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Mcginnis, Amy

Lecturer III / Human Resources and Organizational Behavior

FIXED-TERM FACULTY

Biography

Dr. McGinnis serves as the inaugural Director of Student Experience in the Student Engagement and Professional Development Hub of CMU's College of Business. She also serves as a faculty member in the management department, where she teaches courses related to human resources, training and development, management, and communication. Before joining the full-time faculty in 2010, Amy worked in human resources at CMU where she served as the Director of Strategy and Organizational Development. As Director, Amy developed and presented workshops in a variety of topics from business writing and team development to diversity, leadership, and strategic planning.

Amy holds the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) designation from the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) and has been a long-term member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Amy has served her local SHRM chapter for the past 27 years. She is the advisor of CMU SHRM, an award-winning student chapter. Amy currently serves the MISHRM State Council as the Director of College Relations.

Amy has a doctoral degree in higher education leadership from CMU. Her dissertation examined the communication, leadership, and conflict approaches of emerging, mid, and senior-level women leaders in the academy. Before joining CMU, she worked at Lansing Community College’s Business & Community Institute in HR and communications. In 2008, Amy was designated as a “Top Young Trainer” by Training Magazine. She is also certified with Franklin Covey, Achieve Global, the Association for Psychological Type, True Colors, and the National Coalition Building Institute. In 2015, Amy was named the CMU Woman of the Year. In 2019, she was honored with CMU’s premier Excellence in Teaching Award. She is a recipient of HR Unite's Educational Excellence Award for dedication to supporting the future of the HR profession. In 2024, Dr. McGinnis was honored by MI - ACE Network with the Distinguished Woman in Higher Education Leadership Award.

Specialties include: HR, training and development, diversity education and awareness, institution-wide strategic planning, project and time management, management consulting, women and leadership, and personality style inventories.

More about Amy Mcginnis

  • McGinnis, A. B. & Buschlen, E. L. (May 2025). Cultivating strategic and meaningful relationships with senior leaders by leveraging networking opportunities. In Rosch, D., Allen, S., & Jenkins, D. (Ed.), In Moving the Needle: What We Know (and Don’t Know) About Developing Leaders. Information Age Press.
  • Diorio, A. C., Bates, A. L., Marshall, S. M., & McGinnis, A. B. (Expected August 2025). Parents as partners. In Buschlen, E. L., & DiOrio, A. (Ed.), In Learning to Lead (and Coach) Contemporary Youth Athletes.
  • McGinnis, A. B. and Collings, C. (2023). The shared, lived experiences of Latinas in human
    resources. Poster session presented at the Honors Capstone Project Exhibition, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI
  • MacDougall, A. E., Sahatjian, Z., Buckley, M. R., Woolley, M. R., & McGinnis, A. (April 2022). Advocating for firm strategy and HR system alignment to support workplace ethics. Poster accepted for presentation at the 37th Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Seattle, WA.
  • Justis, R, McGinnis, A. B., Perkins, R., and Buschlen, E. L. (2023) Curricular and cocurricular use of social media to transform learning outcomes in higher education. Journal of Contemporary Research in Education, 8(1), 23-37.
  • McGinnis, A. B. and Schafer, C. (2022). Improving Sexual Harassment Training in the Lodging
    Industry. Poster session presented at the Honors Capstone Project Exhibition, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI
  • McGinnis, A. B. and McLaughlin, L. E. (2019). Human Resources and Sexual Harassment
    Prevention: An Organizational Review of Training Practices. Poster session presented at the Student Research & Creative Endeavors Exhibition, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI.
  • EdD, Central Michigan University
  • MA, Michigan State University
  • BA, Alma College ​