Marcy L. Shankman

Marcy Levy Shankman, Ph.D. is a leadership development professional with over 20 years of experience working with individuals, groups, teams, and organizations. As Founder and Owner of MLS Consulting, LLC, Marcy’s commitment to consulting comes from a passion for helping individuals and organizations leverage their strengths and increase their impact. Working on initiatives that drive individual, team, or organizational change is one priority for Marcy’s consulting work. She also teaches in graduate courses in the nonprofit sector, serves as a leadership coach for professionals, and writes. She co-authored Emotionally Intelligent Leadership: A Guide for Students and its corresponding suite of companion resources, whose second edition was published in 2015. She continues to write articles and book chapters as well. More recently, in 2022 she co-edited a monograph on the effective and ethical use of leadership assessments for the New Directions in Student Leadership series.

Most recently Marcy served as the inaugural Chief Organizational Learning Officer for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District ("District"). In that role, Marcy had primary responsibility for designing and leading an organization-wide learning strategy for a diverse workforce of over 6500 individuals. In addition to designing and providing leadership training, Marcy facilitated organizational development strategies, coached senior and executive leaders, and created/co-created 3 distinct District-wide learning series. Prior to this position, Marcy served as the executive leadership coach and organizational development strategist for the District for 5 years. From 2012-2016, Marcy was the Vice President of Strategy and Director of Leadership Cleveland for the Cleveland Leadership Center. Previously held professional positions include roles at Indiana University, the Hillel Foundation, and the University of Iowa.

In addition to a Bachelor of Arts from the College of William and Mary and a Master of Arts from the University of Maryland at College Park, Marcy earned her Ph.D. from Indiana University in higher education administration in 2001.