Smith School Administrators

Gerald SuarezDr. J. Gerald Suarez
Professor of the Practice; Department of Decision, Operations & Information Technologies

J. Gerald Suarez is Professor of the Practice in Systems Thinking and Design, and Lockheed Martin Visiting Technical Fellow.

Suarez teaches courses at the corporate, executive MBA, full-time MBA, international, and undergraduate levels. He has served as the Associate Dean of External Strategy overseeing Smith's Offices of Career Services, Recruiting and Marketing Communications. He also served as the academic director for executive on-site programs at Lockheed Martin Corporation and Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC). Suarez joined Smith in 2005 as an Executive Education Senior Fellow, a Ralph J. Tyser Teaching Fellow for the Decision, Operations and Information Technology Department, and the Executive Director of the Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams (QUEST) Honors Fellows program. He is a recipient of the prestigious Allen J. Krowe Teaching Excellence Award and has been consistently voted a Top 15% Faculty Member.

Prior to joining the Smith School, Suarez served under two administrations in the White House as the Director of Presidential Quality -- the first such post in the institution’s history. In this capacity, he initiated efforts to inculcate systems thinking and organizational redesign into the White House Communications Agency, the White House Military Office and the Executive Office of the President of the United States. He also served as Director of Customer Support and Organizational Development for the White House Military Office. Suarez traveled aboard Air Force One and Presidential helicopters in numerous missions worldwide. He received many Presidential awards and commendations for his work, including the Exceptional Civilian Service Medal, the White House Distinguished Service Award, the Commander-in-Chief Coin, and the White House Certificate for Meritorious Service.

Prior to his White House assignments, he worked for the Office of the Under Secretary of the Navy’s Total Quality Leadership Office and for the Navy Personnel Research and Development Center in San Diego, California. In these roles, he served as a researcher, instructor and consultant for both the Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense (DoD).

Suarez has been active in the academic world in the United States and abroad. For ten years, he was a Visiting Professor at the Asturias Business School in Spain, and was presented with the 49th Jovellanos Award in 2002 and the 4th Dali Original Sculpture Award in 2008 for his significant contributions to the advancement of social responsibility. At the National Graduate School of Quality Systems Management, he led the development of the institution's academic vision as the Chief Academic Officer, and was subsequently named Faculty Member of the Decade (1993-2003). For Smith, Suarez has traveled to Shanghai and Tianjin, China as an educator and consultant, and in 2006 he designed and delivered an accelerated MBA train-the-trainer program to a select team of faculty members of the Islamic University of Gaza in Cairo, Egypt.

Suarez has produced several publications and instructional videotapes on teamwork, organizational redesign and managing fear in the workplace. His work has been showcased in international publications such as the Harvard Deusto Business Review, as well as in national publications such as the Journal for Quality and Participation.

Suarez holds a master's degree and a Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico. He is a frequent keynote speaker at national and international conferences.