Nancy Lam

Nancy Lam is an Associate Professor of Management in the School of Economics and Business Administration (SEBA) at Saint Mary’s College of California, where she also serves as Department Chair of the Organizations and Responsible Business program and Director of the Executive Doctorate of Business Administration. She holds the endowed Guyette Professorship of Responsible Business and previously taught at Keck Graduate Institute (2009–2010).

Education

• PhD in Organizational Behavior, New York University, 2009
• MPhil in Management, New York University, 2006
• BA, University of California, Berkeley

Research Focus

Dr. Lam’s scholarship centers on how ideas, information and innovation move through organizational hierarchies. One stream dissects voice and silence as multi-level, multi-actor processes, revealing when employees choose to speak up or stay quiet and how their messages are amplified or stifled by managers. A complementary line explores power’s influence on perception and evaluation, uncovering how authority shapes interpretation of events and communication. She also investigates creative pedagogy, leveraging virtual worlds and experiential projects to enhance business student engagement.

Across more than 15 peer-reviewed articles and conference presentations since 2008, her work integrates organizational behavior, behavioral economics, and educational innovation, consistently highlighting the intersection of individual agency and structural constraints.

Honors & Awards

• Outstanding Paper (Management), Global Conference on Business & Finance (2018)
• Outstanding Service Award, SEBA (2018)
• Outstanding Paper, International Conference on Business & Innovation (2017)
• Outstanding Research Award, SEBA (2016)
• Guyette Responsible Leadership Endowed Professorship (2014–present)
• SEBA Outstanding Teaching Award (2014)
• SMC Alumni-Faculty Fellowship Grant (2016)
• SEBA Teaching Innovation Grant (2012–2013)
• Best Paper (Management), American Business Research Conference (2011)
• Outstanding Empirical Paper Award, Eastern Academy of Management (2008)
• Showcase Symposium Chair, Academy of Management (2008)

Teaching & Program Leadership

Dr. Lam directs the Executive DBA program and chairs the Organizations & Responsible Business area, mentoring doctoral students and designing cutting-edge curricula. She teaches courses on Creativity & Innovation, Organizational Behavior, Managing Contemporary Organizations, and a popular Jan-Term course on Creativity, consistently integrating experiential and technology-enhanced methods.

Labs & Teams

While no formal lab is listed, she leads the Executive Doctorate of Business Administration cohort and collaborates with interdisciplinary faculty and doctoral researchers under the umbrella of SEBA’s Organizations and Responsible Business program.