Karen Cates
Karen L. Cates, Ph.D.
Executive Coach
Instructor, Executive Programs
Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern University
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 during the past 15 years, she has developed programming and
consulted to client companies (domestic and global) about 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 she 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: 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 and Brunswick,
Moore Corporation Ltd.
- Not-for-profit and public organizations include: 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), Pediatric Faculty Foundation of Children's
Memorial Hospital, Covenant Theological Seminary, Illinois Secretary of State, Thresholds,
Newberry Library, Community Alternatives Unlimited and the American-Panhellenic
Chamber of Commerce in Athens, Greece.
- Association clients include: National Roofing Contractors Association, 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.
BS 1982, Psychology, University of Illinois; MS 1987, Human Resources and Human Development,
University of Illinois; PhD 1994, Social Psychology, Northwestern University