Christopher Adkins

Associate Teaching Professor; Academic Director of Leadership Development

Management & Organization

Biography

Christopher Adkins is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Management & Organization Department and Academic Director of Leadership Development. His research and teaching explore how the fields of neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and behavioral economics provide new insights and best practices for values-based leadership. Empathy is the core theme of his work, offering a foundational and teachable skill for innovation, communication, inclusion, ethical decision making, and change leadership. In June 2015, he was awarded “Master Teacher of Business Ethics” by the Wheatley Institution at Brigham Young University. Chris also provides leadership coaching, and is a certified executive coach through the Hudson Coaching Institute.

In addition to teaching and research, Chris designs engaging leadership programs rooted in the neuroscience of individual and organizational flourishing. Partners and clients have included: World Bank, LPL Financial, Kaiser Permanente, Deloitte, The Aspen Institute, IBM, GlobalFoundries, Agilent Technologies, Novelis, Huntington Ingalls, Novelis, Ashoka, General Cable, Education First, Navigant Consulting, Compliance Week, TXU Energy, Express Scripts, National Grid, Drug Enforcement Agency, Young African Leaders Initiative.

Background

Education

Ph D, The College of William & Mary, Cognitive Moral Development & Neuropsychology
MA, Boston University, Philosophy
BA, The College of William & Mary, Philosophy & Religion

Expertise

Empathy in Leadership
Business Ethics and Ethical Leadership
Cognitive Neuroscience and the implications for Decision-Making and Leadership Development
Leadership Development
Change Leadership

Presentations

Tender, Strong, and True Leadership, Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership - Annual Forum (2025)
Values-Driven Leadership, Sports Management Institute (2025)

Awards

James Dincolo Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award, University of Notre Dame (2021)
Master Teacher in Business Ethics, Wheatley Institution at Brigham Young University (2015)

Media

Ashoka, Noted researcher--and parent--Chris Adkins explains the difference between "self-focused" empathy and "other-focused" empathy, and how to cultivate the latter, whether you're a parent or a CEO. (2011)
Harvard Business School Publishing, Reflections on my collaborations with Greg Van Kirk, Social Entrepreneur of the Year, 2012, Latin America, Schwab Foundation (2011)
Harvard Business School Publishing, Empathy is the foundational skill for cultural understanding. I define empathy as: "seeing and feeling as another." Empathy needs to be extended across the entire value chain, across all individuals and cultures, so we seek to understand the worlds of others, and recognize our limitations in understanding another's world and values. (2011)
CNBC Video, supported by Carnegie Council & IBM, If you’ve been thinking that “millennials” are the “me generation,” think again. An IBM study shows that far from being self-centered, today’s college students see the fault lines in our shared planet as their generation’s call to action. Teaching college students for the last decade, I’ve often thought of them as the “screen generation”. They’ve grown up surrounded by TVs, laptops, cell phones and iPods. Vivid, exciting and constantly changing, images from these screens are hard to ignore. Over the past decade I have noticed a subtle, yet powerful change in my students: they have elevated the role of business. They readily embrace the notion of the triple bottom line – people, planet, profit – and are seeking companies that share these same objectives. A few years ago this meant corporate philanthropy and community service. But now students want to make a difference by what they do every day in their careers. They want to work for organizations that weave sustainability into their core strategy. (2010)