About the Author

William J. Rothwell, PhD, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, CPTD Fellow is a professor in the Workforce Education and Development program, Department of Learning and Performance Systems, at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park campus. He is also president of his own consulting firms—Rothwell & Associates Inc. and Rothwell & Associates LLC. He has authored, co-authored, edited, or co-edited 300 books, book chapters, and articles—including 111 books. Before arriving at Penn State in 1993, he had nearly 20 years of work experience as a training director in government and in business. As a consultant he has worked with more than 50 multinational corporations—including Motorola, General Motors, and Ford. In 1997 he and his wife founded a small business—a personal care home for the elderly that employed 27 workers and served as the residence for 54 people. That company was sold in 2017.

His books since 2017 include Winning the Talent Wars Through Neurodiversity (Taylor & Francis, in press); The Essential HR Guide for Small Business and Start Ups (Society for Human Resource Management, 2020); Increasing Learning and Development’s Impact Through Accreditation (Palgrave, 2020); Workforce Development: Guidelines for Community College Professionals, 2nd ed. (Rowman-Littlefield, 2020); Human Performance Improvement: Building Practitioner Performance, 3rd ed. (Routledge, 2018); Innovation Leadership (Routledge, 2018); Evaluating Organization Development: How to Ensure and Sustain the Successful Transformation (CRC Press, 2017); Marketing Organization Development Consulting: A How-To Guide for OD Consultants (CRC Press, 2017); and, Assessment and Diagnosis for Organization Development: Powerful Tools and Perspectives for the OD Practitioner (CRC Press, 2017).

Rothwell received a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a specialization in human resource development, an MABA in business administration with a specialization in human resource management from Sangamon State University (now called the University of Illinois at Springfield), an MA in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a BA from Illinois State University in Normal, IL. He holds certifications in HR (SPHR and SHRM-SCP), corporate training (CPTD Fellow), organization development (RODC), and life insurance (the FLMI designation). In 2012 he earned ASTD’s prestigious Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance Award, and in 2013 ATD honored him by naming him as a certified professional in talent development (CPTD) fellow. In 2014 he was given the Asia-Pacific International Personality Brandlaureate Award (see TheBrandLaureate.com/awards/ibp_bpa.php). He can be reached by email at [email protected]. See his website at RothwellAndAssociates.com, his videos on YouTube, and his wiki site at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Rothwell.