Women in Leadership

Deborah Streeter is the Bruce F. Failing, Sr., Professor Emeritus of Personal Enterprise and Small Business Management at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. Entrepreneurship and small business management are the focus of Dr. Streeter’s teaching, research, and outreach activities. Her research interests include: university-wide models for teaching entrepreneurship, the use of digital media in teaching, and gender issues in business and entrepreneurship. Dr. Streeter has received acclaim as an educator based on her promotion of experiential learning, active learning, and innovative uses of technology inside and outside the classroom.

In 2007, Dr. Streeter was given the Olympus Innovator Award by the Olympus Corporation. She received the Constance E. and Alice H. Cook Award in 2004 and the Professor of Merit Award in 2002, and she was named influential to a Merrill Scholar in 1999, 2000, and 2003. Dr. Streeter was awarded the 2001 CALS National Food and Agricultural Sciences Excellence in College and University Teaching and was named a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow in 2000 (Cornell’s most prestigious teaching award). She also received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2000 and the Innovative Teaching Award in 1996. Dr. Streeter holds an M.S. (1980) and Ph.D. (1984) in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Elizabeth Mannix’s research and teaching is focused on effective organizational performance and the factors that make individuals motivated, high-performing leaders and team members. Specific topics include authentic leadership, principled negotiation and influence, the role of emotional intelligence in business settings, organizational change, women in leadership, and diversity. She is certified in the MSCEIT emotional intelligence assessment.

Professor Mannix is the author of over 50 peer-reviewed articles as well as the 15-volume book series “Research on Managing Groups and Teams.” Her work has been recognized by awards from organizations including the Academy of Management, Small Group Research, and the International Association for Conflict Management.

Professor Mannix teaches and consults with executives and organizations nationally and around the globe, with a special emphasis on the Middle East and Asia. She is a two-time Associate Editor of the Academy of Management Review as well as a Fellow of the American Psychological Society, the Society for Organizational Behavior, and the Academy of Management.

Professor Mannix earned her Ph.D. degree in Social and Organizational Psychology from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining the faculty at Cornell, she was a faculty member at Columbia Business School and at the University of Chicago. Professor Mannix was also a visiting professor in the MBA program at the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.

Risa Mish is professor of practice of management at the Johnson Graduate School of Management. She designed and teaches the MBA Core course in Critical and Strategic Thinking, in addition to teaching courses in leadership and serving as faculty co-director of the Johnson Leadership Fellows program.

She has been the recipient of the MBA Core Faculty Teaching Award, selected by the residential program MBA class to honor the teacher who “best fosters learning through lecture, discussion and course work in the required core curriculum”; the Apple Award for Teaching Excellence, selected by the MBA graduating classes to honor a faculty member who “exemplifies outstanding leadership and enduring educational influence”; the “Best Teacher Award”, selected by the graduating class of the Cornell-Tsinghua dual degree MBA/FMBA program offered by Johnson at Cornell and the PBC School of Finance at Tsinghua University; the Stephen Russell Distinguished Teaching Award, selected by the five-year MBA reunion class to honor a faculty member whose “teaching and example have continued to influence graduates five years into their post-MBA careers”; and the Globe Award for Teaching Excellence, selected by the Executive MBA graduating class to honor a faculty member who “demonstrates a command of subject matter and also possesses the creativity, dedication, and enthusiasm essential to meet the unique challenges of an EMBA education.”

Mish serves as a keynote speaker and workshop leader at global, national, and regional conferences for corporations and trade associations in the consumer products, financial services, health care, high tech, media, and manufacturing industries, on a variety of topics, including critical thinking and problem solving, persuasion and influence, and motivating optimal employee performance. Before returning to Cornell, Mish was a partner in the New York City law firm of Collazo Carling & Mish LLP (now Collazo Florentino & Keil LLP), where she represented management clients on a wide range of labor and employment law matters, including defense of employment discrimination claims in federal and state courts and administrative agencies, and in labor arbitrations and negotiations under collective bargaining agreements. Prior to CC&M, Mish was a labor and employment law associate with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City, where she represented Fortune 500 clients in the financial services, consumer products, and manufacturing industries. She is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and state and federal courts in New York and Massachusetts.

Mish is a member of the board of directors of SmithBucklin Corporation, the world’s largest trade association management company, headquartered in Chicago and TheraCare Corporation, headquartered in New York City. She formerly served as a Trustee of the Tompkins County Public Library, Vice Chair of the board of directors of the Community Foundation of Tompkins County, and member of the board of directors of the United Way of Tompkins County.

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.