CGU - Alumni Spotlight

Alumni Spotlight

Major General William A. Cohen and Professor Gail L. Thompson receive CGU's Alumnae/i Awards at the 82nd Commencement Festivities.

Major General William A. Cohen

MA, Management, 1978; PhD, Management 1979

2009 Distinguished Alumnus Service Award

William Cohen is President of the Institute of Leader Arts, a company that teaches the arts and skills required by organizational leaders. Cohen holds a BS in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, in addition to an MBA from the University of Chicago, and an MA and PhD in Executive Management from the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at CGU, where he was Peter Drucker's first Executive Management student. He retired from the United States Air Force Reserve at the rank of Major General.

After his graduation from West Point, Cohen flew 174 combat missions in A-26 aircraft during the Vietnam War and recieved numerous awards, including the Distingusihed Cohen’s roles as an academic leader have included the presidency of two private universities, as well as department chair and director of an institute at a public university. He has taught at Claremont Graduate University as well as in the graduate schools of California State University, Los Angeles, University of Southern California and Touro University International, a fully accredited online university. His work has been recognized and awarded in the academic field in addition to his military awards. Cohen is the author of over 100 articles resulting from his research, and has published 53 books in 18 languages, including the bestsellers The Stuff of Heroes: The Eight Universal Laws of Leadership and The New Art of Leader, as well as his most recent book, A Class with Drucker: The Lost Lessons of the World’s Greatest Management Teacher. His new book, Drucker on Leadership will be published on Peter Drucker’s birthday in November.

Gail L. Thompson

MA, Education, 1987; PhD, Education, 1998

2009 Distinguished Alumna Award

Gail Thompson, a professor of Education at Claremont Graduate University, has written four books: Up Where We Belong: Helping African American and Latino Students Rise in School and in Life; African American Teens Discuss Their Schooling Experiences; What African American Parents Want Educators to Know; and Through Ebony Eyes: What Teachers Need to Know but are Afraid to Ask About African American Students, a book that has received a considerable amount of attention from educators, talk show hosts, and news reporters across the nation.

Thompson has co-written a book with Dr. Angela Louque, and has two books, A Brighter Day: How Parents Can Help African American Youth Have a Better Future and The Power of One: How You Can Help or Harm African American Students, that are scheduled to be published in the coming months. One of her essays was published in USA Today, and her work has been published in numerous academic journals.

Thompson has appeared on PBS television’s Tony Brown’s Journal, National Public Radio, and Tavis Smiley’s radio show. She has been interviewed for Scholastic Instructor and Inside Higher Education, and has been quoted in numerous newspaper articles. She has served as a reviewer for the Educational Broadcasting Network, Millmark Education, Houghton Mifflin, and several academic journals, and has done presentations, keynote addresses, workshops, and consultant work throughout the United States and two presentations in Canada.

Recently, the California Department of Education selected Thompson as a member of the newly instated African American Advisory Committee.

Formerly a public junior high school teacher and a public high school teacher for 14 years, Thompson received several awards from student organizations and a civic award for teaching. In 2008, CGU’s Black Graduate Students’ Association presented her with an award for her contributions to the university. Thompson is married to Rufus, an educator, with whom she has three children; Nafissa, a doctoral student, NaChe’, a college undergraduate, and Stephen, a college undergraduate.