Faculty

Dan is a consulting psychologist and Managing Partner at CLA, where he serves as trusted advisor to C-Suite executives, boards, and investors. Dan has extensive experience assessing executives for both selection and development. In addition, he works with senior leadership teams to optimize team performance and align companies around vision, mission, and strategy. Prior to co-founding CLA, Dan was a founding member of AlixPartners’ Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness practice, where he served on the Senior Leadership Team and led the team development practice.

Dan completed postdoctoral studies and was a faculty member at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. An active contributor to industry conferences, he previously served as board president of the Metropolitan New York Association for Applied Psychology,

Natalie is a Partner at Contemporary Leadership Advisors. She is an engagement and culture thought leader and evangelist, with keen insight into the depth and breadth of the employee experience. She has spent her career translating engagement and culture research into SaaS based software, helping organizations to achieve high performance.
Natalie currently holds a joint position as Chief Workforce Scientist with Achievers, a global leader in employee experience solutions, partner to CLA. Prior to her current roles, Dr. Baumgartner co-founded RoundPegg, a SaaS based Culture Measurement and Management platform, later acquired by Achievers.
Natalie graduated from UCLA and the University of Denver with a PhD in Clinical Psychology, with a specialization in Strength-Based Psychology, and received her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
She serves on several boards and has long advised senior executives on issues related to culture and engagement. Natalie is a regular contributor to Forbes and Harvard Business Review and is a popular speaker – she regularly engages audiences on topics related to the employee experience, including a TED talk on the importance of culture fit.

Jennifer is a highly accomplished member of Marshall Goldsmith’s exclusive group of MG100 coaches, scholar, and patented inventor of a coaching system for guiding interactions.
She uses art and science to help leaders – from aspiring leaders to senior executives – create the best work environments for their teams, create an innovative culture, and achieve exponential growth for their companies. Jennifer was most recently the Head of Global Talent Innovation for Capgemini in North America. Prior to that role, Jennifer left a coaching legacy at IBM after her 20-year tenure with the firm where she is known worldwide for creating and operationalizing the largest internal coaching practice. Under her leadership of the IBM Coaching Community of Practice, she designed the famous IBM Blue Core Coaching (BCC) skills training program.

Jennifer holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University.

Scott Slipy is a Partner with CLA that brings 25 years of global operating experience in both Fortune 100 and mid-sized, growth-phase, private firms. His firm, Momentum Global, was acquired by CLA in 2025. Scott has deep expertise and passion for working with boards and executive teams to execute and scale efficiently through superior leadership, culture, and talent practices. Scott has served in global HR leadership roles with Honeywell and Microsoft, as VP of Total Rewards at Cisco, and led the People function (CHRO) at two mid-stage FinTech firms. Scott holds an M.A. in Human Resources and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota.

Jeff is an executive coach and organizational consultant with over twenty-five years of experience working with fortune 50 companies worldwide. He is CEO of Leadershift, Inc. a leadership development consultancy based in NYC and Amsterdam. The author of two books, most recently he published the best-selling book, FLEX: The Art and Science of Leadership in A Changing World, with PRH (Penguin-Random-House) in 2020. A highly sought after speaker and facilitator, he provides hundreds of workshops and keynotes each year for major corporates and professional associations, such as Duke Medical, Yale Medical and Mass General Health Systems, International Leadership Association, Goldman Sachs, Syngenta, Mastercard and many more. An Instructor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School for over a decade, Jeff is also the Executive Director of the Institute of Coaching, a Mclean Hospital-based Harvard Medical School Affiliate.
Jeff completed his PhD in Analytical Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, received an MBA Phi Kappa Phi from University of Maryland, and conducted post-doctoral work at Columbia University.

