Meet Our Team

Erica Dawson

Nancy and Bob Selander Executive Director of the Engineering Leadership Program and Professor of Practice

Erica is a Cornellian ('03 PhD, Social Psychology). She was Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at Yale University before returning to Ithaca to create and direct the Engineering Leadership Program in 2012. Erica teaches and consults worldwide on judgment and decision-making, negotiation, leadership, and coaching. 

She has worked with groups as diverse as German engineers, Tibetan monks, female pharmaceutical scientists, and American sixth-graders. Her current research interests focus on individual psychological phenomena and leadership dynamics in high-risk occupations and sports.

erica.dawson@cornell.edu
194 Rhodes Hall / 607-255-9074

Rob Parker

Nancy and Bob Selander Associate Director of the Engineering Leadership Program and Coaching Manager

Rob Parker is a certified professional coach specializing in leaders with a technical background. As the Coaching Program Manager, Rob is responsible for extending the reach of the Engineering Leadership Program by teaching future engineers how to coach themselves and their teams.  He also consults with engineering project teams and student organization leaders seeking to improve their leadership and teamwork capabilities.

Rob brings twenty years of experience leading technical professionals in a variety of industries, including higher education, telecom start-ups, and manufacturing. Most recently, he worked at Cornell’s SC Johnson Graduate School of Business, where he directed a team widely acknowledged as leaders in the development of Salesforce for higher education.

Rob attended Drexel University and holds a BA in Information Science from SUNY Oswego. He is a Trumansburg native. 

rep28@cornell.edu
192 Rhodes Hall / 607-255-0547