William J. Rothwell

William J. Rothwell, Ph.D., SPHR, SHRM-SCP, CPLP Fellow is a

professor in the Workforce Education and Development program,

Department of Learning and Performance Systems, at 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, Ford, and many others. 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 Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a

specialization in Human Resource Development, an MBA in Business Administration with

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 with High Honors and Department Honors from Illinois State

University in Normal, IL. He holds certifications in HR (SPHR and SHRM-SCP), Corporate

Training (CPLP 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 ASTD honored him by naming him as a Certified

Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) Fellow. In 2014 he was given the Asia-Pacific

International Personality Brandlaureate Award.