Mazher Ahmad is Senior Advisor at CLA and has over twenty-five years experience as a seasoned business executive and management consultant. Mazher has served in several leadership roles, most recently as the Chief Talent Officer for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, where he led the company’s global talent acquisition, talent management, leadership and organizational development, learning, culture, workforce planning and DE&I functions. In addition, Mazher has extensive management consulting experience, as he was a Principal at Philosophy IB. Mazher is also a seasoned team & executive coach to senior leaders across a variety of functions, industries, and regions including North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific, and has spoken at conferences around the world.
Mazher holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Anna Tavis is a Senior Fellow in Human Capital at The Conference Board and an Associate Professor of Human Capital Management at New York University, senior lecturer at Latin American Business School, and the Executive Director for the Innovation Radar Network at Executive Networks.
Dr. Tavis is Senior Editor of People+Strategy Journal a publication of HRPS, SHRM’s Executive network where she edits the Perspectives section. Her latest articles HR Goes Agile ( 2018) and The Performance Management Revolution (2016) appeared in HBR and reprinted in HBR Must Reads 2018. The Definitive Management Ideas of the Year. The two volumes of edited essays Point/Countrpoint: New Perspectives on People and Strategy ( 2013 and 2017) were published by SHRM and approved for HR professional certification credit.

Prior to returning to Academia, Dr. Tavis navigated a diverse global career in business and consulting.In business, Dr. Tavis was Head of Motorola’s EMEA OD function based in the UK, Nokia’s Global Head of Talent Management based in Helsinki, Chief Learning Officer with United Technologies Corp based in Hartford, CT and Global Head of Talent and Organizational Development with AIG Investments based in NYC.

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, she got her Doctorate at Princeton University and Executive MBA from the University of South Carolina. Dr. Tavis speaks English, Russian, German, Spanish and is an avid Astanga yoga practitioner.

Michael “Dr. Woody” Woodward, PhD is an organizational psychologist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Executive Coaching and Organizational Consulting at New York University (NYU) where he is the lead faculty for the Master of Science in Executive Coaching and Organizational Consulting (ECOC) program. He is author of the Amazon top selling career book The YOU Plan and is a frequent media contributor.
As a private practitioner Dr. Woody primarily focuses on building management and leadership capacity and has worked with such clients as Bacardi, Sugar Foods Corporation, SAP, Grey Goose Vodka, and The Miami Herald among many others.
Before joining NYU Dr. Woody served as a founding advisory board member and faculty with the award-winning Florida International University Center for Leadership. He also served as an advisor to the Ernst & Young (EY) Entrepreneur of the Year and Entrepreneurial Winning Women programs. He is also a former thought leader in the IBM Smarter Workforce Futurist program. Early in his career, Dr. Woody served as a management and human resources consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting (PwC) and as a project manager for IBM Business Consulting Services in Washington DC.

Dr. Woody received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Miami, a master’s degree in industrial and organizational psychology from Springfield College, and a PhD in industrial and organizational psychology from Florida International University (FIU). While at FIU Dr. Woody published award-winning research on teamwork titled Cooperation and Competition: The Effects of Team Entrainment and Reward Structure (Woodward et al, 2005).

Michael is the Dean of Biola University’s Crowell School of Business. Prior to assuming this role he was the Vice President of Talent & Development at Amazon Web Services, where he was responsible for the global talent practices, leadership development and learning, organizational effectiveness, new employee success strategies, executive recruiting and the organizational research activities to enable the growth and innovation for AWS. He was nominated to the Thinkers50 Radar class of 2020 for his work leveraging network roles in creating adaptive organizations: brokers, connectors, energizers, and challengers.

Prior to joining Amazon, Arena was the Chief Talent Officer for General Motors Corporation where he was responsible for enterprise talent management, cultural transformation, leadership development, talent acquisition and people analytics. While at GM he launched GM2020, a grass roots initiative designed to enable employees to positively disrupt the way they work, which was highlighted in Fast Company and Fortune Magazine. This initiative and others are highlighted in his best-selling book, Adaptive Space: How GM and Other Companies are Positively Disrupting Themselves and Transforming into Agile Organizations.

His research on adaptation and networks won the 2017 Walker Prize from People + Strategy and has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Harvard Business Review, and Sloan Management Review. Prior to GM, Arena spent two years as a visiting scientist with MIT’s Media Lab researching human networks. He also served as Senior Vice President of Leadership Development at Bank of America, where he co-designed and launched the Center for Future Banking, to positively disrupt consumer banking.

Dr. Arena is a faculty member in Penn’s Masters in Organizational Dynamics program and acts as a design thinking coach within the Stanford School.

