People
Faculty Director and Founder
Ella Bell Smith
Professor of Business Administration
Ella Bell Smith has built her life and her career around transforming other peoples’ lives. Through teaching, mentoring, leading and inspiring, she has shown them the impact knowing yourself can have on every aspect of your life. Her insight enables people to have self-confidence and self-awareness and to be their authentic selves.
Working in the field of organizational behavior and organizational change, she is one of the leading experts in the management of race, gender, and class in the workplace. She is a consultant to Fortune 100 and 500 companies and public institutions on the advancement of all women in the workplace, as well as issues related to authentic leadership for both men and women.
In addition to teaching in Tuck’s MBA and executive education programs, Ella Bell Smith is the founder and president of Ascent: Leading Global Women to the Top, an organization committed to professional development and career advancement. Ascent’s leadership programs are offered in partnership with Tuck School of Business.
Core Team/Co-Conspirators
Ashley Zwick, Executive Director
Ashley is the Executive Director of the Tuck Research Center for Workplace Inclusion. As a strategist and connector, Ashley has spent her career working to build inclusive teams and people-centered organizations to create a more just world.
Prior to joining Tuck, she was the Managing Director of Fellowships for the OpEd Project, a social venture with a mission to increase the public impact of our nation’s top and most diverse thinkers. Prior to her work at the OpEd Project, Ashley spent a decade directing academic centers at both the University of Michigan and Columbia Business School, focused on helping students and alumni lead and build organizations that matter in the world. Ashley has taught courses on Social Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Women & Leadership, most recently as an adjunct professor at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service.
Ashley is a Chicago native who currently lives in Connecticut with her husband and two boys. She spends a lot of time on the sidelines of soccer games and track meets, cheering quietly (but fiercely).
Kara Wakefield, Program Manager
As Program Manager for the Tuck Research Center for Workplace Inclusion, Kara coordinates programs, events, and marketing that support the center’s mission and goals. Prior to joining Tuck, Kara worked at Dartmouth’s Division of Institutional Diversity and Equity (IDE), where she managed training and outreach programs for faculty and staff, including Dartmouth’s Employee Resource Networks and the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. Kara is originally from North Carolina and served there for three years as an AmeriCorps*VISTA with NC Campus Engagement, a civic engagement organization. She lives in the Upper Valley with her husband and son, and their cat, Purrl.
Dilan Gomih, Strategic Advisor
Dilan Gomih is the Strategic Advisor to the Tuck Research Center for Workplace Inclusion, where she focuses on driving the development and launch of key strategic priorities, including the creation of a Senior Women’s Leadership Program. She brings experience from her time on Wall Street at Bank of America and as a corporate executive leading strategic initiatives for world-class fitness brands such as Barry’s and CrossFit.
As the founder of Dilagence, Dilan partners with organizations to create strategies and programs that harness the power of well-being as a performance driver for their workforces. Dilan is a global speaker and has guest lectured at Harvard Business School and Tuck School of Business on Well-Being for High Performance, exploring how leaders can manage themselves while leading others in high-performance environments.
Based in New York City, Dilan can just as easily be found at the gym as enjoying her favorite handroll restaurant.
Affiliated Faculty
Stacy Blake-Beard
Clinical Professor of Business Administration
Dr. Stacy Blake-Beard is Professor Emeritus at Simmons University, where she taught courses on Organizational Behavior, Gender and Diversity. Prior to joining Simmons, Dr. Blake-Beard was on the faculty at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Dr. Blake-Beard’s academic research focuses on the challenges and opportunities offered by mentoring relationships, with a focus on how this process may be changing as a result of increasing workforce diversity. Dr. Blake-Beard received a Fulbright Award to support her research on gender and mentoring, in partnership with the Center for Leadership, Innovation and Change at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India.
Adam Kleinbaum
Associate Professor of Business Administration
Adam Kleinbaum is an Associate Professor in the Strategy and Management area at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He teaches a core MBA course in organizational behavior, an elective seminar on social networks, and a Global Insight Expedition to Israel.
Stella Nkomo
Professor in the Department of Human Resource Management in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of Pretoria
Professor Stella M. Nkomo’s academic career spans two continents. Prior to her positions as Professor in the Department of Human Resource Management and Deputy Dean for Research and Postgraduate Studies at the University of Pretoria (South Africa), she was the Bateman Distinguished Professor of Business Leadership at the University of South Africa, Department Chair at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (USA), a Visiting Scholar at the Tuck School of Business, and a Fellow at Harvard University’s Bunting Institute. Her research focuses on diversity and race and gender in organizations. She is the co-author of the critically acclaimed book, Our Separate Ways: Black and white women and the struggle for professional identity published by Harvard Business Review Press. Stella is a sought-after speaker and consultant on issues of women in leadership, race and gender, diversity, and critical approaches to understanding exclusion in organizations.
Gail Taylor
Clinical Professor of Business Administration; Research Scholar
Gail Taylor has taught at the Tuck School of Business since 2000. She served as Faculty Director of the Tuck Business Bridge Program from 2011–15. Previously, Professor Taylor taught at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia.
