Core Faculty

Dr. Bob Wright, CEO

Co-Founder and CEO, is known internationally for his visionary work with business leaders and his personal growth practice. Trained extensively in psychotherapy, Dr. Wright served as a faculty member and trainer in personal growth modalities ranging from Gestalt to bioenergetics to psychodrama at the Forest Institute of Des Plaines, Governors State University, and Northeastern Illinois University. He also advised student practicums as field faculty for the University of Illinois and Loyola prior to co-founding his own human development organization, Human Effectiveness, Inc. (HEI). HEI provided high performance training, employee assistance, industrial coaching and training, individual skill development, and psychotherapy.

Dr. Wright has consulted for business leaders from small entrepreneurial start-ups to Fortune 100's on topics such as business success, personal development, corporate growth, change, and effectiveness. He also received an 18-month appointment to develop and teach a high-performance team module for the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. He holds a B.A. in sociology, an M.S.W. from the University of Illinois, and an M.A. in Communication Science from Governor's State University. In addition, he received his Ed.D. from Fielding Graduate University. He is the bestselling author of People Skills (Pivot Point, 1988) and Beyond Time Management: Business with Purpose (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1996).

Dr. Judith Wright, Director of Transformation & Growth

Co-Founder & Director of Learning and Transformation has achieved national and international prominence in fields as diverse as early childhood development, university student services, personal growth, and spiritual development. Prior to founding the Wright Leadership Institute, Dr. Wright had a distinguished career in higher education and human services, developing one of the first model programs in the country designed to integrate students with disabilities into college. She later received major grants from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Education to develop model programs, research, and demonstration programs for children with developmental disabilities and their families.

Dr. Wright holds a B.A. summa cum laude in Psychology and an M.A. in Education, Counseling and Rehabilitation from Michigan State University. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and received her Ed.D. from Fielding Graduate University. She is the bestselling author of There Must Be More Than This: Finding More Life, Love, and Meaning by Overcoming Your Soft Addictions (Broadway, 2003 reprinted by Tarcher/Penguin in 2006 as The Soft Addiction Solution) and The One Decision (Tarcher/Penguin, 2005).  Dr. Wright is also a highly sought-after speaker and trusted media advisor, having logged over 400 television and radio appearances.

Michael Zwell, Ph.D.

Michael Zwell is Chancellor of the Wright Graduate Institute and a globally recognized Human Capital expert. He is the founder of Zwell International, an executive search firm, and Exxceed, Inc., which was dedicated to measuring and developing employee competency.

Dr. Zwell received his B.A. from the University of Chicago and his M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale University, both in anthropology. He has taught at Rutgers University, has spoken extensively on maximizing employee performance, and published the highly acclaimed Creating a Culture of Competence (John Wiley & Sons, 2000) on how to create high-performing organizations and Six-Figure Salary Negotiation (Platinum Press, 2008). He has studied human performance technologies and led seminars and laboratory groups with Wright for over 15 years.