Dr. Lize A.E. Booysen is an internationally recognized scholar-practitioner in the field of leadership, culture and diversity. With 35 years of experience in leadership and research and a 27-year long career in higher education Lize has served thousands of leaders in educational institutions, corporate organizations, government agencies, and nonprofits in her capacity as educator, facilitator, consultant, trainer or coach. Lize particularly enjoys working with organizational leaders optimizing their own potential and sphere of influence as they move into broader leadership roles. She focuses on the development of authentic and relational leadership practices utilizing a systems and contextual approach to the leadership process. Her teaching and coaching draw on her understanding of leadership and change theory and practice, cross-cultural leadership, diversity, inclusion, organizational culture, systems thinking, individual change and business practice.
Lize is full professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior and core faculty in the Graduate School of Leadership and Change, Antioch University, adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) doing executive coaching and research, Professor Extraordinaire at University of Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa, and Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Industrial Psychology at University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Lize is also a distinguished fellow of the International Leadership Association (ILA), and past Chair of the Business Leadership Member interest group of the ILA. Prior to relocating to the USA end of 2008, Lize was full professor at the Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL), University of South Africa (where she worked since 1992 teaching on the MBA and DBA degree programs and executive leadership training and development programs. She served on the SBL Board of directors and was part of the leadership team as Academic Director, Director Human Resources Development, and Research Manager during her tenure. She also served as internal conflict mediator at UNISA and is the past Editor of the Southern African Journal of Labor Relations, and ran a seminar program for Women in Leadership for eight years. Lize started her career in 1983 as a researcher at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), she worked at Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital as a Clinical Psychologist, and also served as a Captain in the SA Police Service's Institute of Behavioral Sciences.
Lize holds a Doctorate in Business Leadership (UNISA, ‘99) and masters degrees in Clinical Psychology (Univ of Johannesburg, ‘88), Research Psychology, and Criminology (Univ of Pretoria, ‘88) all with distinction. Lize is registered as a Clinical and a Research Psychologist in SA, and is a certified user of the assessment instruments used in the CCL leadership and coaching programs. Lize authored or co-authored 22 peer reviewed articles in scholarly Journals, 24 Chapters in Leadership Books and 23 articles in popular leadership Journals. She also co-authored or co-edited 7 Leadership Books, and 3 Special Edition Journals. She presented or co-presented more than 50 peer reviewed papers at international conferences and has lectured at many Universities worldwide. Lize is included as one of 50 role models for SA women in the book Inspirational Women @ Work, (2003), and received numerous awards for her work in transformative learning and scholarship.