Kathleen Zimmerman-Oster
Dr. Zimmerman-Oster is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) in Detroit, Michigan. She joined the UDM faculty in 1990. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she serves as the Director of the Industrial/Organizational Psychology Masters Degree Program and provides faculty support for evaluation and research of the Leadership Development Institute at UDM. She recently served as the Chair of the Steering Committee for UDM’s North Central Accreditation. She is also President of TEST, Incorporated (Training, Evaluation, & Survey Technicians). TEST, Incorporated provides consultation, technical assistance, and applied research to business, industry, schools and universities, human service agencies, and foundations in the areas of program and performance evaluation, strategic and organizational planning, community relations, organizational and leadership development, diversity training, and human resource management, training, and assessment. She has provided services to over one hundred client organizations and institutions over the past 20 years including the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, St. Joseph Mercy of Macomb Hospital, Leadership Macomb, The Troy Community Coalition, The Greater Battle Creek Substance Abuse Council, and Michigan’s Children; to name a few.
Dr. Zimmerman-Oster received her MA and PhD in Social and Industrial Organizational Psychology from Wayne State University. She is a social/organizational psychologist with expertise in the areas of program assessment and evaluation; vocational, organizational, and leadership development; and executive team development. She has extensive experience in the area of “leadership development across the lifespan”; including youth development and alcohol and other drug abuse prevention planning and research, college-age youth development, and management and executive coaching. She has taught several courses on leadership development and several courses on research methods and program evaluation using a practical, real-world approach based upon her consulting experience. She has presented local workshops on leadership, assessment, and evaluation as well as professional papers on research and evaluation methods at national conferences of the American Evaluation Association, American Psychological Association, and American Psychological Society. Her current research is in the areas of assessment and evaluation of student leadership development programs; community engagement, leadership, and coalition building; and the assessment of leadership potential and its relationship to emotional intelligence.
Kathleen and her husband, David, have six children ranging in ages from 5 to 15.