Deborah L. Ancona

Deborah L. Ancona is the Seley Distinguished Professor of Management and Professor of Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She is the Founder of the MIT Leadership Center and a key figure in Work and Organization Studies, Behavioral and Policy Sciences. Her research focuses on team dynamics, distributed leadership, and organizational innovation. She earned a BA and MS in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in Management from Columbia University.

• Affiliations: MIT Sloan School of Management, MIT Leadership Center, MIT Center for Collective Intelligence.
• Education: BA (Psychology, UPenn), MS (Psychology, UPenn), PhD (Management, Columbia).

Her research emphasizes X-Teams (externally oriented teams) and distributed leadership models. She has authored influential books like X-Teams: How to Build Teams That Lead, Innovate, and Succeed and articles in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly and Harvard Business Review. Key awards include the MIT 2022 Seegal Prize and the Jamieson Prize.

Deborah advises organizations like Bristol-Myers Squibb and Bose, and serves on boards such as the Penn Graduate School of Education. Her executive education programs, like "Leadership in an Exponentially Changing World," focus on adapting to rapid technological and organizational shifts.