Michelle Austin is a high-energy educator, coach, and strategist who helps people turn leadership theory into real-world results. As Managing Director of the Sanger Leadership Center, she shapes the center’s future, runs its daily operations, and guides a talented team of professional staff and students. With over fifteen years of experience at the University of Michigan, Michelle acts as the primary connector between world-class faculty, an active alumni network, and corporate partners. She specializes in taking complex academic research and turning it into practical tools that help teams communicate honestly, work better together, and lead with confidence.

Michelle’s notable accomplishments at Sanger have included creating and directing the Center’s data and operations strategy, building and executing on the Center’s first relationships and donor strategy, and generating the Center’s inaugural marketing and branding plan. Michelle has played a key role in the creation of several leadership programs, including the Michigan Ross Leader Endorsement, Leadership Crisis Challenge, the Ross Leaders Academy, Collaboration Lab, and Leadership Dialogues.

A frequent speaker and facilitator, Michelle has designed and delivered high-impact programming for thousands of Michigan graduate and undergraduate students, Michigan Medicine, the U-M Office of University Development, the Graduate Management Admission Council, and the NASPA Leadership Educators Institute. Whether coaching MBA candidates or keynoting for GMAC, she is recognized for her presence and her ability to empower emerging and established leaders to own their confidence.

Michelle holds a Master’s in Higher Education from the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor Marsal Family School of Education and a BBA from the University of Michigan–Dearborn. She is a professionally trained coach through the Co-Active Training Institute and remains a dedicated practitioner of the leadership skills she teaches. Outside of work, Michelle spends her time reading, gardening, exercising, watching Michigan sports, and enjoying life with her husband, her daughter, and her labradoodle.

Dr. Lindy Greer is the Faculty Director of the Sanger Leadership Center and the Gerald and Esther Carey Chair of Business Administration and Professor of Management & Organizations at Michigan Ross. She is an award-winning leadership expert with one foot in rigorous academic research and one foot in the executive suites of global organizations. Her research centers on how power, hierarchy, and decision rights operate inside leadership teams and how organizations can make power dynamic rather than dysfunctional. Her work appears in prestigious outlets such as Science, Academy of Management, and Organization Science.

Drawing on more than 15 years of research, teaching, and advisory work, Lindy coaches C-suite teams and designs senior leadership development programs for some of the world’s most influential companies. She has directed or delivered programs for organizations such as Amazon, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Boston Consulting Group, Carhartt, Ernst & Young, Google, KPMG, the National Football League, Oracle, Shell, and the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Her research has reshaped how scholars and executives understand leadership dynamics and team performance, earning numerous awards for both scholarly impact and real-world influence. She has been named one of Poets & Quants’ Top 40 Under 40 Business School Professors and one of Thinkers50 Radar’s Top 30 Management Thinkers to Watch.

Prior to joining Michigan Ross, Lindy was on the faculty at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she developed and taught The Psychology of Start-up Teams and advised numerous early-stage ventures. She holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in Social and Organizational Psychology from Leiden University. She is the author of the upcoming book Toggle: How to Adapt Your Power, Be a Better Teammate, and Win at Work, which translates her research into practical tools leaders can apply immediately. Outside of work, Lindy spends her time serving on the boards of non-profits, playing pickleball, reading fantasy books, and enjoying snowboarding in the winter and time on the water in the summer with her husband and teenage son.

Brooke is a Senior Program Coordinator at Sanger where she leads strategic partnerships for the Center. In this role, she drives collaborative efforts between alumni, board members, and university partners to plan and evaluate initiatives that empower the next generation of leaders. Brooke also works with the Sanger team to plan, execute, and evaluate leadership programs for Ross students and the broader U-M community.

Brooke’s career is rooted in a deep commitment to educating the whole person. Before transitioning to higher education, she spent four years as a fifth-grade teacher, where she championed social-emotional learning and literacy programs. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Education at U-M and received her undergrad from Central Michigan University. In her free time, she loves going on walks, baking, and making memories with her husband and son.

Lisa Kozlo is a Program Manager at the Sanger Leadership Center. Lisa collaborates with thought leaders, students, and other stakeholders to plan, execute, and evaluate leadership programs for Ross students and the broader U-M community.

