Dr. Shaista E. Khilji
Dr. Shaista E. Khilji
M.Phil., Ph.D.
Department Chair and Professor, Human and Organizational Learning
School: Graduate School of Education and Human Development
Department: Human and Organizational Learning, Cross-Disciplinary
Contact:
Email:
Dr. Shaista E. Khilji
Office Phone:
(202) 994-1146
Shaista E. Khilji is Chair of the Department of Human and Organizational Learning and a Professor of Human and Organizational Learning and International Affairs at the George Washington University (GW). She also serves as a Fulbright Specialist with the US Department of State.
She is an accomplished, all-around academic with a strong entrepreneurial streak, which has enabled her to develop innovative programs and approaches to leadership education and international business research. She serves as the founding editor-in-chief of the South Asian Journal of Business Studies (Emerald Publications) and founding program director of GW's Organizational Leadership & Learning program, which was completely redesigned and rebranded under her leadership. She served as a member of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee during the global pandemic and represented the GW faculty on numerous institutional initiatives, including the Shared Governance Task Force.
Prof. Khilji has well-established expertise in leadership, talent development, cross-cultural management, and organizational change. She has designed, carried out, and published findings of more than 45 research projects. Her most recent work focuses on neoliberal universities, macro talent management (a field she helped establish), and humanizing organizations. Prof. Khilji has secured more than US$4.75 million in training and research grants, funded by the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other institutional intramural awards.
Prof. Khilji has authored over 165 papers, published numerous scholarly articles in top-tier journals, written book chapters, and presented internationally at conferences. She has won many awards, including the Best Reviewer and Outstanding Service awards from the Academy of Management, the Best Paper Award from the Academy of International Business, GW’s Service Excellence Award for hosting the Clinton Global Initiative University, GW’s Morton A Bender Teaching Award, and the VALOR Award for cross-disciplinary work.
View Prof. Khilji blogs at medium.com/@shaistakhilji.
- Leadership
- Organizational and Societal Change
- Culture and Cross-Cultural Management
- Globalization
- (Macro/Global) Talent Management
- May 2026
- Dr. Shaista Khilji published the piece, "Research Note: AI, Society, and the Changing Nature of Work," on Substack. This article is based on her research project, "When Top-Down Messaging & Bottom-Up Narratives Collide: Exploring Human Readiness for AI Adoption in Organizations.” The project was led by Dr. Khilji in collaboration with Dr. Kevin Knudsen, Mengying Cao (Ph.D. student), and Ivy Clem (Ph.D. student), and they presented their findings at GW's Innovation Fest.
- July 2025
- Dr. Shaista Khilji and alumna Leslie Zemnick (master's, Organizational Leadership and Learning) collaborated to organize Kotter's Change Certification at GSEHD. Dr. Khilji delivered the opening remarks, and Leslie, along with her team, facilitated the certification sessions. Professionals from the public and private sectors attended the three-day sessions.
- August 2020
- Presented two papers at the Academy of Management's Rapid OB Plenary- Racial Inequality's Management Education & Development Workshop: "Seizing the Moment of a 'Seismic Shift': Moving the DEI Needle Forward" and "Building a learning community and stakeholder engagement: a method for humanizing leadership education"
- July 2020
- Dr. Shaista Khilji presented a research paper titled, "Reinforcing gender, racial and class inequalities within organizations: A study of individual experiences in the US," at the European Group of Organizational Studies Annual Conference.
- June 2020
- Published a blogpost on Medium.com entitled, "'I can’t breathe'- Floyd’s last words should haunt but also propel America."
- Published a Medium.com blog, "In this ‘hare’ culture, let’s be tortoise."
- Guest on the Leadership for the Future podcast. Listen to her episode: "A Discussion about the Beauty of Humanistic Leadership."
- Guest on the Culture Stew podcast for an episode entitled, "Humanistic Leadership: Prioritizing Human Dignity and Well-Being for Better Business Results." The discussion focused on humanistic leadership for human dignity and well being. Listen to the podcast >
- April 2020
- Published a new blog post on Medium.com titled, "Using COVID-19 to Harness the Power of Heart & the Soul."
- March 2020
- Published a piece on Medium.com entitled, "COVID-19 - Could this be the ‘wake-up call’ that we need?"
