Sally Blount

Sally Blount is the Michael L. Nemmers Professor of Strategy at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where she is also a proud alumna and former dean. An internationally recognized thought leader in management and business education, Blount is a highly rated professor and sought-after speaker on leadership development, board governance, and organizational transformation.

From 2010-2018, Blount served as dean at the Kellogg School of Management. Prior to that, from 2004-2010, she served as dean of the New York University undergraduate College of Business and vice dean of the Stern School of Business. In both deanships, Blount was a record-setting fundraiser, partnering with and leading teams that completed two capital campaigns that were transformational for their institutions, together raising more than $550M. A natural change agent, Blount worked with faculty at both schools to envision and implement substantive innovations in curriculum design, research, executive outreach, and global education, while dramatically improving the caliber of students applying to and attending both programs. She is also proud to have led the teams that envisioned, funded, and completed two significant building projects, one in the heart of New York City and one on the shores of Lake Michigan.

In addition to her current role at Kellogg, Blount is the President and CEO of Catholic Charities of Chicago, one of the largest human services providers in the Midwest – serving more than 500,000 people annually. Blount is leading the organization through a three-year capabilities-building and strategic planning process that will reimagine Charities’ governance and deepen its impact -- as they prepare to serve those in need in an increasingly polarized and economically unequal, post-pandemic world.

Blount sits on the board of two Fortune 500 companies, Abbott Laboratories and Ulta Beauty, as well as the boards of the Joyce Foundation and the Economic Club of Chicago. She is also a member of the Finance Council of the Archdiocese of Chicago, where she is part of the team working with the Cardinal to re-envision leadership development for priests.

Blount is the author of two books and more than 30 peer-reviewed academic publications in negotiations and behavioral economics and a two-time recipient of National Science Foundation research grants. At year-end 2017, she was named one of LinkedIn's Top Voices and Poets and Quants Dean of the Year. Blount is regularly featured in news outlets such as The Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, Forbes, The Economist, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune, and MSNBC. In 2012, she co-chaired the World Economic Forum on Latin America.

Blount holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University and a B.S. in engineering from Princeton University. Her first faculty appointment was at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business from 1992 to 2001. In 2001, she joined New York University's Stern School of Business, where she became the Abraham L. Gitlow Professor of Management and chaired the promotion and tenure committee, before assuming the college deanship in 2004. Blount worked for several years between college and graduate school, first for the Boston Consulting Group and later as business manager for an architecture and design firm.

Blount is the mother of three now-adult children, Melissa, Haley, and Cameron, and daily companion to two dogs, Remi and Rebel Joe.

Education

• Ph.D., 1992, Organizational Behavior, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
• M.S., 1991, Organizational Behavior, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
• B.S.E., 1983, Engineering Systems and Economic Policy, School of Engineering and Applied Science and Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs, Princeton University, High Honors

Academic Positions

• Michael L. Nemmers Professor of Strategy, Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2018-present
• Dean, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2010-2018
• Michael L. Nemmers Professor of Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2010-2018
• Advisor to the President and Provost for Global Integration, New York University, 2007-2010
• Abraham L. Gitlow Professor of Management and Organizations, New York University, 2004-2010
• Vice Dean, Stern School of Business, New York University, 2004-2010
• Dean of the Stern School of Business Undergraduate College, New York University, 2004-2010
• Professor of Management, Stern School of Business, New York University, 2001-2004
• Associate Professor of Behavioral Science , Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, 1996-2001
• Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science , Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, 1992-1996
• Instructor/Research Assistant, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 1988-1992

Professional Experience

• Director of Finance and Planning, Eva Maddox Associates, Inc., 1985-1988
• Associate Consultant, Boston Consulting Group, Inc., 1983-1985

Awards

• Division Chair, Academy of Management , 2004-2005
• Program Chair, Academy of Management , 2002-2003
• Review Panel member, National Science Foundation , 2002-2004
• Doctoral Consortium Coordinator, Academy of Management , 2001-2002
• Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation, 2001-2005
• Best Paper Award, Academy of Management Proceedings, 2000
• Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation, 1998-1999
• Executive Board member, Economic Science Association, 1997-2000
• Alumni Advisory Board member, Princeton University School of Engineering, 1996-2002
• Research Scholar, James S. Kemper Foundation, 1996-1997
• Best Dissertation Award, International Association for Conflict Management, 1993
• Austin Scholar, J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, 1988
• Sheldon Research Prize, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi, Princeton University, 1982-1983
• Visiting Scholar, Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, 1982