Karen Cates

Karen Cates has been teaching at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University since 1994. For nine years, she taught Negotiations, Human Resource Management, and Organization Behavior courses to MBA and Executive MBA students. As a lecturer in executive programs over the past 15 years, she has developed programming and consulted to client companies (domestic and global) around issues of organization alignment, leadership development, communication, strategic planning, and employee relations.

Dr. Cates' leadership development experiences span a wide range of clients, from corporate leadership teams to charter school principals. Projects have included the development and implementation of upward evaluation and traditional performance appraisal systems, delivery of 360-feedback and reports, one-on-one coaching, workplace mediation to manage in-house conflicts, and delivery of other relevant group and individual programming and solutions. She occasionally partners with licensed consultants who perform leadership-based psychological testing, and in 2009 was certified to administer Hay Group's ESCI (Emotional and Social Competency Inventory).

Dr. Cates became a certified mediator in 1993 through the Center for Conflict Resolution, a not-for-profit organization founded by the Chicago Bar Association. At the Center, Dr. Cates mediated civil, criminal, property, and small claims cases in the Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois. As a consultant, she provides conflict management services to all levels of the organization including facilitation of management team disputes and assistance with executive-level strategic planning and decision-making.

Businesses served:

Corporate and For-Profit businesses include: AKR Corporindo (Indonesia), Hearst Corporation, Johnson & Johnson (U.S. & France), Union Pacific Railroad, O'Melveny & Myers, Baker & McKenzie, Baloise Insurance Group, CNA Insurance, Boyden International, Chicago Tribune, Wolters Kluwer, Merck KgaA, Bank of Montreal, Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association, Brunswick, Moore Corporation Ltd.

Not-for-Profit and Public Organizations include: UChicagoImpact, University of Utah, University of Louisiana at Monroe, Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), various U.S. Homeland Security agencies, the LAUNCH program for Chicago Public School Principals, Northwestern University (Library, Administration and various Schools & Colleges), Pediatric Faculty Foundation of Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital, Covenant Theological Seminary, Illinois Secretary of State, Thresholds, Newberry Library, Community Alternatives Unlimited, American-Panhellenic Ch of Commerce in Athens, Greece.

Association clients include: National Roofing Contractors Association, American Association of Law Libraries, Million Dollar Round Table, American Theological Library Association, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, Women in Cable and Telecommunications, American Supply Association, National Association of State Treasurers, Legal Assistant Managers Association, PR Society of America, and National Association of Bar Executives.

Prior to focusing on teaching and consulting, Dr. Cates was involved with industrial real estate development as a project manager responsible for the environmental safety and compliance of small hydroelectric power plant construction in New York and Washington States.

Education Social Psychology, 1994, Northwestern University

Human Resources and Human Development, 1987, University of Illinois

Psychology, 1982, University of Illinois

Education