Katherine W. Phillips

The Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership (PPIL) program was inspired by the profound research and life's work of the late Professor Katherine W. Phillips. A beloved member of the Columbia Business School community since 2011, Professor Phillips was a highly dedicated teacher, mentor, and collaborator, who worked tirelessly to create an inclusive community among faculty, staff, and students.

Professor Phillips was a world-renowned expert on diversity in the workplace and her research changed the way businesses thought about diversity, equity, and inclusion across industries. She was an incredible agent for change and as members of the Business School, we are proud to name this groundbreaking program in her honor.

“Diversity enhances creativity. It encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision making and problem solving. Diversity can improve the bottom line of companies and lead to unfettered discoveries and breakthrough innovations. Even simply being exposed to diversity can change the way you think,” -Katherine Phillips

Research by Professor Phillips

Why Diversity Matters

In this Talks@Columbia, Professor Phillips helps audience members understand how we can learn and innovate more effectively — and understand the value of diversity — by making small changes in ourselves.

The Benefits (and Pitfalls) of Diversity

In this interview, Professor Phillips discusses that while diversity is of enormous creative benefit to companies who are willing to put in the work to manage it properly, it can result in tribalism and dissatisfaction without the right leadership approach.

The Legacy of Katherine Phillips

The New York Times reports, "Growing up in a black neighborhood of Chicago, Katherine W. Phillips was chosen in third grade to attend a nearly all-white magnet school. "I was introduced at a young age to diversity, to difference, to ignorance," she later recalled. The experience inspired a lifelong quest to delve into the specifics of how and why racially and ethnically diverse groups function differently than homogeneous ones. She analyzed the ways that organizations, especially in their workplaces, can maximize the benefits of hiring employees with different backgrounds."

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