Visiting Scholars
Ronit Kark, PhD
Ronit Kark joined CGO as a visiting scholar in May 2014. She is a Tenured Senior Lecturer of organizational studies in the Department of Psychology at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Dr. Kark received her Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and completed her postdoctoral studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. She was also a visiting professor at the University of Queensland in Australia (QU) and at New York University (NYU). Her work has been published in various leading journals, including The Academy of Management Review,The Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Organization, Journal of Organization Change Management and Journal of Applied Psychology. Dr. Kark was on the editorial boards of The Academy of Management Journal, The Leadership Quarterly and The International Journal of Management Review.
Her current research interests include leadership, positive relationships and relatedness in organizations, identity and identification processes, gender dynamics in organizations and the role of play in creativity at work. She is the founder and first director of the graduate program ‘Gender in the Field: Linking Theory and Practice' in the Gender Studies Department at Bar-Ilan University. She received the Loreal-Rekanati Prize for the Study of Women and Management in Israel, for her doctoral dissertation. In 2005 she was awarded the Best Paper Prize at the International Leadership Association (ILA) and the Academy of Management 2012 Award for the Scholarly Contributions to Educational Practice Advancing Women in Leadership.
Dr. Kark also has extensive experience as a practitioner and an activist focusing on advancing women's rights, women's empowerment, women's advancement to higher positions, and the development of strategy and tools for capacity building. She has acquired a sound training as an organizational psychologist and consultant. Over the years she has focused on projects that are related to women's advancement and leadership and has worked with many different types of organizations in the public, private and third sector (NGOs) on diverse types of projects. Last, she serves voluntarily on the advisory committees and boards of different NGOs in Israel that aim to change women's rights and access to power (e.g., The Abraham Fund for Jewish-Arab Co-existence, Studio of Her Own, Women's Leadership in Business and Women in the Film).
Mathias Wullum Nielsen
Mathias Wullum Nielsen joined CGO as a visiting scholar in February 2014. He is a PhD fellow at Aarhus University, Denmark and has a background in sociology. Following his time as a visiting scholar, he published his dissertation, New and Persistent Gender Equality Challenges In Academia in June 2015. In this publication, Aarhus University in Denmark is used as a case to outline contemporary gender equality challenges in academia.
Mayra Ruiz Castro, PhD
Dr. Mayra Ruiz Castro joined CGO as a Visiting Scholar in January 2013. Her research centers on organizational, societal, household and individual factors that determine employees' career and work/life outcomes. She studies the intersection of gender with age, class, race, ethnicity and culture, and how this determines people's experiences of privilege and disadvantage in the workplace. She also studies employee resistance to organizational practices, e.g. long working hours, that lead to micro nevertheless meaningful changes. She is particularly interested in the contexts of emerging markets and developing countries, presenting alternative cultural perspectives about organizations and inequality.
Dr. Ruiz Castro is also a researcher at the Harvard Business School and teaches courses in organizational behavior at Babson College. She is affiliated with the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University. She received her Ph.D. degree in Development, Organizations and Gender from University College London.
She has extensive international work experience in the areas of human capital, women's career development and advancement, and corporate social responsibility in Mexico, the UK, Germany and India.
Dr. Ruiz Castro was invited to present her research on "Time, gender, and work/life balance in Mexico" at the 2013 Global Workforce Roundtable organized by the Boston College Center for Work and Family. The meeting was attended by representatives from leading corporations seeking to enhance their global workforce strategies. She contributed to the Boston College Center for Work and Family Executive Briefing Series with the publication entitled "Work-life in Mexico: Policy, Practice and Culture."