Core Faculty

Larry A. Braskamp, Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus of Education at Loyola University Chicago and Senior Fellow at the American Association of Colleges and Universities. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Elmhurst College.

In his role as Senior Scientist, Braskamp serves as a strategic consultant to The Gallup Organization’s Higher Education division, applying Gallup research to improve education. He draws on his many years of experience in higher education to provide Gallup’s clients with consulting on how to create campus-wide strengths-based initiatives designed to develop the whole student. Braskamp is a frequent contributor to Gallup publications and is available for on-site program evaluation and design consulting. Braskamp is also in demand as a speaker at conferences and learning events.

In 1967, Braskamp joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), where he received a Distinguished Teaching Award. He also served as Assistant to the Chancellor at UNL. Braskamp joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 1976. He served in a number of administrative positions at UIUC, including Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Acting Dean of the College of Applied Life Studies.

Braskamp was Dean of the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) from 1989 to 1996. During the 1996-1997 academic year, he served as the Executive Director of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. From 1997 to 1998, Braskamp was a professor in the College of Education and a Faculty Fellow in the International Center for Health Leadership Development at UIC. He served as the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Loyola University Chicago from 1998 to 2002. From 2002 to 2005, he was a Professor and directed a project on how church-related colleges develop students with purpose.

Braskamp is the co-author and coeditor of seven books, including Putting Students First: How Colleges Develop Students Purposefully, Assessing Faculty Work, and The Motivation Factor: A Theory of Personal Investment. He has published more than one hundred research articles and papers.

Braskamp received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Central College in Pella, Iowa. He received his master’s degree in counseling psychology and doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Iowa.

Strengths: Achiever | Futuristic | Maximizer | Strategic | Developer



Barry Conchie, a renowned leadership consultant, Barry is sought after by CEOs around the world to assist in aligning business and talent strategies that drive performance. An expert in executive assessment, team diagnostics, and succession planning, he brings objective measurement and insight to these important leadership areas. He is the coauthor of Strengths-Based Leadership, which was published by Gallup Press in January 2009.

Conchie was a public sector leader in the United Kingdom before joining Gallup in London. In 2002, he brought his extensive global experience to Gallup’s Washington, D.C., headquarters, where Conchie now leads Gallup’s executive leadership consulting.

Conchie and his wife, Nicola, and children, Amy and Thomas, live in Maryland.

Strengths: Competition | Ideation | Maximizer | Strategic | Learner


Gary Gordon, Ed.D., is the Strategic Consultant in Gallup’s Education Practice. He consults with school districts, businesses, and organizations on human resources selection and development, leadership, and workplace management. Gordon’s extensive background in public education and his experience consulting with Gallup’s business and education clients enable him to develop innovative education and business solutions. He is the author of Building Engaged Schools: Getting the Most From America’s Classrooms (Gallup Press, 2006).

Prior to joining Gallup in 1994, Gordon’s career in education included teaching grades 7 through 12 in public schools in Kansas and Missouri and graduate-level teaching at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. He also held administrative positions in several school districts in Kansas and Missouri, serving as a junior and senior high school assistant principal, a high school principal, a director of personnel, and an assistant superintendent.

Gordon’s involvement in Johnson County, Kansas, community activities include serving on numerous nonprofit boards and participating in youth athletic programs.

Gordon received his bachelor’s degree in history and master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. He received his doctorate in education leadership with a concentration in human resources from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. He regularly contributes columns and articles to Gallup publications, and his insights on educational issues have been published in the State Education Standard and Phi Delta Kappan.

Strengths: Command | Self-Assurance | Individualization | Competition | Focus


Kristin J. Gregory is the academic program manager and strengths performance coach for the Clifton Strengths School’s graduate program. In this role, she focuses on student recruitment and engagement, as well as the ongoing development of the graduate program.

