About Katherine Sanders

If you don’t recognize those terms, you’re not alone. Sociotechnical systems and human factors are specialities within industrial & systems engineering. I earned my BS, MS and PhD in industrial & systems engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  In graduate school my research area was occupational stress.

My dissertation, The Impact of A Process to Improve College Teaching, was my first attempt to use theory to improve people’s working lives. In this case, I designed an intervention to improve the working lives of faculty and their students.  As theory predicts, when we improve people’s daily working lives, their performance also improves.

My dissertation led to an unintentional career in faculty development, where I founded and led, Creating a Collaborative Academic Environment (CCAE) and later, a campus center to promote trans-disciplinary research and heath-promoting leadership.

Outside of academia, I worked in an engineering consulting firm in litigation support (aka, being an expert witness).  I’ve also worked in industry in leadership and organizational development.  I have been a self-employed consultant since 2013. Some of my favorite projects are:

• designing and teaching a physician-leadership program for the WI State Medical Society, Leading Healthy Work Systems
• teaching health-promoting job design to healthcare leaders at Agnesian Healthcare
• designing and teaching leadership programs that bring together academics with biotech professionals
• talking with emergency physicians about the health of their own working lives during two annual meetings of the American College of Emergency Physicians
• collaborating with an insurance company to improve the working lives of PK-12 teachers

I’m passionate about helping people improve their daily working lives.  The principles I use to improve work systems are the same across all industries, but they need to be adapted by the people doing the work to ensure they are effective.  If you’re interested in improving your work system, I can help you.

There is no perfect job, but we can make most jobs better.  It’s my calling to help people do just that.

For more information about my career and work experience, see my LinkedIn bio