Michellana Jester

Senior Lecturer, Global Entrepreneurship Lab
MIT Sloan School of Management

Dr. Michellana Y. Jester came to MIT Sloan with more than fifteen years of management consulting, human resource and organizational development experience. As a strategic management consultant, Michellana was responsible for assisting clients facing complex organizational and/or leadership challenges move to action, demonstrating a talent for pursuing solutions that meet the unique needs of an organization. She worked with private corporations, non-profit organizations, and public agency clients, specializing in leadership development, team building, and organizational change. Her consulting role also included her working as an executive coach, assisting leaders transition out of and into new roles.

In her current role at MIT Sloan, Michellana draws from her private and non-profit sector experience to assist MBA and other graduate students link theoretical management concepts to real world business challenges. Michellana is responsible for leading the design and delivery of MIT Sloan’s largest project based course, as well as recruiting host company partnerships that align with the program’s goals and Sloan’s mission of developing principled innovative leaders. Michellana leads and supports the course’s cadre of faculty advisors and staff that work with the student teams, which includes onboarding, mentoring and coaching as well as design and developing tools, surveys and rubrics for evaluation. Michellana develops, supports, and assesses program learning objectives, as well as the transfer of learning among multiple stakeholders including faculty, students, and host companies.

Drawing from her work at MIT Sloan, Michellana studies, evaluates, writes, and presents her research on adult and organizational learning and development in a variety of forums and has been featured in Financial Times, Fast Company, The Smart Manager and the Boston Globe.
Michellana has a master’s degree from Harvard University and doctorate from Columbia University,