Dr. Bennett joined Concordia University Chicago in August 2025 after three years directing a graduate leadership program at Concordia University Wisconsin Ann Arbor. She previously served on the faculty at Northeastern University and Tufts University School of Medicine. She is a seminal theorist of Virtual Human Resource Development, and her scholarship focuses on leadership ethics, sociocultural information ecosystems, informal learning, qualitative research, and more recently artificial intelligence.

Dr. Bennett serves on the editorial boards of Advances in Developing Human Resources, Human Resource Development Quarterly, and New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development. She is also a past board member of the Academy of Human Resource Development and Adult Education Quarterly. In addition to her academic career, Dr. Bennett has held industry roles in Fortune 100 financial services, manufacturing, information technology, higher education, and executive leadership in healthcare.

Degrees

  • PhD, Human Resource and Organizational Development, University of Georgia, Athens; GA
  • Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Research

Awards

  • AHRD Cutting Edge Research Award
  • Teaching Excellence, CUWAA
  • Alan Moon Memorial Prize - 3rd place, 2025
  • Highly Commended Paper, UFHRD
  • Circle of 50, University of Georgia, a Top 50 Learning, Leadership, and
    Organizational Development Outstanding Alumni between 1967-2010
  • Irene and Curtis Ulmer Outstanding Doctoral Student Award, University of Georgia
  • Selected Certificates & Specialized Training:
  • AMA Information Systems Project Management
  • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Qualified
  • AAMC Medical Education Research Certificate
  • Denison Organizational Culture and Performance Instrument
  • Action Learning
  • Program Evaluation

Prior Positions

  • Professor and Director of the Master of Science in Leadership, Concordia University Wisconsin and Ann Arbor
  • Associate Professor, Organizational Leadership Studies, Northeastern University

Areas of Research

  • Virtual Human Resource Development,
  • Leadership Ethics
  • Informal Learning
  • Organizational Culture,
  • Knowledge Management
  • Socio-cultural Ecosystems

Publications

  • Virtual HRD: The intersection of knowledge management, culture, and intranets

  • The Future of Project Management with Artificial Intelligence: Next Generation Knowledge Management with Virtual HRD

  • Puzzling the picture using grounded theory

  • Opening the black box and searching for smoking guns: Process causality in qualitative research

  • How an intranet provides opportunities for learning organizational culture: Implications for virtual HRD

  • Social movement learning and social innovation: Empathy, agency, and the design of solutions to unmet social needs

  • The ecology of virtual human resource development

  • Knowledge sharing in academic medical centers: Examining the nexus of higher education and workforce development

  • A four-part model of informal learning: Extending Schugurensky's conceptual model

  • Virtual HRD?s role in crisis and the post Covid-19 professional lifeworld: Accelerating skills for digital transformation