After receiving her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Yale University, Judi Neal worked 8 years full-time in industry, including 5 years as a manager for Honeywell.  She has consulted to organizations for 24 years, and taught management at the University of New Haven and other universities for over 17 years.  Judi is now Professor Emeritus at the University of New Haven.  She recently was appointed the Academic Director of the Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership Program at the Graduate Institute.

She has served on the Boards of Directors of several professional, community, and academic organizations.  Judi is President of Neal & Associates, a consulting firm that focuses on personal and organizational transformation.  Her clients include Pfizer, Unilever, Sennheiser, Electric Boat, Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, Rodale Press, Rockport Company, Yankee Gas, Jackson Newspapers, and numerous smaller organizations.

In 1992 she made spirituality in the workplace a central focus of her research and presentations, and has gained a reputation in the national media for stressing the importance and value of spirituality into the workplace.  As Founder, President & CEO of the International Center for Spirit at Work, Judi helps to provide resources, information and community to those who are seeking greater integration of spirituality and work.  The Center is a membership organization, and offers networking, publications, research, courses, and consulting to individuals and organizations.  The goal of this non-profit organization is to legitimize spirituality in the workplace and to provide resources to individuals and organizations who are committed to transformation. The Center’s website, http://www.spiritatwork.org, is known as “information central” of the spirituality in the workplace movement.

Judi has been very active in professional organizations including the Academy of Management, where she helped to found the “Management, Spirituality, and Religion (MSR) Interest Group,” and is a Past Chair of this group.  The MSR Group is the fastest growing group in the Academy, and has more members than several of the Divisions.  She was also active in The Eastern Academy of Management where she is a Fellow, and a Past-President, and in the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society, where she served on the Board.

Judi has spoken at the United Nations, the World Business Academy, Rutgers University, The California School of Professional Psychology, Southern Connecticut State College, The European Baha’i Business Forum, the International Organizational Development Association, The European Human Resource Managers Forum, The Eastern Academy of Management, the National Academy of Management, and the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society as well as numerous national and international conferences on spirituality in the workplace in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, The Netherlands, The U.K., and Thailand. 

She has been filmed by BBC television and PBS television, and has been quoted in Business Week, Personnel Journal, CEO Magazine, American Airways Magazine, New Age Journal, The Lakewood Report, The New Leaders, The London Sunday Times, Tokyo Shimbum, The Chicago Tribune, Harvard Update Newsletter, The Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, U.S. News and World Report, and over 50 other publications.

Judi is Managing Director and Partner of Edgewalker Group International, with offices in Spain, Washington, DC, and Connecticut.  This is an international consultancy firm that helps leaders and organizations to be on the leading edge through innovative practices, skills, and development of inner qualities.  For more information visit http://www.edgewalker.org and http://www.edgewalkergroup.com.

Judi has published numerous articles on spirituality in the workplace and has edited several special editions of academic journals on the topic.  She is a founding editor of the Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion, an international peer-reviewed journal.  She has recorded a guided meditation tape on spirituality in the workplace and a CD of original music that is used in her workshops and training. She is the author of three books titled “Edgewalkers:  People and Organizations that Take Risks, Create the Future, and Thrive on the Edge” (Praeger, 2006), “Creating the Enlightened Organization: A Practical Guide to Implementing Spirit at Work” (to be published in 2008), and “Virtues at Work:  A Twelve Month Program” co-written with Dorothy Marcic and Steve Karnik.  She published a monthly column on Amazon.com titled On the Edge.

In addition to her professional work, Judi is a part-time musician.  She plays in a band called The J.J. Diamond Band, and also does solo performances of her original music.  She has a CD titled The Journey and is currently working on a second CD of original music.