Through strengths performance coaching, Kristin uses developmental questions to help educators achieve new insight into their innate talents and use their untapped potential to enhance their performance in their school or university. Kristin’s goal is to help each educator grow in their understanding and intentional use of their strengths so that they can maximize them and the strengths of their students and colleagues. Kristin works with each educator to develop strengths-based goals that maximize hope, engagement, and well-being in the classroom or workplace.

Kristin received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Duke University and a master’s degree in applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Strengths: Woo | Empathy | Individualization | Activator | Strategic



Anne Harbison, Ed.D., joined Gallup in 2004 as an Executive Consultant for Gallup University. As an executive coach and leadership educator, Harbison assists her clients in identifying and developing their future leaders to meet the organization’s most critical strategic demands. She has worked extensively in the manufacturing, professional services, consumer marketing, and healthcare fields. Her global client experience involves work with leaders from Procter & Gamble, Best Buy, Boeing, Toyota Financial Services, and Satyam, among others.

Prior to joining Gallup, Harbison worked in brand management at Procter & Gamble and served as a management consultant specializing in leadership development, diversity, and transformational learning. She has served on the teaching staff of The Leadership Project at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government with Ronald Heifetz and taught business psychology at Harvard College. She currently serves as faculty for the Gallup University of Nebraska MBA in Executive Leadership program.

Harbison earned her doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and master’s degree from the Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Divinity School. Her bachelor’s degree is from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she was a national speech champion.

She is a regular presenter at the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society, the Academy of Management, and the American Society for Training and Development. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two children.

Strengths: Futuristic | Communication | Ideation | Maximizer | Strategic


Jim Harter, Ph.D., is Chief Scientist, Workplace Management and Well-Being for Gallup’s workplace management practice and the Gallup World Poll. His research has been popularized in the business bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and How Full Is Your Bucket? and in academic articles, book chapters, and publications such as USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. He is coauthor of the New York Times bestseller 12: The Elements of Great Managing, an exploration of the 12 crucial ingredients for creating and harnessing employee engagement.

Harter is the primary researcher and author of the first meta-analysis to investigate the relationships between work-unit employee engagement and business results. This study, which is updated periodically, currently covers 24,000 business units in 37 industries and 23 countries. He is coauthor of “Manage Your Human Sigma,” published in the Harvard Business Review (July/August, 2005). This groundbreaking management approach assesses and improves the quality of the employee-customer encounter.

Since joining Gallup in 1985, Harter has authored or coauthored more than one thousand research studies for profit and nonprofit organizations on employee engagement and talent as well as topics in industrial and organizational psychology and well-being. His specialties include psychological measurement and the estimation of the practical effect of management initiatives.

Harter received his doctorate in psychological and cultural studies in quantitative and qualitative methods from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his wife RaLinda and their two sons.

Strengths: Achiever | Focus | Learner | Relator | Futuristic


Tim Hodges is Executive Director of Gallup University. He leads the growth, development, and performance management of more than 80 workplace consultants around the world. Hodges also collaborates with other Gallup researchers and Gallup Senior Scientists to conduct research on positive psychology, strengths-based development, and leadership development programs.

Hodges has delivered many presentations and written several journal articles, technical reports, and book chapters on topics including the Clifton StrengthsFinder, strengths-based development, and leadership development. His publications include book chapters and contributions to Positive Psychology in Practice, Organizational Behavior (10th edition), and the Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Work. His research has also appeared in the journals Educational Horizons, Organizational Dynamics, and College and University.

Hodges joined Gallup in 2000 as Director of Human Resources. He consulted with hiring managers, interviewed and analyzed more than 2,000 candidates for employment, and led the development of new employees in sales, consulting, and management positions. He has been in his current role since 2005.

Hodges has served as a commisioner of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education (CCPE). In this role, he and other CCPE commissioners recommended policies to improve and support postsecondary education, administer student financial aid programs, review and authorize academic programs, and review and approve each new tax-funded capital construction project proposed at Nebraska’s 13 public institutions. Hodges is active in the Omaha, Nebraska, community. He serves on the boards for Gallup Federal Credit Union and Christian Heritage, an organization serving at-risk children and youth. Hodges is also the Fundraising Director at Royal Family Kids Camp, and his efforts help fund a summer camp for Omaha children recovering from abuse and neglect.

