Professional Women’s Leadership Matrix
Program Faculty
The unique instructional approach methodology utilized by the all-women faculty combines adult learning principles, case studies, group work and exercises with powerful assessment tools and feedback that provide you with insight into your strengths and weaknesses as a leader.
Araceli Alonso
Araceli Alonso, a native from Madrid, Spain, is a Lecturer in the Department of Women’s Studies at UW-Madison. She has conducted extensive research on women’s issues internationally, and has devoted the last fifteen years to teaching gender in a global context and to analyze women’s empowerment and women leadership cross-culturally. Ms. Alonso has written several articles on global women’s rights and is currently finishing a book based on her studies on Cuban women under Castro’s Revolution.
Ms. Alonso’s multidisciplinary background has helped her work with women around the world in different circumstances. She worked as a RN in Spain for twelve years while pursuing a BA in History at the University of Madrid. She has lived in Spain, Cuba, Indonesia, Mexico, and the United States. She holds a Masters of Science, a Masters of Arts, and a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from UW-Madison.
Lori J. Cross
Lori Cross is the President of Mind Span Consulting, a firm that specializes in the development of exceptional, authentic leaders in high-tech environments. She coaches and develops leaders of all ages on strategy formulation, execution, teambuilding, innovation and followership.
Lori has over 25 years of experience in leading global organizations through turnarounds, start-ups and execution of new business models. As Group President of VIASYS NeuroCare, Lori led an aggressive turn-around with an innovative strategy and global implementation model. Previously, Lori led the renewal of GE/Datex-Ohmeda, where her team’s success was recognized with the Wisconsin Forward Award. She has also started several successful new businesses in medical and information technology.
Lori’s career has taken her around the world, from locations in California, Boston, Germany and Sweden, with the last eight years in Madison. Ms. Cross earned a bachelor’s in engineering from Northwestern University and a Masters in engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She also holds an Executive MBA, with a focus on International Marketing.
Dr. Deborah Mitchell
Deborah Mitchell received her Ph.D. in marketing and behavioral science from the University of Chicago. Her scholarly work has appeared in leading research journals including the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Advertising and the Journal of Behavioral Decision-Making. Dr. Mitchell has held faculty positions at business schools including the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) and Stanford University Graduate School of Business as well as the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, recently she was appointed Executive Director of Enterprise MBA Programs at UW-Madison.
Her expertise lies in the development of marketing excellence at the firm as well as individual manager level—and she applies this expertise in consulting as well as academic teaching. Dr. Mitchell’s consulting clients include organizations such as Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Time-Warner, General Motors and Syngenta. She has helped build and manage brand-based initiatives at each of these firms.
Dr. Hollis Skaife
Hollis (Holly) Skaife PhD, CPA is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Holly’s research addresses international financial reporting issues and corporate governance including the role of internal control and auditing in the development of high quality financial information. She serves as a consultant on these topics. Her research is published in The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting Research, the Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, and Accounting Horizons and many studies are available at www.ssrn.com. Holly has taught various accounting courses at the undergraduate, masters, and Ph.D. level and currently teaches financial accounting to MBA students. Holly is the recipient of numerous teaching awards. She frequently chairs committees of national professional organizations, serves on international research panels, and often leads research consortiums for PhD students and new faculty.
Tammy Thayer
Tammy is President of the Center for Advanced Studies in Business (CASB), a non profit affiliated with the Wisconsin School of Business. Tammy has full P&L responsibility and is Chair of the Board of Directors. Her work involves building partnerships between public and private organizations and executive education to help develop organizational effectiveness and global competitiveness by preparing leaders to solve the business issues of today and prepare for the challenges of tomorrow.
She has more than 25 years of experience with public, private and international companies. Tammy spent 13 years in Italy where she worked as a Consultant for Hewitt Associates as for Nestle’ Perugina in Human Resources.
She also lived in Dubai, United Arab Emirates for 5 years where she was initially sent to open the first conference company in the Middle East. She set up and led 2 of the largest conference providers in the world (IBC Gulf Conferences and Institute for International Research). As Managing Director of these organizations, Tammy led teams that designed, developed and marketed conferences and training programs for senior executives and managers. Prior to returning to the USA, she worked as a headhunter.
She holds a MBA from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from UW–Madison.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison, as a member of the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA), authorizes this program for 3.6 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) or 36 hours.