Prior to her most recent role with Sanger, Lisa has over 18 years of experience working in higher education. She has enjoyed being on collaborative teams at the University of Michigan (Ross School of Business, Alumni Association, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and School of Public Health), Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Throughout her career in higher education, Lisa has held roles within Admissions, Career Services, Academic Affairs, Student Life and Alumni Relations, making her well versed on the entire academic journey of students. She has a record of building strong relationships and programs by working effectively with students, faculty and staff. The part of Lisa’s work that brings her the most joy though is being an advocate for the student experience.

Lisa is a Michigan native, born and raised in Warren, MI. She studied history at both the University of Detroit Mercy (B.A.) and Bowling Green State University (M.A). She enjoys traveling, ghost tours, a good joke/laughing, cheering for the Detroit Tigers and providing the BEST LIFE ever for her four-legged son, Laszlo, the Hungarian cat!

Rafael is a Senior Program Coordinator at the Sanger Leadership Center. In this role, Rafa partners with faculty, staff, students, and external stakeholders to advance Sanger’s programming and initiatives, bringing the most impactful leadership education and experiences to Michigan Ross and the wider U-M community.

Before joining Sanger, Rafa was a music educator teaching across the Ann Arbor, Saline, and Dexter school districts in Michigan. As a former professional musician, Rafa has performed with acclaimed artists in the classical and jazz worlds, performed several concerts with True Concord, a Grammy-nominated ensemble, and shared his music across the United States and South America. Rafa’s expertise extends well beyond the classroom and the stage; he also advanced educational training for USA Team Handball, a non-profit sports organization affiliated with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Rafa loves flexing his diverse skills in leadership facilitation, design, programming, and audio/video engineering, using them to bring innovation to his work at the Center.

Hailing from Brazil, Rafa graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s degree in music. He furthered his education at the University of Michigan, with a teaching certification and two master’s degrees, in music performance and chamber music, from the School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Outside of work, Rafa enjoys going to the gym, playing sports, traveling, and blasting music on road trips. He also serves as a Team Handball referee and aspires to take part in the upcoming LA 2028 Summer Olympic Games as an official and volunteer.

Paige Robnett is an ACC-certified executive coach and Director of Programming at the Sanger Leadership Center. A strategist and systems thinker, Paige is known for her ability to help leaders close the gap between the culture they aspire to create and the one employees actually experience.

Paige has more than a decade of experience in management consulting and change management, including founding her own firm in 2020. She specializes in helping leaders navigate culture change, growth, and transformation, advising executives at Fortune 500 companies, national nonprofits, and universities. Culture initiatives she has led have produced 30%+ improvements in employee-reported measures of trust, engagement, and collaboration.

At the center of Paige’s work is a belief that the hardest leadership challenges are often the most human: building trust, navigating power, and creating environments where people feel safe enough to take risks. She brings rigorous strategy and deep curiosity to complex organizational problems, helping leaders build the structures and conditions that make real change possible. Her approach to leadership development blends research-backed learning with practical tools leaders can immediately apply.

Paige holds an Executive Certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University, a Master of Public Administration from George Washington University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Denison University. Outside of her professional work, Paige enjoys spending time with family and is deeply invested in women’s sports, especially the WNBA and the PWHL.

Nick Viviano is a Program Manager at the Sanger Leadership Center. Nick collaborates with faculty, corporate partners, students, and other stakeholders to plan, execute, and evaluate leadership programs, including the Leadership Crisis Challenge and Ross Leaders Academy.

Before joining Michigan Ross, Nick designed resources and executed programs to increase opportunities for students and employees to engage with diversity & inclusion and training & development initiatives in Brooklyn, NY and Shanghai, China. Working out of EF Education First’s office in Shanghai, Nick was a member of the inaugural team tasked with developing the company’s global D&I strategy, and individually focused on the implementation of educational programming and mentoring structures for employees across six countries.

Nick holds a Master’s in Educational Studies from the University of Michigan Marsal Family School of Education and graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Political Science. Outside of work, Nick finds the most joy in playing volleyball, traveling, and participating in meaningful conversations with socially conscious and passionate people.