Hodges received a bachelor’s degree in agribusiness and a master’s degree in leadership education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Currently, he is a doctoral candidate in business with a leadership major at UNL.

Strengths: Maximizer | Relator | Belief | Woo | Positivity


Shane J. Lopez, Ph.D., is research director and a member of the founding board of directors for the Board of Directors for the Clifton Strengths School. He is an architect of the forthcoming Gallup Student Poll, and he directs the annual Gallup Well-Being Forum, which convenes scholars, leaders and decision-makers to discuss topics such as global well-being, human strengths and health care.
 
Dr. Lopez leads the research on the links between hope, strengths development, academic success and overall well-being. He collaborates with scholars around the world on these issues, and he specializes in hope and strengths enhancement for students from pre-school through college graduation, advocating a whole-school strengths model that also builds the strengths expertise of educators, parents and youth development organizations. He has provided strengths mentoring to thousands of college students, including academic, career and life planning, and he advises schools, colleges, and universities on these issues. He co-wrote the statistical reports for the Clifton StrengthsFinder and the Clifton Youth StrengthsExplorer.

Dr. Lopez has published nearly 60 peer-reviewed articles, 34 chapters and 7 books, including Positive Psychology: Exploring the Best in People and The Encyclopedia of Positive Psychology. With C.R. Snyder, he published Positive Psychology: The Scientific and Practical Explorations of Human Strengths, which won the Sage Press Book of the Year Award; Positive Psychological Assessment: A Handbook of Models and Measures and The Handbook of Positive Psychology. With Cynthia Pury, he also co-edited the book Courage, which will be released in 2009.
 
Dr. Lopez is the past associate editor of the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, editorial board member of the Journal of Positive Psychology, and an ad-hoc reviewer for numerous psychology journals. He is a licensed psychologist, a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and educational advisor for Discovery Television.

Strengths: Futuristic | Maximizer | Arranger | Ideation | Strategic


Charles McClendon, Jr., MBA, is a strengths performance coach for the Clifton Strengths Institute’s graduate program and a seminar leader for Gallup, where he has worked since 1991. McClendon teaches companies to increase their overall value by helping employees and managers discover strategies to unleash their potential.

McClendon has led seminars for many of Gallup’s premier clients in the automotive, retail, healthcare, and hospitality industries. His presentations include Q12 workplace engagement programs; CE11 customer engagement programs; the Great Manager and Outstanding Associate Programs; the Strengths Performance Coach program; strengths-based selection training programs; and team-building seminars.

McClendon assisted in building the curriculum for the Young Leader’s Institute, a leadership program that helps young adults focus on developing their personal strengths and using them to benefit their families, schools, and communities. McClendon also helped create the curriculum for Gallup’s strengths-based Family Camp program and facilitated sessions to help individuals discover and understand their talents and to appreciate those of their family members.

Prior to assuming his current role, McClendon served as a manager for two Gallup Poll/consumer interviewing centers. From 1995 to 1997, McClendon was the lead manager of an interviewing center in Atlanta; his responsibilities included overseeing interviewing projects for Gallup clients and The Gallup Poll, as well as managing 120 interviewers. In 1997, McClendon relocated to lead the opening of Gallup’s interviewing center in Houston. His responsibilities included hiring and managing 150 interviewers and oversight of client projects.

McClendon received his bachelor’s degree in finance and psychology and his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Strengths: Responsibility | Belief | Connectedness | Harmony | Maximizer


Emily Meyer is Practice Manager, Strengths Alignment for Gallup. In this role, she coordinates with clients and client support teams to ensure the smooth delivery of strengths-based hiring and development programs. Meyer works with clients to develop strategies to maximize employee and team strengths to reach optimal business outcomes. She works with Gallup’s partners, principals, and operations teams to ensure they have the information and resources needed to forge new client relationships and enhance existing partnerships. She is also responsible for leading research and development projects.

