BIO

Julia Lee Cunningham is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, where she was awarded tenure in 2021.

Julia studies moral sensemaking at work—how narratives about the self, emotions, and personhood shape who is heard and valued, who steps up to lead, and how people treat one another in organizations. Her work has appeared in Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Applied Psychology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Psychological Science, and has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, and Harvard Business Review.

Julia's teaching centers on negotiation, leadership, and organizational behavior across MBA, BBA, and executive education programs. She teaches Bargaining and Influence Skills, an MBA elective, and has developed undergraduate courses on global competency and organizational behavior. In 2020, she was recognized by Poets & Quants, which named her one of the World’s Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors. 

Julia serves as Associate Editor at Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and Deputy Editor at Behavioral Science & Policy. She is a Governing Board Member of the Behavioral Science & Policy Association, and has held research affiliations at Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics and the Women and Public Policy Program. In 2018, she was selected as an Explorer and Fellow of the National Geographic Society. She also serves on the Advisory Council of Mass Audubon.

Julia received her BA in Political Science and International Relations from Korea University and her PhD, MPP, and AM degrees from Harvard University.