Dr. Laurie Barclay has been awarded the prestigious University of Guelph Research Leadership Chair. Dr. Barclay is a full professor in the Department of Management and the Lang Chair in Leadership. She studies how organizations can create and maintain healthy workplaces through fairness, leadership, and EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion).
Since her arrival in 2021, her impact within and beyond the Lang School have been nothing short of exemplary. Several workplace interventions Dr. Barclay has developed are used around the world by companies and in executive training. She is internationally recognized for research excellence, including 6 best paper awards, 4 reviewer of the year awards, along with multiple research fellowships. Her commitment to translating research into practice, using the classroom to connect students with cutting-edge research, and using evidence-based knowledge to enhance leader effectiveness has earned Dr. Barclay multiple mentoring and teaching awards. Dr. Sean Lyons, Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies, also commented how Dr. Barclay regularly mobilizes her research knowledge at national and international conferences, invited talks, and via media coverage including the New York Times, Financial Times, NBC News, Globe and Mail, CTV News), podcasts (e.g., Psychological Safety in Canada), keynote addresses at practitioner conferences, and direct outreach with the private sector within and beyond Canada.
“Lang’s mission of advancing ‘business as a force for good’ deeply resonates with me – this mission provides inspiration for conducting impactful research and for ensuring that this research is translated into practice. I am especially privileged to teach in Lang’s executive programs and to connect with the business community through outreach. This enables me to keep my ear to the ground on the latest challenges and opportunities, then focus my research on creating impactful evidence-based strategies that can immediately be put into the hands of those that can use them.”
As a Research Leadership Chair at the University of Guelph, Dr. Barclay's goals include elevating excellence, amplifying impact, promoting partnerships and collaboration, embedding research in all that we do, and developing the research leaders of tomorrow. I am honoured to receive this award, she said. "There is an incredible ecosystem within Lang and the University of Guelph -- I am looking forward to further building connections and collaborations amongst our faculty and students as well as with industry and the broader research community to ‘improve life’."
“Dr. Barclay is a top scholar in her field who has garnered considerable research funding both as sole applicant and as co-applicant, nationally and internationally. She has distinguished herself as a thought leader by questioning key assumptions and by adopting innovative methodologies to explore theoretically and practically important questions focusing on enhancing fairness and EDI. Dr. Barclay exemplifies excellence across the strategic priorities in Lang's Strategic Research Plan,” said Dr. Lyons.