Since joining Gallup in 2003, Meyer has worked with clients in the consumer electronics, automotive, banking, and medical supply industries. Before assuming her current role, she worked in human resources, where she hired and trained new associates. Meyer was also an interviewing manager and trainer in Gallup’s interviewing center in Lincoln, Nebraska, and has worked as a Strengths Performance Consultant.

Meyer earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science and a master’s degree in educational administration, specializing in human resource development, from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She earned a doctorate in organizational leadership from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Strengths: Includer | Strategic | Relator | Belief | Arranger


Connie Rath, Ed.D., is Vice Chair of Gallup and Dean of Gallup University. In her role, she focuses on management and leadership education for Gallup University. Each year, more than 100,000 people participate in Gallup University courses, which are offered online, at client locations, or at the university’s campuses worldwide. She leads graduate programs in executive leadership designed in partnership with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Additional graduate programs have expanded to Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Romania.

Prior to assuming her current role, Rath’s Gallup career focused on researching and managing Gallup’s selection and development services. She led Gallup’s human resources efforts for 20 years. Under her leadership, Gallup developed more than two hundred job profiles across a wide range of positions, each designed to help organizations identify candidates with the potential for outstanding performance. Gallup has received awards for hiring and advancement of women and national ranking for diversity hiring.

Rath also has experience consulting with school districts and developing teacher and administrator selection instruments. She has designed many performance and compensation systems and consulted with companies on implementing them.

Rath’s professional and community activities have included many school and business partnerships. She is a board member of the Public Education Network and the Society of Psychologists in Management. She has served on the Board of Trustees for the Asian Pacific American Women’s Leadership School, the Advisory Council for the Department of Management and Organizations at the University of Iowa, and the Board of Advisors for the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland.

Rath earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She received her doctorate in education and leadership from the University of Southern California.

Strengths: Analytical | Arranger | Maximizer | Individualization | Relator



Tom Rath, Gallup Global Practice Leader, has written two #1 international bestsellers. In 2004, he cowrote the #1 New York Times bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket?, and his second book, Vital Friends: The People You Can’t Afford to Live Without, was published in 2006. StrengthsFinder 2.0 — based on the assessment that has helped millions around the world to discover their strengths — is already a #1 Wall Street Journal and #1 BusinessWeek bestseller. In total, Rath’s books have sold more than a million copies and have made more than 50 appearances on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. He is the coauthor of Strengths-Based Leadership, which was published by Gallup Press in January 2009.

Rath joined Gallup in 1993 and currently leads Gallup’s workplace research and leadership consulting worldwide. He also serves on the board of VHL.org, an organization dedicated to cancer research and patient support.

Rath earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and his Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He and his wife, Ashley, live in Washington, D.C.

Strengths: Significance | Command | Futuristic | Analytical | Competition


Jessica Tyler, Ed.D., manages Gallup’s Employee Engagement practice. Tyler coordinates with clients and client support teams to ensure the smooth delivery of employee engagement programs. She works with Gallup partners, principals, and operations teams to ensure they have the information and resources needed to forge new business relationships and enhance existing partnerships. Tyler works with clients to develop strategies that maximize employee and organizational engagement to reach optimal business outcomes. She is also responsible for leading research and development projects.

Before joining Gallup in 2005, Tyler was a consultant to school districts and businesses in Texas. She provided customized solutions for clients, including strategic planning, creating student and staff development programs, and streamlining human resource functions. She was also an adjunct professor in the College of Education at Texas Christian University, where she taught methods courses to pre-service teachers.

Tyler earned a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Florida Atlantic University. She also earned a master’s of business administration and doctorate in educational leadership in a dual degree program at Texas Christian University.

Strengths: Relator | Learner | Achiever | Strategic | Analytical