Gregory Bruich is a lecturer in the economics department at Harvard University and a research principal at Opportunity Insights. He received a Ph.D. from the Harvard economics department.
Bruich was selected for the Anya Bernstein Bassett Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2024. He was voted a “Favorite Professor” by the Harvard College Classes of 2022 and 2023.
He has received the “Lunch on the Dean” teaching award from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the Rhodes Inspirational Educator Award from the Rhodes Trust, the John R. Marquand Award for Exceptional Advising, multiple Certificates of Distinction and Certificates of Excellence for his teaching, and a Special Commendation for Extraordinary Teaching in Extraordinary Times from the dean of undergraduate education at Harvard College.
Bruich has been the faculty adviser for over 30 senior theses in economics, applied math, social studies and statistics. He has received FAS research grants for advising seven Hoopes Prize winning senior theses.
In the fall, he teaches an econometrics class for Ph.D. students. In the spring, he teaches over 600 students across two classes: Economics 1123 Introduction to Econometrics and Economics 50 Using Big Data to Solve Economic and Social Problems (with Raj Chetty). He has also taught other classes in public economics, labor economics, and econometrics at Harvard. He has been nominated several times for the Star Family Prize for Excellence in Advising.
Dionne Griffin McGee is a Speaker, Author, and Revenue & Program Strategist who helps entrepreneurs, organizations, and ecosystem leaders design sustainable programs and business models that generate income, strengthen workforce pipelines, and stimulate economic growth.
With over 25 years of corporate experience and more than a decade in sales, workforce development, and entrepreneur advancement, Dionne is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a graduate of NC Wesleyan University. She brings a rare blend of strategy, execution discipline, and systems thinking to every environment she serves—turning vision into structured, scalable implementation.
She is the Founder & CEO of DG McGee Enterprises and the visionary behind the ROAR™ Framework—Relentless, Optimistic, Ambitious, and Results-Driven—which guides leaders from clarity to implementation and measurable revenue outcomes. Her work focuses on pricing strategy, procurement readiness, proposal development, scalable systems, and program architecture that supports long-term sustainability.
A Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Scholar and the 2024 NC Rural Entrepreneur of the Year, Dionne is the author of Finding Your ROAR and the founder of ROAR University and the ROAR Conferences. She has designed and delivered accelerators, VIP intensives, and cohort-based programs in partnership with Small Business Centers, workforce boards, chambers, CDFIs, and economic development institutions across North Carolina and beyond.
Kala Gibson serves as executive vice president and chief corporate responsibility officer at Fifth Third Bancorp. He oversees the corporate citizenship work, which includes Community Development Banking, Community Impact Banking, Inclusion and Sustainability. He also serves as Chairman of the Fifth Third Foundation’s distribution committee and the Corporate Sustainability Committee.
Kala joined Fifth Third in 2011 as business banking executive for Eastern Michigan. He became the Bank’s Head of Business Banking in 2013, overseeing the division’s strategic planning, operations, sales force, credit fulfillment and product development. In 2020, he oversaw the lending component of the Bank’s Paycheck Protection Program and in 2021, led the acquisition of Provide Inc.
Kala started his career at Comerica Bank in Detroit and has more than 30 years of experience in business banking and credit administration.
Kala earned a degree in business administration from Grand Valley State University and an MBA from Michigan State University. He also is a graduate of the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking and the Wharton Leadership Program.
Kala is the 2024 Chairman of the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) board, Chairman of the Minority Business Accelerator board and a member of the Executive Leadership Council, an organization committed to increasing the ranks of Black executives at major world corporations. He also serves on the boards of the National Urban League, United Way of Greater Cincinnati, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority Board (SORTA), Dan Beard Council, Scouting America and ArtsWave, Greater Cincinnati’s unified arts support organization. Kala has received several awards for his civic and professional contributions, including Savoy’s Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America and Crain’s Detroit 40 under 40.
James (Jim) W. Dean Jr., is an educator and academic leader who has held several senior leadership roles at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He joined the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School faculty in 1997 as a professor of organizational behavior and went on to serve as dean of the business school from 2008 to 2013. During his tenure, he helped expand executive education programs and launched an online MBA program that significantly increased the school’s reach and revenue.
Dean was president of the University of New Hampshire from 2018 to 2024 and most recently served Carolina again as UNC-Chapel Hill’s interim executive vice chancellor and provost from 2025-2026, leading efforts to strengthen student success initiatives and improve retention and graduation rates. He earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from The Catholic University of America and master’s and doctoral degrees in organizational behavior from Carnegie Mellon University.
Daniel Zhao is Chief Economist at Glassdoor, the worldwide leader on career insights about jobs and companies. Daniel leads the Economic Research team, conducting research using Glassdoor’s unique data on a range of topics in labor market trends and employer-employee relations.
Daniel’s work covers drivers of employee engagement and sentiment and has produced new data products like the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index. Daniel’s research has also touched on other topics like pay transparency, employee retention, layoffs and leadership communication styles.
His work has been cited in publications like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, the Harvard Business Review and more. His team’s work can be found on the Glassdoor Economic Research blog.
