The Emerson Leadership Institute Online Training Center

Christopher Thomas, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Management at the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business at St. Louis University where he has served on the faculty since 2014. He teaches undergraduate and MBA courses on Leadership and Management, Business Strategy, and Human Resources. Prior to joining SLU, he served on the business school faculties at Northern Illinois University and the University of Mississippi.Chris holds a doctorate in Organizational Behavior and Human Resources from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. He also has a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in Human Resources, and a B.A. in Political Science from North Carolina State University. His research focuses on career development topics such as leadership development, mentoring, work-life balance, and employee engagement and has been published in prestigious outlets including Journal of Management, Personnel Psychology, Human Resource Management, Leadership and Organization Development Journal, and the Journal of Business Research among others. In 2018 he and his co-authors were awarded the Outstanding Paper of the Year from the Journal of Managerial Psychology.Prior to his academic career, Chris was an HR consultant and worked with companies such as State Farm Insurance, the United States Air Force, Mariner Health Care, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Diner’s Club International, BECO Holding Group, Scotland Memorial Hospital (Laurinburg, NC), Disaster Services, Inc.,  and the Oxford (MS) School District. In addition to his consulting experience, Chris spent 6 years in full-time youth ministry in the United Methodist Church.Chris and his wife Maureen have an 11-year old daughter, Rebecca, and two Australian Shepherds. In his spare time he enjoys following his favorite sports teams, the Cardinals, the Blues, and the Georgia Bulldogs. As former competitive bodybuilder, until he broke his neck in a diving accident, he still likes to spend time in the gym when possible.