David C. Strubler Ph.D.

David C. Strubler, Ph.D., is a former HR manager and Champlain College business dean. He is now a Professor of Human Resource Development in the Department of Organizational Leadership at Oakland University. He is also a continuous improvement expert and Dennis Pawley Lean Scholar. For seven years, he served as associate vice president at Kettering University where he won the Outstanding Teaching Award. He served as Director of the Delphi On-Site Education Program and was Supervisor of Communications and Training at Nissan Technical Center. However, in his early career as a mountaineer and social worker, he designed, developed, and directed a wilderness experience program for emotionally-challenged youth at Eagle Village. Strubler and his wife, Ann, a retired Detroit Symphony Orchestra violinist, are executive producers of The Tapestry: A Musician’s Journey, a documentary film about Ann’s adoption-reunion that premiered with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on Detroit Public Television in 2016. His newest film, Making Makers: Michigan Apprentices, is scheduled to be released this spring. For his service to the community at age 35, Strubler received the Outstanding Young Person of Michigan Award (Michigan Jaycees). More recently, he received The Dreamer Award on Martin Luther King Day, 2020 for his current research and community service - the development of a pre-apprentice program for 18-29-year-old newly graduated, underemployed, recovering, and returning citizens who learn and earn by building or renovating homes through Habitat for Humanity. His current research projects are studying England and New Zealand's innovative new national apprenticeship reform and a psychologically-based study on resilience, engagement, and motivation in the work force.