Find Shari Read on
Shari Read is a behavioural and social scientist with the QUT Design Lab in the School of Design, Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice. Her research is in the fields of identity and social cognition with a specific focus on experienced leaders and change managers. Shari is particularly interested in how business and organisational leaders might use design thinking to take a human-centred approach to transforming workplace culture and practice.
Shari has a specific focus on human-centered, future-oriented leadership and management as both a researcher and educator-facilitator. With an emphasis on human-centered approaches to management and leadership, Shari offers an approach to teaching and learning that draws participants into the experience of acquiring knowledge through personal insight. She creates spaces for students to inquire into their own thought processes, including the use of information, with the view to developing metacognitive awareness and regulation, reflective judgment and intellectual autonomy. Shari’s approach to teaching is evidence-based and her research supports her teaching in the exploration of the human aspects of digital transformation and the leadership capabilities required to lead effectively through uncertainty and complexity.
Shari has a strong background in social and positive psychology and brings over 20 years of experience working with both individuals and groups in the areas of personal growth and development, increasing capacity for managing and leading in a VUCA context and in facilitating a future-oriented outlook. She integrates academic theory and frameworks with contemplative insight to create opportunity for transformation. Shari attended d.school at Stanford University where she completed the Design Thinking Teaching and Learning Studio program in 2018. She is an awarded management and leadership educator and in 2018 was recognised with a Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Education.
Shari’s peer reviewed publications reflect her transdisciplinary approach to learning and change and span the fields of social and environmental psychology, identity transitions, management and leadership theory and higher education.