Higher Education
Leadership ProgramAugust 4-7, 2025 in Ithaca, NY

Andrew Quagliata is a Senior Lecturer in Management Communication at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. Dr. Quagliata teaches courses in business writing, persuasive communication, entrepreneurial communication, and real estate communication. He engages with industry by speaking and delivering workshops on topics related to interpersonal communication, presentation skills, workplace writing, relationship building, storytelling, and influence. Professor Quagliata holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Communication from the University at Buffalo. Prior to his arrival at Cornell, he held professional positions in finance and higher education.

Dr. Theomary Karamanis is a multiple-award-winning communication professor and consultant with 25 years of global experience. She is a full-time Senior Lecturer of Management Communication at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business and regularly delivers executive education programs in leadership communication, crisis communication, and strategic communication. Dr. Karamanis has held several professional leadership positions, including Chair of the Global Communication Certification Council, Chair of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Academy, and Chair of the IABC Awards Committee.

Dr. Karamanis’s academic background includes a Ph.D. in Communication Studies, a Master of Arts in Mass Communication, and a post-graduate certificate in telecommunications, all from Northwestern University, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Athens University of Economics and Business. She also holds professional certifications as a Strategic Communication Management Professional (SCMP), online facilitator, and executive program instructor.

Dr. Karamanis has been actively engaged in various industries (private, nonprofit, and government) and fields of expertise, including corporate communication, media and PR, higher education administration and teaching, and consulting. She has lived and worked in Canada, Greece, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America.

Dr. Karamanis is the recipient of 40 professional communication awards, including 12 Platinum MarCom awards, seven Gold Quill awards, four Silver Quill awards, and a Comm Prix award. In 2020, she received the Award for Excellence in Communication Consulting by the Association of Professional Communication Consultants and the Association for Business Communication. Dr. Karamanis is the author of several books and academic papers on communication and regularly delivers presentations at international conferences and other business forums.

Nakeschi Watkins is the Director, Risk Management, and Insurance at Cornell University. Nakeschi joined Cornell in 2018, In this position she oversees risk management and insurance. During her 17+ career she has served in various roles of risk management including overseeing all risk management components of the university systems, fostering a collaborative and professional relationship with the various departments to promote an appropriate level of engagement in risk management activities; Identifying and evaluating the risk exposures associated; Develop, lead, implement, and monitor the risk management programs to ensure proper execution; Partnering with the business unit to mitigate risks, including analyzing policies, procedures and controls, identifying gaps, and creating action plans. Additionally, Ms. Watkins continuously works with local and state government agencies to keep abreast with changes impacting risk management in higher education and the risk management community. Ms. Watkins currently serves on the URMIA Board of Directors. Ms. Watkins served on the RIMS New York Chapter Board of Directors. She is a graduate of the University of Alabama, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Commerce and Business Administration- Management. She also served in the US Army Reserve and Alabama Army National Guard for 12 years.

Bradford S. Bell is the William J. Conaty Professor of Strategic Human Resources and Director of the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) in the ILR School at Cornell University. He received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Maryland at College Park and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Michigan State University. Professor Bell’s research and teaching interests include talent management, team development and effectiveness, and virtual work. He is a former editor of Personnel Psychology and a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and the American Psychological Association (APA).

Stephen Sauer’s research and teaching activities focus on issues of leadership, team processes, entrepreneurship, and status and diversity in management. His work has been published in a number of academic journals including Leadership Quarterly, Organization Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Human Resource Management. His research has also been featured in a variety of mainstream media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Forbes.com, and USA Today, among others.

His teaching experience includes courses in Leadership, Strategy, Negotiations, and Organizational Behavior at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and he has extensive experience leading executive education workshops and seminars for a number of major corporations. He is also an Entrepreneur in Residence at Cornell’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement and Rev: Ithaca Startup Works and is a member of the teaching team for the NSF Innovation Corps national program.

Dr. Sauer graduated with a PhD in Management and Organizational Behavior from Cornell University, where he also earned an MBA and a Master’s in Business and Policy Administration. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to embarking on an academic career, he worked as an organizational change consultant and as a plant manager, after serving for seven years as an armored cavalry officer in the US Army.

Laura Syer assumed the position of Vice President for Budget and Planning at Cornell University in August 2021 reporting jointly to the Provost and to the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. She serves as the senior administrator responsible for managing Cornell’s resources and the annual budgeting process. Syer provides leadership in applying university resources to meet Cornell’s institutional priorities and academic programming needs through financial and capital planning processes, administrative and academic reviews, and by providing information and research to support decision making and strategic planning. Her specific areas of responsibility also include institutional research and planning, operating and capital budget development, and space use planning.

Laura joined the Cornell community in 2012, where in her most recent role prior to the Division of Planning and Budget, she held the position of Associate Dean for Finance and Administration at the SC Johnson College of Business. For 6+ years, Syer provided leadership to the College’s administrative units in Finance, Human Resources, IT, Facilities, and Academic Support while supporting the academic mission of the School. In her role on the College Leadership Team, she also supported the organizations long range planning efforts for the College under the direction of the Dean. Syer held a prior management role in the Division of Budget and Planning at Cornell.

In addition to her primary role at Cornell, Laura serves on three boards supporting the local and regional communities, Cornell University Veterinary Specialists, The Friends of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Arnot Realty Corporation.

