes in helping organizations address change, increase performance and productivity, develop leadership, increase motivation and engagement, and accelerate the pace of learning in the workplace.

Del Reid, Founder, 26 Shirts and Bills Mafia

Moderated by Aisha O’Mally, Clinical Assistant Professor of Organization and Human Resources, UB School of Management

Learn how entrepreneurs can align their business goals with their values and have a positive impact on society. Attendees will leave with practical strategies for identifying and pursuing purpose-driven work, as well as insights into the growing movement of social impact careers. Join us to learn how you can make a difference and earn a living at the same time.

Reid became a Bills fan shortly after coming into this world, having been raised in a home that had a framed picture of OJ Simpson on the wall in the living room (until it came down in 1994). Reid has always had a passion for bringing people together to celebrate things they share. As a result, he (quite accidentally) ended up co-founding the #BillsMafia movement among Bills fans in social media — which to this point is the coolest thing that has ever happened to him aside from his relationship with God, his wife and his two awesome kids. He is the founder of 26 Shirts, a website that sells limited edition tees to benefit local charities and families in need. To date, 26shirts.com has managed to raise and donate more than $1.7 million thanks to everyone who has believed in its mission and loved its products.

Allison DeHonney, CEO, Buffalo GoGreen and Urban Fruits & Veggies

Moderated by Kalan R. Norris, PhD in Management Candidate, UB School of Management

In this presentation, DeHonney will discuss how data, community engagement and stakeholder collaboration inform her leadership approach to solving food insecurity in the Greater Niagara region. Learn how harnessing these tools can empower you to confidently make decisions in times of pressure.  

DeHonney has 20 years of professional service in key areas of executive leadership, project management and business development. She has spearheaded four business endeavors, the latest of which are Urban Fruits & Veggies LLC and Buffalo Go Green Inc. which are nonprofit organizations. Urban Fruits & Veggies (UFV) has been in operation for six years and is involved in several projects throughout the city of Buffalo and Erie County. UFV has an urban farm, mobile produce market that services food apartheid areas and underserved communities bringing access to healthy fruits and vegetables and nutrition education.

Sonya Noor, MD, Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Buffalo Endovascular and Vascular Surgical Associates

Moderated by Danielle Tussing, Assistant Professor of Organization and Human Resources, UB School of Management

Anyone who is in health care would agree that our education process may be arduous, but once employed, it’s a very stable career path. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us more uncertainty than we had ever expected. There’s a shortage of health care workers due to the great resignation, supply chain disruptions causing shortage of devices and medications, and overtired, burnt out employees and colleagues. As we try to come out of the recession, we are forced to take care of pre-pandemic volume of patients in these conditions without compromising our quality or outcomes. It has given new meaning to leading and managing a team in stressful times. This presentation is a conversation as we take a deeper dive into these issues and developing useful techniques to overcome them.

Noor, MD, FACS is an established vascular surgeon who started an independent practice called Buffalo Endovascular and Vascular Surgical Associates in 2007. Dr. Noor has more than17 years of experience in her field. Her acclaimed career in medicine began in 1992 when she graduated from Calcutta Medical College in Calcutta, India. After moving to the United States, she completed a residency at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, followed by her fellowship at the University at Buffalo and Arizona Heart Hospital. Noor remains a distinguished member of the American Medical Association, the Western New York Vascular Society, and the Eastern Vascular Society. She was recently awarded Top Vascular Surgeon in 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021 and was awarded Women of Distinction 2018.

John Hogg, President, Straight Forward Consulting

Moderated by Ananth Iyer, Dean and Professor, UB School of Management

Supply chain resilience refers to mitigating the impact of demand or supply surprises. We will discuss approaches to building resilient supply chains and provide practical examples from successful companies. Given current market conditions — from delivery delays to demand surges, new regulations and pricing and cost changes — designing a resilient supply chain is a competitive imperative that demands management attention. Advanced planning and an agile response can minimize the impact of these surprises while optimizing cost and customer service. The fireside chat format will include examples from the speakers’ experiences and engage the audience in a discussion of best practices.