Prior to joining the Glassdoor Economic Research team in 2018, he worked as a data scientist, analyzing big data for marketplaces like Glassdoor and Wayfair.
Nicholas (Nick) Bloom is the William Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow of SIEPR, and the Co-Director of the Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on management practices and uncertainty. He previously worked at the UK Treasury and McKinsey & Company.
He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the recipient of the Alfred Sloan Fellowship, the Bernacer Prize, the European Investment Bank Prize, the Frisch Medal, the Kauffman Medal and a National Science Foundation Career Award. He has a BA from Cambridge, a MPhil from Oxford, and a PhD from University College London.
On the personal side he is English, living with his Scottish wife and American kids on Stanford campus, in a multi-lingual English household.
Scott Adams leads research initiatives at the Kenan Institute’s North Carolina Center for Advanced Economic Forecasting.
With more than 30 years of experience as a labor economist and policy analyst, he has held academic and research positions at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, RTI International, and the University of Michigan. He served as Senior Economist for Labor, Education, and Welfare at the Council of Economic Advisers under Presidents Bush and Obama.
Scott earned his PhD in economics from Michigan State University and has authored over 50 academic publications. He also served as co-editor of the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization for 15 years..
Tiffany McLean serves as the Senior Associate Director of the General H. Hugh Shelton Leadership Center. In this role, she oversees programs for both high school and college students focused on developing values-based leaders who understand the importance of utilizing values when leading others. She is passionate about preparing the next generation of leaders for the challenges they will face personally and professionally in this increasingly global and complex world.
She is also the Co-Founder of Ignite Career and Leadership Development that empowers youth and young professionals to build the self-confidence and skills necessary to identify and pursue their passions and prepare them for jobs that align with their talents, values, and interests. She is grateful to her parents, Jim and Millie Ferguson, long-time Great Falls Community members, for providing her with the confidence, intellectual curiosity, and critical thinking skills to successfully navigate this world, and to her husband Mark for always supporting her many career pivots and professional goals.
Dr. Dustin Evatt (he/him) serves as the Associate Director in the Shelton Leadership Center with primary responsibilities for the Center’s academic programs, assessment efforts, and research agenda. He coordinates the Leadership: Cross Disciplinary Perspectives Minor and teaches a variety of interdisciplinary courses aimed at developing students’ capacities for values-based leadership. Dustin collaborates with faculty, staff, and community partners to deliver and assess high-impact learning experiences inside and outside the classroom.
As a scholar-practitioner, Dustin has worked in higher education for nearly 15 years. Before joining the Shelton Center team, he served as an Assistant Professor of Practice in Higher Education at Western Carolina University where he oversaw the undergraduate Leadership Minor and Social Justice Minor as well as taught courses in the Higher Education Student Affairs (HESA) master’s program and the Educational Leadership doctoral program. Previous to faculty life, Dustin worked in Student Affairs for 12 years in the areas of student engagement and leadership, career development, fraternity and sorority life, and young alumni engagement.
Dustin’s research explores critical perspectives of leadership and equity-mindedness in college students and administrators. He has presented over 40 sessions on topics related to leadership education, student engagement, and inclusive leadership at a variety of regional and national conferences. Dustin received the 2020 Dissertation of the Year Award from the Southern Association for College Student Affairs (SACSA) and was honored to be selected as a member of the 2023-2024 NASPA Emerging Faculty Leader Academy (1 of 7 selected nationally). His research has been published in the Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity (JCSCORE), the Journal for Campus Activities Practice & Scholarship (JCAPS), and American College Personnel Association’s (ACPA) Developments magazine.
Originally from South Carolina, Dustin received his Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree from Appalachian State University, a Master of Education degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs from the University of Vermont, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Integrated Marketing Communication from Winthrop University.
Dr. Deborah Acker currently serves as Director of the Shelton Leadership Center, where she leads strategic initiatives that sustain and grow the department through high-impact programming, board leadership, fund development, and oversight of grants and contracts. She is also a Teaching Instructor in University College and an Affiliate Graduate Faculty member in Comparative Biomedical Sciences.
With more than 25 years of experience, Dr. Acker’s work spans from youth to professionals, emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration and the development of generational leaders. Her leadership development expertise focuses on values-based decision-making, effective teamwork, meaningful group engagement, and cultivating a global mindset. She has successfully partnered with faculty, staff, and administrators across disciplines to create sustainable programs, research initiatives, and academic minors that support student success and leadership across fields.
A standout example of her innovation is the launch of the Global Leadership and Team Decision Making undergraduate minor in Spring 2020. This immersive program includes a semester abroad in multiple countries—Czech Republic, England, Austria, France, and Germany—where students learn from both NC State and international faculty.
Dr. Acker’s contributions to leadership education and global engagement have been recognized with the 2025 TBJ Business Woman of the Year award and the 2024 Outstanding Staff Global Engagement Award.
She holds a doctorate in Higher Education Administration from NC State University, a master’s degree in School Counseling from Syracuse University, and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Longwood University.