Dr. Ellen Ernst Kossek is an award-winning U.S. social scientist who does pioneering work to advance the U.S. and international work-family research policy fields and work-life equality.

She holds a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Yale University, an MBA from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor’s degree with honors in psychology from Mount Holyoke College. For the past 4 years, she has been ranked in the top two percent of scientists in business for global research impact by Stanford/ Elseviers' ranking.

Ellen was the first elected President of the Work-Family Researchers Network. She is elected a Fellow in the Academy of Management and the American Psychological Association and the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She served as an expert on the U.S. National Academies of Sciences Committee on Family Policies to support Caregivers working in STEM. She was elected to the Board of Governors and Chair of the Gender and Diversity in Organizations Division of the Academy of Management. 

Other faculty appointments include University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University visiting scholar at the University of Bologna; Distinguished Faculty Scholar, Kings College U.K., Distinguished Visiting Fellow and Faculty Scholar: Queen Mary University of London and UNISA in Australia. She also served for over a decade on IESE’s work-family and women’s leadership advisory board in Barcelona, Spain.

Ellen has worked for major corporations in the U.S., Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Australia. She has been invited to speak in many countries about work-life-family issues, including flexible working, remote and hybrid work, and employment policies/practices to remove barriers to advancing women in higher education and business. Her research has been funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Center for Disease Control, the National Science Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan, Russell Sage, and Gerber Foundations. She is a published author of several books including Creating Gender-Inclusive Organizations: Lessons from Research and Practice and CEO of Me: Creating a Life that Works in the Flexible Job Age, which has been translated into several languages. She is married with four children and a dog named Max.

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Published in Top Academic Journals and National Media Outlets

  • Academy of Management Journal

  • Academy of Management Annals

  • Journal of Applied Psychology

  • Journal of Management

  • Personnel Psychology

  • Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes

  • Human Resource Management

  • Human Relations

  • National Public Radio

  • CNN

  • Harvard Business Review

  • The Wall Street Journal

  • Time

  • Psychology Today

  • The Economist

  • Financial Times

  • New York Times

  • Newsweek

  • Rolling Stone

Past and/or Current Advisory Board Experience

  • Boston College Work and Family Round Table

  • Board of Governors Academy of Management

  • State of Michigan YMCA & Camp Hayowentha-Arbutus Camp Board

Awards & Recognition