Hogg has 35 years of experience in delivering supply chain excellence and process transformation leveraging lean principles. He founded Straight Forward Consulting in 2008 to leverage his supply chain and process expertise for our regional market. His client list includes companies in aerospace and defense, government, and all areas of manufacturing and distribution. Hogg has a BA and an MBA from Canisius College, and is a graduate of the UB Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. He has served as President of the Western New York Chapter of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. 

Natalia Kalmykova, Fulbright Scholar

The full-scale Russian invasion has brought a new reality to Ukrainians. One year later, we can analyze the experience of teams that have survived and developed under uncertainty and stress. The lessons learned are useful for leaders in different fields to overcome challenges of the future.  

Kalmykova is a 2023 Fulbright scholar, the 2022-2023 CEO of Ukrainian veteran’s foundation of Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine, 2021 gender adviser to Land Forces Commander, 2020-2021 Deputy Director, International Charitable Foundation Come Back Alive, and the 2017-2020 Head of Military Department, International Charitable Foundation Come Back Alive. Her research is focuses on  organizational culture of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Tom Ulbrich, President and CEO, Goodwill of WNY

Moderated by Timothy Maynes, Associate Professor of Organization and Human Resources, UB School of Management

Today’s leaders operate in an environment of exponential technological and social change that requires resilience and adaptability. Leaders must help their organizations envision an inspired future in a world filled with uncertainty. Leadership today requires creating an inspirational vision and aligning it with a measured cadence moving towards that goal. In this session, Ulbrich will share lessons learned in working with his leadership team to guide Goodwill of Western New York through three simultaneous challenges that included the retirement of longstanding leadership, a prolonged and total operational shutdown due to COVID-19 and the closing of their 88-year program supporting people with disabilities. Goodwill’s evolution is ongoing and is driven by building an agile culture that is responsive to the inevitable and unpredictable changes businesses face while maintaining a crystal-clear, ten-year objective that they are focused on achieving. The hard lessons learned about culture, communication and making difficult decisions are sure to be of value to all leaders operating in today’s often uncertain world.

Ulbrich is an entrepreneurial leader with broad-based management experience in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. His passion for social innovation is focused on nurturing strong relationships and building consensus across diverse groups of stakeholders in the academic, for-profit, nonprofit and government sectors. During his prior tenure as an assistant dean at the UB School of Management and School of Social Work, he did extensive work in the field of social entrepreneurship with a focus on the emerging concept of the “entrepreneurial nonprofit.” He retains an appointment at the UB School of Management as Executive in Residence for Entrepreneurship.

Conflict Communication for Leaders: Delivering an Ideal Message in Less Than Ideal Circumstances

Ryan Marshall Dunlap

In the face of conflict, adversity and uncertainty, leaders are expected to lead courageously and communicate competently. Failing to do so can quickly cause conflict to escalate into a crisis. When the message is the difference between success and failure, the messenger has to be ready to deliver.

This keynote will introduce you to practical strategies for delivering an ideal message in less-than-ideal circumstances by way of real-world lessons learned from a former hostage negotiator and crisis intervention officer.

With more than 20 years of combined law enforcement, ministry and executive leadership experience, Ryan Dunlap is a highly sought-after conflict and crisis management expert. He is the founder and chief conflict officer at Conflictish, a conflict strategy firm dedicated to helping leaders prevent, respond to and overcome conflict and crisis challenges. He is the creator of The Real Tact Model™, a custom framework for developing conflict competence. To date, he’s coached leaders around the globe and in several industries including biotech, government, nonprofit, faith-based, health care, pharma, education, food and beverage, and commercial construction, helping them to improve their conflict presence.

Dunlap is a former SVU detective, SWAT hostage negotiator, and crisis intervention officer who has facilitated hundreds of high-stakes interviews, interrogations and negotiations. As a certified DCJS instructor and field training officer, Dunlap has trained and developed hundreds of law enforcement personnel.

He holds a master’s in communication and leadership, as well as a graduate certificate in strategic communication management from Purdue University, and earned his bachelor’s in criminal justice from Saint Leo University.