Nick Nissley
Nick Nissley, EdD, was appointed executive director for The Banff Centre’s Leadership Development programs on July 4, 2006. Dr. Nissley is internationally recognized for his pioneering work in the practice of arts-based learning in management education and leadership development. The Banff Centre’s public programs, customized offerings, and Aboriginal programs have developed a world-wide reputation for inspiring creativity in leaders, and his appointment will strengthen them with his wealth of research into the field and solid understanding of the practice.
Nissley is an accomplished academic whose formal education includes a doctorate in education from George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., and an undergraduate degree in geology and mineralogy from Ohio State University. He has been a professor in the department of organization learning and development at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, where he served as co-chair, department of organization learning and development, and program director for the master’s program in human resource development. Nissley also held affiliations with the College of Business, Management Center, and Center for Nonprofit Management at the University of St. Thomas. While in academia, he consulted and presented to a variety of client organizations, including schools, government, for-profit, non-profit, and faith-based communities, with local, regional, national, and international audiences and clients. In addition to teaching and consulting, Nissley has published widely in scholarly journals such as the British Journal of Management, Organizational Studies, Culture and Organization, and the International Journal of Training and Development. Frequently invited to speak on the topic of arts-based learning in management education and leadership development, he has spoken throughout North America and Europe.
Most recently, Nissley was vice president, workforce and organization effectiveness at the Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where he was responsible for providing leadership to the School’s strategic planning, human resources, organizational learning and leadership development, research and evaluation, and school history functions. He’s most proud of his role in setting the strategic direction for the school's future – crafting the institution’s five-year strategic plan for putting the School’s approximately eight-billion dollar endowment to use “fighting poverty in the United States, one child at a time.” Prior work experiences have included senior leadership roles in the mining industry and healthcare sector.
Nissley’s affinity for the arts isn’t purely intellectual. He has performed semi-professionally with Playback Theatre (a form of improvisational theater in which the audience members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot). He has also acted in organizational theatre performances in Denver and London. In the autumn of 2006, he has been invited to act in an organizational theatre performance in Krakow, Poland. In addition, he engages in creative writing about organizational/work life and was invited to the Detroit Worker-Writer Festival, in Detroit, Michigan, where he performed a short story reading.
Nick’s interest in the arts, education, environment, and social service has led him to serve on the boards of organizations including the Arts and Business Council’s Creativity Connection Advisory Board in New York City, Minneapolis’s Springboard for the Arts, the Minnesota Association for Continuing Adult Education, Antioch College’s Glen Helen Ecology Institute, and the Hershey Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Nissley’s wealth of research into the field and solid understanding of the practice of arts-based management education and leadership development, combined with his practical work experiences, will allow him the opportunity to further develop the world-wide reputation that the Banff Centre’s Leadership Development Programs have earned for inspiring creative leadership.
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