Elevated Leadership Program

Professor Baron’s research interests include human resources; organizational design and behavior; social stratification and inequality; work, labor markets, and careers; economic sociology; and entrepreneurial companies. Before coming to SOM in 2006, he taught at Stanford's Graduate School of Business from 1982-2006. At Stanford, he taught the MBA core course, Human Resource Management. He was co-director of the Stanford Project on Emerging Companies (SPEC), a large-scale longitudinal study of the organizational design, human resource management practices, and financial and non-financial performance measures of entrepreneurial firms in Silicon Valley. Papers based on the project appeared in leading disciplinary journals, and an overview of the project in California Management Review won the 2003 Accenture Award for making “the most important contribution to improving the practice of management.”

He is the author, with Stanford economist David M. Kreps, of a textbook, Strategic Human Resources: Frameworks for General Managers (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). Baron is also a regular contributor to leading sociology and organization journals, such as the American Sociological Review and Administrative Science Quarterly. His research has also been published in influential journals in economics and social psychology.

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Zoë Chance helps smart people become more influential. At the Yale School of Management, she teaches a popular elective called Mastering Influence and Persuasion, aka "Doing Uncomfortable Things That Make You a Better Person." Her research has been published in top academic journals like Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and Psychological Science, and covered in media outlets like the New York Times and the BBC. She has appeared on CNN and written for Harvard Business Review. Google uses her behavioral economics framework as the basis for their global food policy. Zoë speaks internationally for Fortune 500 firms and leading NGOs, and her TEDx talk, "How to Make a Behavior Addictive," has over half a million views. Prior to Yale, Zoë managed a $200 million segment of the Barbie brand at Mattel, acted on stage and film, and earned her bachelor's from Haverford College, MBA from USC, and doctorate from Harvard Business School. Her first book was published by Random House on February 1, 2022. It's called Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen.

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Emma Seppälä, Ph.D., is a best-selling author, Yale lecturer, and international keynote speaker. She teaches executives at the Yale School of Management and is faculty director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program. A psychologist and research scientist by training, her expertise is the science of happiness, emotional intelligence, and social connection. Her best-selling book The Happiness Track (HarperOne, 2016) has been translated into dozens of languages. Seppälä is also the Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.

Seppälä’s research has been published in top academic journals and featured in major news outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, and CBSNews. She speaks and consults internationally for Fortune 500 companies like Google and Facebook and contributes to Harvard Business Review, the Washington Post, Psychology Today, and TIME, among others.

A repeat guest on Good Morning America, she also spoke at TedX Sacramento and TEDx Hayward. Her research on breathing for military veterans with trauma was highlighted in the documentary Free the Mind. She is also featured in documentaries like The Altruism Revolution, What You Do Matters, and Bullied.

Seppälä is the recipient of a number of research grants and service awards including the James W. Lyons Award from Stanford University for founding Stanford’s first academic class on the psychology of happiness and initiating other well-being programs for Stanford students.

She graduated from Yale (BA), Columbia (MA), and Stanford (PhD). Originally from Paris, France, she is a native speaker of French, English, and German and conversant in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

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David C. Tate is a licensed clinical psychologist, professionally certified coach, and organizational consultant. He is Principal at Tate Consulting Group, a boutique consultancy that focuses on executive coaching and leadership advising, team design and development, family-owned and closely held enterprises, and promoting healthy organizational development. David has worked with leaders and senior managers in healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, distribution, publishing, media/design, education, technology, and construction.

David is an Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at Yale University, where he received the 2013 Distinguished Faculty Award. He is a Lecturer at the Yale School of Management, where he teaches within both the graduate and executive education programs. He also coaches global leaders within the Yale Greenberg World Fellows Program. He is an author of Sink or Swim: How Lessons from the Titanic Can Save Your Family Business and the forthcoming book, Conscious Accountability: Deepen Connections, Elevate Results.

David received his BS at Cornell University and his PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia. He completed pre- and post-doctoral fellowships at Yale University before joining the faculty. He earned a Certificate in Family Business Advising from the Family Firm Institute, where he is a Fellow. He is a graduate of the Executive Coaching Academy and has completed additional coaching certification through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching. He earned the designation of Professionally Certified Coach from the International Coach Federation.

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