Deborah J. Natoli

Biography

Deborah Natoli, Ph.D. served as director of the Professional Doctorate Program and teaching professor, her courses included Human Behavior in Public and Non-­profit Organizations, Public Ethics, the PhD Teaching Seminar, Applied Research Methods, the Professional Doctorate Capstone, the MPA Professional Workshop, Leadership as Art and Science, and Science as Detective Work (undergraduate research methods). She came to USC in 2006, hired by the Marshall School of Business to serve as Director of Faculty Development, and within a year was honored with the Dean’s Award for improving the quality of teaching at the Marshall School. 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 leaders such as Maya Angelou, and through collecting lived realities of study participants, Deborah grounded theory and framework for leadership integrating psychodynamic, depth psychology, and neuroscience principles.

Deborah currently serves at chair of the Teaching and Learning Committee for the Academy of Management’s MSR Division and hosts international webinars for business and policy professors on topics to support innovative teaching and learning in higher education. She teaches for the USC Price Public Safety Leadership Program, serves on the Board of Directors for the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics at the USC Gould School of Law, is a member of the USC MindfulScience Committee, and publishes book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles usually with Academy of Management colleagues.

Earlier in her career, Deborah founded and directed the Center for Teaching Excellence at Saint Louis University, conducted postdoc research at Havard at the invitation of Robert Kegan, offered presentations from Madrid to Brazil, consulted with organizations like Tacori for strategic planning and organizational leadership, contributed to the Huffington Post, and was a high school social studies teacher and school counselor at Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School.

Selected Publications

• Natoli, D., & Kumar, P. (2023). Our Better Angels: A Neuro-psychological Theory of Faculty Development. In P. Kumar, T. E. Culham, R. J. Major, & R. Peregoy (Eds.) Honing self-awareness of faculty and Future Business Leaders: Emotions connected with teaching and learning. (Chapter 12). Emerald Publishing.
• Trinh, M.A., Natoli, D.J., Barrile, M. (2026). Designing assignments, activities, and assessments. The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching; Editors Annette Vee, Marc Watkins, Derek Bruff.  New York; W. W. Norton & Company.
• Trinh, M.A., Natoli, D.J., Barrile, M. (2026). Building an annotated bibliography with AI assistance; Harvard AI Pedagogy Project. Cambridge; Harvard University Press. https://aipedagogy.org/assignment/building-an-annotated-bibliography-with-ai-assistance/