About

• PhD, Organizational Psychology
• University Administrator
• Adjunct Professor
• Coach

I started as a temp and stayed thirteen years, and that's where I learned most of it.

I'm Stephanie R. Dailey, and I started at UC Irvine as a temp making $18.53 an hour as a young single mom. I had faith that I just needed to get my foot in the door and I would do the rest to reach success. That's what happened. Thirteen years later I manage executive searches and special projects in the Office of the Provost, and most of what I know about how institutions actually make decisions I learned there rather than in a classroom.

What I watched over those years is that leaders have far more power than they realize over which version of a person shows up for work. Some build environments where people are engaged, performing at their best, and proud of what they do, and some take that same person and wear them down until they've quietly checked out. The question I couldn't put down was how the second one happens, and what makes the difference.

So I went back for a master's in public administration, where I fell in love with organizational theory and design, and then I ran into the limit of it, which is that organizational development is easy if you don't have to deal with people. People are the complicated part. That's why I did a PhD in organizational psychology, to get genuinely good at the people side, and I finished it while working full time and raising my amazing daughter.

Our work lives impact our lives in a big way. Whether I'm doing life coaching, career coaching, teaching my students, or helping teams, I want people to find hope and excel in all they do.