Georgia Sorenson, Ph.D.

Georgia Sorenson, Ph.D. is director and founder of the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland. This past year she has been Visiting Senior Scholar at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond.

A presidential scholar, she is author of books on the presidency. Most recently, she is co-editor (with George Goethals and James MacGregor Burns) of the 4-volume Encyclopedia of Leadership, published by SAGE Books (2004). Sorenson is a frequent commentator on leadership and presidential politics in the popular media as well.

Before joining academia, Sorenson was a Senior Policy Analyst in the Carter White House for employment issues and to the Executive Office of the President. During her White House tenure, she served on the President’s Productivity Council and later worked as a consultant where she directed an internal group relations conference for the Executive Office of the President.

Sorenson was appointed director of the Leadership and Change Conference for the Washington-Baltimore Center. The first conference in 2001 was co-sponsored by the Gallup Organization, the Tavistock Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, and the Leadership Learning Community among others.

Sorenson serves on numerous boards and commissions, including the School of Administration of the People's Republic of China, The International Board of Tokyo Jogakkan University in Japan, and the Thierry Graduate School of Leadership in Belgium. Considered an architect of the leadership studies field, she has lectured extensively on leadership in more than 30 countries in the last decade.

Sorenson studied with Margaret Rioch as an undergraduate student in psychology.

Sorenson is ordained in the Soto zen tradition.