Before Cornell, she worked in International Finance at ESPN under the Walt Disney Company where, in her last management role, she was responsible for financial reporting for ESPN entities in South America, Central America, Mexico and the Deportes TV Network.

Syer holds a BA from Ohio University, an MS from Canisius College, an MBA from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut and an MS from INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France)

Wendy Tarlow leads the Ithaca office’s employment practice, advising university clients on all aspects of employment matters and representing the University in employment, civil rights, and other matters before administrative agencies. Wendy also handles a range of other legal matters, including athletics, affirmative action, disability law, Title IX, and faculty affairs. Wendy received her undergraduate degree in philosophy from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and her J.D. from Cornell University Law School.

Katrina Nobles is the Director of Conflict Programs for the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution at the Cornell University ILR School, focusing on educating the next generation of neutrals and practitioners on campus and in the workplace. Professor Nobles designs curriculum, instructs professional programs, and facilitates discussions for organizational workplace conflicts. She also teaches the Campus Mediation Practicum, an on-campus credit course that applies mediation skills to the campus judicial system, allowing students to work as peer mediators. 

Professor Nobles has presented at national conflict resolution conferences on facilitating collaborative problem solving, cross-cultural communication, and conflict diagnosis. She has practiced mediation for over 15 years, and prior to her employment at Cornell, Professor Nobles was the Cortland County Coordinator for New Justice Mediation Services. During that time, she mediated hundreds of community, child custody/visitation, child support, and family disputes. Professor Nobles holds a Master’s degree in Conflict Analysis and Engagement from Antioch University Midwest.

Ben Maddox – Chief Information Officer for Cornell’s Ithaca campus and Cornell Tech, Maddox earned his doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania, his M.A. in education and cognitive science from New York University, and his B.A. in political science from Baylor University. In addition to his role at Cornell, he is also an adjunct instructor and doctoral advisor at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. His academic work focuses on intersections of systems: people, organizations, and technology –particularly how technology, innovation, leadership, and learning fuel change. Prior to his role at Cornell, Maddox was serving as NYU’s chief academic technology officer, capping off his 13 years in leadership roles for NYU’s New York and Abu Dhabi campuses.

Professor Dana Radcliffe is the Day Family Senior Lecturer in Business Ethics and senior lecturer in management at the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management. Professor Radcliffe, who has been at Johnson since 2000, teaches classes in business ethics and corporate culture. He also holds adjunct faculty appointments at Syracuse University, teaching ethics courses in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the College of Engineering and Computer Science. He is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, and he has blogged for the Huffington Post on ethical issues in business, politics, and public policy. Previously, he worked in strategic real estate consulting for Deloitte & Touche in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Professor Radcliffe earned a PhD in philosophy from Syracuse University, an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles, an MPhil in philosophy from Yale University, and a BA in philosophy from Fort Hays State University.

Sarah Christen is the Deputy Chief Information Officer overseeing infrastructure portfolios across the Ithaca residential campus and the Weill Medical campus. During her 25 years in IT at Cornell University, she has worked in almost all aspects of the IT portfolio. In her current role, overseeing infrastructure on two campuses, Sarah has found that strategic infrastructure planning is the basis for strong, successful technology innovation across the whole campus.
Sarah has a vast network of IT professionals in Higher Education from institutions all over the world. She believes that collaboration and partnerships with other institutions brings great value to our shared mission of Academics and Research.

Marty has balanced roles in both academia and IT at Cornell, serving as a DevOps Engineer and a Ph.D. student in Atmospheric Science. Currently, he is focusing on developing generative AI applications to enhance the experiences of faculty, staff, and students at the university.

Kris Barth joined Cornell and Cornell Information Technologies (CIT) in April 2015. In his 9.5 years, he has worked for CIT’s Endpoint Infrastructure and Engineering (EIE) team and was promoted to People Leader of the group in December 2022. The EIE team provides central endpoint management tools, content, and configurations for the 16 IT Service Groups (CALS, SCL, A&S, JCB, COECIS, ILR, Research, etc…) and works closely with the IT Security Office to keep our endpoint up to date and secure.
In the summer of 2018, he joined Sarah Christen and Marty Sullivan, on a team of 7 in the development of cloud based virtual computer labs which would eventually become CIT’s Apps on Demand service (powered by AWS AppStream 2.0 and Azure Virtual Desktop).
Kris was the Apps on Demand service manager from 2019 until the end of 2022 and continues to contribute to the service in a service owner capacity. Apps on Demand AWS AppStream 2.0 was used for more than 393,966 hours from Spring 2022 – Spring 2024 by more than 8,239 students.

Mike Allmendinger is the Interim Assistant Director of Video Engineering & Event Services (VE&ES) at Cornell University. VE&ES provides a broad portfolio of services to the Cornell community, including: AV installation services (for classrooms, auditoriums, conference rooms, and offices), AV support services, digital signage installation and support, event technical support, and service ownership for video streaming, video captioning, and Zoom.

Mike also serves as the Manager of AV Operations for VE&ES while serving as interim AD, where he is responsible for personnel, hiring, payroll, in addition to financial forecasting and reporting. He has work at Cornell since 1991 as a television producer/director, AV support technician, communications specialist, and event manager.