Biography
Dr. Sharon Ravitch is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. Ravitch’s research, advising, and teaching integrate human and organizational development, psychology, anthropology, management, leadership, and organizational theory across five strands: 1. Leadership and Management: adaptive leadership, organizations, and systems; leader and organizational learning design; change management and institutional differentiation; 2. Organization and Systems Development: evidence-based organization and systems learning and development, workplace learning design and assessment, systemic sense-making; 3. Knowledge System Integration: Western, Indigenous, Digital knowledge system integration and knowledge transfer; person-centered AI adoption in systems; 4. Workplace Research: emergent design, participatory, and applied research methods; and 5. Impact Evaluation: mixed-methods M&E, customized replication in scaling, participatory evaluation.
Dr. Ravitch has published nine books:
- Leaders as Architects of Change: Designing Organizations for Connection and Resilience in Times of Uncertainty (with Raghu Krishnamoorthy, 2026)
- Leadership Mindsets for Adaptive Change: The Flux 5 (with Liza Herzog, 2023)
- Flux Leadership: Real-Time Inquiry for Humanizing Educational Change (with Chloe Kannan, 2022)
- Critical Leadership Praxis: Leading Educational and Social Change (with Katie Pak, 2021)
- Qualitative Research: Bridging the Conceptual, Theoretical, and Methodological (with Nicole Carl, 2021/2016)
- Applied Research for Sustainable Change: A Guide for Education Leaders (with Nicole Carl, 2019)
- Reason and Rigor: How Conceptual Frameworks Guide Research (with Matthew Riggan, 2017/2012)
- School Counseling Principles: Diversity and Multiculturalism (2006)
- Matters of Interpretation: Reciprocal Transformation in Therapeutic and Developmental Relationships with Youth (with Michael Nakkula, 1998)
Ravitch is currently writing Making AI Work: Surfacing Hidden Beliefs and Creating Conscious Agreements for Successful AI Adoption (with Phillip Ellis) and is handbook co-editor of Qualitative Research in Digital Learning Environments with S. Vighnarajah P. K. Selvarajah of the Open University Malaysia (expected 2027). She is completing the 3rd edition of her qualitative research textbook, which features applications of AI in research, with Dr. Nicole Carl.
Ravitch is a global leadership development and organizational diagnostics expert working with leaders, teams, and organizations to build systemic sensemaking practices for impactful organizational learning and adaptive change. Ravitch works alongside government and NGO leaders and teams, corporate and education leaders, boards, and higher education units on design thinking/planning, workplace research, and rapid-cycle leader inquiry; leader, systems, and organizational learning; bridging Western, Eastern, and Indigenous knowledge systems; adaptive leaders, teams, and organizations; priming systems for successful AI adoption and knowledge system integration; and invisible logics and leader mindsets in meaning-making, decision-making, and innovation.
Ravitch earned two master’s degrees from Harvard University in human development and psychology, advised by Dr. Carol Gilligan, and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in an interdisciplinary program that integrates anthropology and education, advised by Dr. Frederick Erickson. In 2021, she was faculty recipient of the Recognition of Outstanding Service Award to honor her dedication to providing a nurturing and supportive environment for students, staff, and faculty during the pandemic. Ravitch was awarded the Dean’s Office Strategic Priority Grant 2026–2027 with Dr. Seiji Isotani and Nam Nguyen for collaborative applied research on “Scaling AI Pedagogy: A Research-Informed Model for Accelerating AI Integration in Teaching and Learning.” She is senior advisor to the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation in Abu Dhabi, a Fulbright Specialist, and a Perry World House Faculty Affiliate.
Education
- Ph.D. (Education, Culture, and Society) University of Pennsylvania, 2000
- Ed.M. (Human Development and Psychology) Harvard University, 1995
- Ed.M. (Risk and Prevention) Harvard University, 1994
- B.A. (Religion and Women’s Studies) Temple University, 1993
Areas of Expertise
- Adaptive leadership, organizations, and systems
- Management, change management, institutional differentiation
- Leader, team, organizational learning and development
- Workplace research and evidence-based change
- Knowledge system integration (Western/Indigenous/Digital) and AI workplace adoption
- Impact evaluation/assessment/M&E
- Systemic sensemaking and organizational culture assessment/improvement
- Design thinking, planning, visioning, workplace research
- Invisible logics in organizational decision making and innovation
- Women's leadership development (cross-sector)
Academic Programs
Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Management, Ed.D. Higher Education, Ed.D. Higher Education, M.S.Ed. Learning Sciences and Technologies, Ph.D. Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership, Ed.D. Penn Chief Learning Officer, Ed.D. School and Mental Health Counseling, M.S.Ed.Research Interests and Current Projects
Ravitch’s approach to sustainable, assets-based workplace research is grounded in her decades-long experience serving as a senior advisor to global leaders across government, corporate, non-profit, K–20 education, and civil sectors working to foster catalytic, informed change at the individual, community, state, and national levels. She advises and coaches leaders across fields, designing impactful learning architectures and facilitating meaningful learning with leaders and teams through The Wharton School’s Executive Education hub.
Ravitch is a GIAN Scholar of the Government of India and a Social Impact Design Fellow at Anant National University in Ahmedabad, India, working with Indigenous leaders in India to index, learn from, and disseminate tribal knowledge and practice systems to scale a diffusion of sustainable climate and livelihood innovations. Ravitch is a founding member of the Eighth Fire Collective, an Indigenous-led participatory action research collective developing an entrepreneurial learning ecosystem for Indigenous knowledge, practice, and story sharing to potentiate the scaling of sustainable climate and livelihood practices.
Ravitch is Principal Investigator of Semillas Digitales, a school- and community-based education program in Nicaragua's and Guatemala's coffee-producing regions that cultivates a holistic model of educational innovation focused on pedagogical and curricular enrichment, intensive inquiry-based teacher professional development, technology integration, digital literacy, and community partnership guided by participatory action research led by the Seeds for Progress Foundation.
Publications
Featured Publications
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Penn GSE Perspectives on Urban Education
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