Alessia Contu 

Director

Alessia Contu (she/her) is Professor of Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston, USA where she served as Chair of the Management Department between 2014 and 2021. Alessia has multidisciplinary research interests in ethics, institutional and organizational politics, resistance, and control, and how exploitation and inequities are reproduced or challenged in theories and practices of working, organizing, managing, and learning. Alessia studies and promotes engaged scholarship and intellectual activism for responsible management and organizing. Alessia has previously worked in the UK, at Warwick Business School (2006-2013); Lancaster University Management School (2001-2006), and at University of Manchester (1998-2001) where she also gained her PhD.  She served as Associate Editor of Human Relations and Organization until 2022. She currently sits on the Editorial Board of Organization Studies, Human Relations, and Organization. – email: Alessia.Contu@umb.edu

Patricia T. Naya

Deputy Director

Patricia T. Naya (Patricia.Naya001@umb.edu) is a PhD Candidate (ABD) in Business Administration at the University of Massachusetts Boston, College of Management. Her research interests include issues of JEDI in organizations, with a particular interest in anti-racism efforts in organizations.

Samantha E. Erskine

Samantha E. Erskine, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the College of Management at UMass Boston. Dr. Erskine’s research interests include the emotions and practices of whiteness, patriarchy, elitism; CEOs; antiracist leadership; allyship; intersectionality; and flourishing/thriving. She has a PhD in Organizational Behavior from Case Western Reserve University, a M.S. in Nonprofit Management from The New School, a M.A. in Women’s History from Sarah Lawrence College, and dual B.A.s in Psychology and Women’s Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Jared M. Poole

Jared M. Poole (jared.poole@umb.edu) is an assistant professor of management at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His research focuses on racialized organizations and the philosophy of social science. Jared also researches and teaches business ethics. He holds a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Utah. 

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Maureen A. Scully

Maureen Scully is Professor of Management at University of Massachusetts Boston. She studies how the ideology of meritocracy is invoked to legitimate inequality in the United States and thereby impedes efforts to address poverty. She also examines how “tempered radicals,” working from inside traditional corporate and workplace locations, can engage in change efforts that make a difference and improve social justice. Maureen has written extensively on organizational and social inequality, organizational change and activism. She contributes to institutional theory, critical studies of work, and DEI. She has been involved with business, public, non-profits, and CS organizations to advance DEI. She has been awarded the Joanne Martin Trailblazer Award by the Academy of Management Organization Theory Division for her scholarly efforts in starting and shaping our conversation about LGBT issues, stigma, shame, taboo, and power in organizational settings. Maureen has served as interim Dean of the College of Management and Associate Editor of Organization and Business And Society. 

Katherine Almeida Spencer

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Katie (she/her/hers) is a non-tenure track faculty member in the College of Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her background in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics, combined with her training in Universal Design for Learning (UDL), have led her to the EDJI Lab. Outside of her teaching and writing consulting, Katie partners with community members to push for perinatal equity and justice in Rhode Island. When she’s not working, you’ll find her doing something (anything!) outside with her son, energetic dog, and husband.  

Pacey Foster

Pacey Foster is an Associate Professor of Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston. As a creative industries scholar his research focuses on brokerage and social networks in creative industries, the dynamics of creative clusters and scenes, and community engaged scholarship. His work has appeared in the Creative Industries Journal, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, The Oxford Handbook of Creative Industries, Poetics, and Regional Studies. He has also provided research consultation on regional creative economy workforce measurement and program assessment to the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the New England Foundation for the Arts. In 2016, Pacey launched the Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive (MHHA) at the Archives and Special Collections at UMass Boston's Healey Library. With the support of the Boston Public Library, The National Endowment for the Humanities, Mass Humanities, and the Wang Center, the Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive has partnered with a diverse network of local artists and community groups to host events that collect and celebrate the history of Hip-Hop arts and culture in Massachusetts. 

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