David Dilts

David Dilts is highly regarded as a operations expert, consultant, researcher and teacher. His influential work has benefited organizations in industries ranging from healthcare to aerospace and automotive. In addition to his teaching work with the Vanderbilt Owen Executive Development Institute, Dr. Dilts is a professor of management at the Oregon Health and Science University and is managing partner for Dilts+Partners, LLC, a firm dedicated to reducing the time required to open and run clinical research trials.

Awards & Accomplishments

David’s work has received numerous awards, most recently a 2011 National Institutes of Health Award of Merit.

Consulting

David has consulted in multiple industries (including oncology, optometry, automotive, heavy industry, and florists). His consulting projects have involved a diverse set of products — from the Trident II D-5 Fleet Ballistic Missile to single-use cameras — and have focused on areas ranging from the impact of quality certification on firm stock prices to the key success factors for business incubation. He works frequently with national and international heath agencies on improving their operations.

Impact

David’s firm is working with three National Institutes — National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICH) the National Cancer institute (NCI), and the National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute (NHLBI) — in examining clinical and management processes. He is also working with multiple Australian cancer agencies for the same propose. Additionally, his firm is working with the Children’s Oncology Group to dramatically reduce the time required to get new cancer treatments to children.

Leadership

David is on the editorial board of three journals and is a frequent speaker at national and international academic conferences. Prior to launching his own firm, he was Director of Strategic Alignment for the Knight Cancer Institute and Director of Evaluation for the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute.

Teaching

David teaches Achieving Operational Excellence in the Vanderbilt Executive Education Program.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

David’s work has been published in over 220 articles, editorials, conference papers and presentations, book chapters, books and monographs, and his research has been supported at nearly $20 million for the past decade. His work has appeared in Nature Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Health Economics.

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., University of Toledo, 2015
• Ph.D., Graduate School of Management, University of Oregon, 1983
• MBA, Graduate School of Management, University of Oregon, 1973
• BS, College of Business, California Polytechnic State University, 1972