Modupe Akinola

Modupe Akinola is an Associate Professor of Management and Director of the Sanford C. Bernstein and Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics at Columbia Business School. Professor Akinola examines how organizational environments—with the pressures of deadlines and multitasking—can lead to stress, and how this stress can spill over to affect performance. She studies why some people thrive under stress while others buckle, looking at how we react psychologically and physiologically to stressful situations and how these responses can affect outcomes like negotiations and creativity. She also studies workforce diversity, including the biases that affect the recruitment and retention of women and people of color in organizations.

She has written on these topics in numerous academic journals, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Academy of Management Journal. Her research has been covered in various media outlets, including The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and The Economist.

Professor Akinola received her B.A., M.B.A., M.A. in Social Psychology, and Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University. Prior to pursuing a career in academia, Professor Akinola worked in professional services at Bain & Company and Merrill Lynch.