George R. Goethals

George R. (Al) Goethals, Ph.D., is E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in Leadership Studies at the University Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies. Trained as a social psychologist, Goethals has been a key figure in the development of leadership studies. In addition to publishing SAGE’s Encyclopedia of Leadership with Georgia Sorenson and James MacGregor Burns in the early 2000s, he has written, co-written, or co-edited a number of books and scholarly articles on the topic, including: The Romance of Heroes and Heroic Leadership (Emerald, 2019); Realignment, Region, and Race: Presidential Leadership and Social Identity (Emerald, 2018); Frontiers in Spiritual Leadership: Discovering the Better Angels of Our Nature (Macmillan, 2016); Presidential Leadership and African Americans: An American Dilemma from Slavery to the White House (Routledge, 2015); Conceptions of Leadership: Enduring Ideas and Emerging Insights (Macmillan, 2014); Heroes: What They Do and Why We Need Them (Oxford, 2011).  Goethals was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Leadership Association in 2022.