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Faculty

Deborah J. Natoli

Professor (Teaching)

Headshot of Deborah Natoli

Education

Ph.D. in Education, Saint Louis University

Expertise

Adult development and learning
Leadership
Human behavior and organizations
Depth psychology and psychoanalysis

Biography

Deborah Natoli, Ph.D. is Professor (Teaching) at the USC Price School of Public Policy. She teaches Human Behavior in Public and Non-­‐profit Organizations, Applied Research Methods, and the Doctoral Capstone.

Deborah worked for ten years as a public high school social studies teacher with special assignment to support the success of students from underprivileged communities. She later founded the Center for Excellence in Teaching at Saint Louis University and her research on teacher personal and professional growth gained her opportunity for post-­‐doc study with Robert Kegan at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Dr. Natoli came to USC in 2006 as Director of Faculty Development at the Marshall School of Business where she was honored with the Dean’s Award in 2007 for enhancing the quality of instruction and raising student ratings of teaching scores. Warren Bennis inspired Deborah to reframe her model for teacher development to more broadly conceptualize a theory for leadership development. She began conducting autobiographical interviews with people from all walks of life – teachers and professors, medical researchers, artists, scientists, actors, politicians, business leaders of profit and non-profit organizations, even Dr. Maya Angelou – and through collecting personal stories and lived realities of study participants, Deborah envisioned a theory and framework for leadership grounded in psychodynamic, depth psychology, and neuroscience principles.

Professor Natoli has offered presentations from Madrid to Brazil, consults with organizations like Tacori, contributes to the Huffington Post, and is working on a book, How Leaders Think. Deborah serves on the Board of Directors for the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics at the USC Gould School of Law and is a faculty fellow for the Sol Price Center for Social Innovation and the Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Public Enterprise. She is a member of Mindful USC and USC Mindfulness Science Steering Committees and was elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles 2018 – 2019.

Selected Publications

Affiliated Research Centers

Bedrosian Center on Governance

Effective governance is essential to the quality of life of all Americans. The center is dedicated to understanding and improving the nature of democratic governance, policymaking, and management of the public enterprise in the 21st century. The center provides a highly visible focal point for imaginative research, policy analysis, and dialogue across the university. Through public discussion, the center focuses on pressing issues facing society and integrates conversations with civic education, which is at the heart of strong communities.

Sol Price Center for Social Innovation

The Sol Price Center for Social Innovation was established with the recent gift to name the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. This new center aims to advance ideas, strategies, and practices that enhance the quality of life for people in urban communities.

Kudos

November 1, 2022 Dr. Natoli is awarded the 2022-2023 USC Interdisciplinary Teaching Grant from the Office of the Provost for her course proposal, “The Art and Science of Leadership.”