• Josh Davis, PhD

    DIRECTOR

    Bio
  • Jamil Zaki, PhD

    ADVISOR

    Bio
  • Jeff Golde

    SENIOR CONSULTANT

    Bio

Josh Davis, PhD is the author of the international bestseller, Two Awesome Hours, which is available in 10 languages. 

He did his undergraduate work at Brown University, in Engineering, and his PhD at Columbia University, studying Psychology and Neuroscience. 

Josh has been an influential figure in the field of leadership development in his roles as Chief Scientist and Senior Faculty with the Mentora Institute, Director of Research and Lead Professor with the NeuroLeadership Institute, and through his writing.  He helped guide the NeuroLeadership Institute through their period of 5X growth, developed and taught many of the programs for both Mentora and the NeuroLeadership Institute, and regularly Emceed the NeuroLeadership Summit, which attracted over 40,000 attendees virtually and in-person annually.  Josh also has been teaching neurolinguistic programming (NLP) for over a decade, as a certified Trainer and Master Practitioner with one of NLP’s first and most respected centers, the NLP Center of New York. 

His writing has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Psychology Today, Inc., strategy + business, Business Insider, Huffington Post, Training + Development, and People & Strategy, among others.  He twice wrote pieces that were among the top 10 for the year for strategy + business.  His work has been reported on by major news sources globally, including The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and The Times of London, CNN, CBS, MSNBC, USAToday, The Telegraph, Bloomberg, and others.  He is also frequently a guest on podcasts and radio, and has been referenced in Scientific American and The New York Times.  His academic research has often been cited and is published in leading journals, such as Emotion, NeuroImage, and Topics in Cognitive Science. 

Josh loves to teach and brings that passion to making what he teaches accessible.  He has experience connecting with learners across a broad range of backgrounds and on topics that are often difficult – from teaching physics and math in a last chance Brooklyn public high school to teaching neuroscience, psychology, and statistics as a professor in the Psychology Department at Barnard College of Columbia University.  He has guided adult learners to breakthroughs in many areas, including his specialties of public speaking, leadership, and time management. In that work, Josh has trained people in all levels of organizations across many of the Fortune 1000 organizations, including directly to the senior leaders of Fortune 50 organizations.  He has also trained and coached people outside of organizations across many walks of life on their personal and professional development – lawyers, health professionals, educators, entrepreneurs, parents, students, and so on.  Josh also consults to heads of learning in organizations about how to make learning most effective.  He is regularly thanked by students, and recommended, for his dedication and ability as a gifted teacher and communicator.  As one student put it “Josh […] has an uncanny ability to guide people out of their comfort zones to a place where they can really learn a lot about themselves.” 

In all of this work, Josh combines the practical wisdom of NLP with the scientific lessons that come from neuroscience and psychology.  He then applies it towards helping people change. 

Jamil Zaki, PhD is a tenured associate professor of psychology at Stanford University.  He and his colleagues study social connection, including empathy, cooperation, and trust (see ssnl.stanford.edu for details).  He has pioneered a new perspective on empathy as a learnable skill, and much of his work focuses on training individuals, groups, and communities to empathize more effectively.

Dr. Zaki received his BA in cognitive neuroscience from Boston University and his PhD in psychology from Columbia University and conducted postdoctoral research at the Harvard Center for Brain Science.  He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and received about two dozen awards from scientific associations and universities.  In 2019 he was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the US Government’s highest honor for researchers at his career stage.

In addition to his academic work, Dr. Zaki is active in outreach and public communication of science.  He has written about human connection for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Harvard Business Review, and The New Yorker.  In 2019, he published his first book, The War for Kindness, which NPR called a “wide-ranging, practical guide to making the world better.”  Jamil regularly gives talks and trainings to a range of audiences, including Fortune 500 executives, middle schoolers, healthcare workers, and government officials.  His TED and TEDx talks have been viewed over 3,000,000 times.

Jeffrey Golde is a teacher, executive coach, facilitator and entrepreneur who uses a wide range of skills to help individuals and organizations make an impact in the world. He is co-founder of Deep Breadth. He facilitates trainings with Fortune 500 companies, and teaches executives leadership, communication and strategy skills on faculty at Columbia Business School and with Mentora. Jeff’s recent executive coaching and consulting includes work with Donor’s Choose, SEO, Trusty Sidekick, IndieSpace, Shiseido, IBM and Songs for Good.

Jeff brings a wealth of experience from his theater background as an Actor, Director, and Producer, as well as his work with University Musical Society (UMS) and in marketing for WETA, the Washington DC area NPR/PBS station.

Jeff is the founder of Stone Soup Shakespeare, which brings free Shakespeare performances and workshops to rural and underserved communities. He has been a presenter and facilitator at conferences and events around the country including with Americans for the Arts, National Arts Marketing Project, Opera America, CoreNet NYC and PatronManager.

Jeff also researches and leads workshops with master improvisers to translate their skill sets into usable tools for individuals to navigate complexity and change. He earned his Executive MBA from Columbia University where he teaches The Leader’s Voice to MBA students. Jeff proudly serves on the Board of Directors for the Dobbs Ferry Public Library.