Dr. Ellen Ernst Kossek, Renowned Workplace Thought Leader & Eminent Scholar

A pioneering scholar, thought leader on the transformation of work for well-being and productivity, Dr. Ellen Ernst Kossek applies the science of modern work redesign for better boundaries, technology experiences, work-life balance, supportive leadership cultures, and human resource innovation to the real world.

Kossek is a leading U.S. social scientist and thought leader on the future of work and how to foster better work for people, organizations and society. She is a global authority on work-life boundaries, connectivity, and well-being; work-family & work- life policies; leadership and organizational and field experiments that foster employee and employer effectiveness on and off the job, flexible and remote working, job equality for an inclusive workplace, and strategic employment issues. In 2026-2027, she has been awarded a Senior Global Fellowship to the University of St Andrews. She is also is a distinguished scholar at the University of Pittsburgh funded by centers on leadership and ethics and health care. Dr. Kossek is also serving as an advisor for the Butler Center on Leadership Excellence and a Distinguished Family Scholar at the Center for Families at Purdue University. In 2025-2026, she was in residence in Stanford University as the VMWare Women's Leadership CASBS Fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences. She also is the Basil S. Turner Distinguished Professor of Management Emerita at the Daniels School of Business, Purdue University. She has also held a position as University Distinguished Professor of Labor and Industrial Relations, at the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Michigan State University. She has also been a visiting scholar, including a U.S. Fulbright specialist award, and invited to speak to business, educational, and public audiences in the U.K., E.U., Australia, Asia, and Latin America. In June 2026, received the Work-Family Research Network’s WFRN Lifetime Achievement award which recognizes extraordinary scholars who have made enduring contributions to the work-family community. She also has won the Academy of Management’s Sage Scholarly Achievement award from the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Division for significantly advancing understanding of gender in organizations. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Management, the American Psychological Association and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and has won many awards for her research, teaching, mentoring and service.

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