Steve is a Managing Partner at CLA where he works with clients at the intersection of technology and organizational effectiveness. Prior to co-founding CLA, he served on the Senior Leadership Team in AlixPartners Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness practice and was the Partner in charge of Human Capital Consulting at Philosophy IB. At Philosophy IB, Steve built the firm’s first predictive people analytics applications, one of which, SYNAPP, was accepted into DreamIt Venture’s selective Accelerator Program. Previously, Steve was Head of Product Marketing for Nortel Networks’ digital switching, optical Ethernet, and voice-over-IP portfolios and worked on Capitol Hill for the U.S. Congress’ Office of Technology Assessment. Steve holds an M.B.A. from The University of Virginia and an Ed.D. in Adult Learning from N.C. State University where his research focused on how organizational networks affect learning, change and innovation. Steve is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters, as well as co-author of The End of Leadership As We Know It: What It Takes to Lead in Today’s Volatile and Complex World (Wiley, 2023). He is a frequent presenter at professional conferences. Steve can be found at either his home in Millburn, NJ or working on repairs at his lake house compound in Sparta, NJ.

Dan Flowers is an Engagement Manager at CLA, where he brings his expertise in organizational effectiveness and talent development to bear to help leaders, teams, and organizations maximize their people power. Dan applies a consultative approach and systems thinking to help design large-scale interventions focusing on leadership development, talent management, and culture and engagement. Prior to joining CLA, Dan wore a number of different hats at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc, with a majority of his time embedded in the Organizational Effectiveness team.
Dan holds a Masters of Science in Social Work from Columbia University.

Liz Weglarz is an Engagement Manager at Contemporary Leadership Advisors (CLA), where she focuses on leadership development, organizational development, talent management, and team and individual coaching with clients. Before joining CLA, Liz worked in human resources and led talent management initiatives at consulting and technology organizations, including Compass Workforce Solutions, Yext, Inc., and Koios Medical. While in those roles, Liz supported and coached leaders at various levels on matters related to employee engagement, change management, performance management, and conflict resolution. As a coach, Liz takes an energetic, thoughtful, and practical approach to supporting client development and success. In addition to her work at CLA, Liz is a Ph.D. candidate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at Baruch College, CUNY, where she researches leadership, motivation, and emotions. Liz teaches undergraduate and master’s level courses on motivation and leadership. Liz completed her B.A. in Psychology and Sociology and an M.B.A. in Human Resource Management at Stony Brook University.

Alessa Natale is an Engagement Manager at CLA, where she leverages her expertise in industrial-organizational psychology to empower leaders to transform themselves, their teams, and their organizations’ culture and employee experience. Prior to CLA, Alessa worked in Talent Management at Johnson & Johnson with a particular focus on Assessment, as well as in Pfizer’s Learning & Development practice. Alessa has experience coaching at a variety of levels, with a particular focus on leveraging assessments, interviews, and science-backed practices.

Alessa holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, where she focused on the integration points between positive psychology, leadership, development, and DEI. Alessa is a certified team coach and active contributor to industry conferences and has taught academic courses in industrial-organizational psychology and the psychology of career development.

Jennifer Brown (she/her) is an award-winning entrepreneur, speaker, author, and diversity and inclusion expert who is deeply passionate about building more inclusive workplaces where more of us can feel welcomed, valued, respected, and heard. As the Founder and CEO of Jennifer Brown Consulting (JBC), a certified woman- and LGBT-owned firm, Jennifer and her team design and execute inclusion strategies that have been implemented by some of the biggest companies and nonprofits in the world. She is also the bestselling author of two books, Inclusion: Diversity, The New Workplace and The Will to Change (2017) and How To Be An Inclusive Leader: Your Role in Creating Cultures of Belonging Where Everyone Can Thrive (2019), a shortlist winner of the O.W.L. Award, and winner of the 2019 Nautilus Book Awards’ Business & Leadership category. The Second Edition, released October 4, 2022, addresses some of the most pressing challenges of our times and takes a deeper dive on complex topics including identity, privilege and equity. With more than 50% new content, it provides an effective roadmap to help individuals navigate through their journey to become an inclusive leader. The Second Edition was one of the titles chosen by the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) for the AUPHA Bugbee-Falk Student Book Award for 2022. She also recently co-authored a groundbreaking book on diversity, equity and inclusion in society with thought leader and fellow bestselling author, Rohit Bhargava. The book, Beyond Diversity: 12 Non-Obvious Ways To Build A More Inclusive World, is a 2022 Axiom Award Gold Medal Winner in the Women/BIPOC Category, a Wall Street Journal bestseller.