PIERS Faculty and Staff

John P. Beck, Associate Professor and Associate Director

John Beck is an Associate Professor in the School of Labor and Industrial Relations at Michigan State University. He joined the faculty of the School as an assistant professor in September of 1991. He currently serves as associate director of the School, primarily in charge of two of the School's outreach units, the Labor Education Program and the Project on Innovative Employee Relations Systems (PIERS). In the Labor Education Program, he has taught a variety of labor union leadership courses to union groups across and beyond the State of Michigan. Under the PIERS rubric, he has taught various courses on workplace innovation and worked with a number of joint labor/management efforts at workplace transformation. These joint efforts have fostered a wide range of workplace changes including improved communications and relationships, the implementation of team work systems and/or alternative compensation strategies, and the design of flattened input and decision making models. The PIERS clients with whom John has worked include General Motors and the United Auto Workers; Kraft Foods and a number of their unions;Sparrow Hospital and the Michigan Nurses Association; and Nestle and the International Association of Machinists. He also co-directs a project (with Karen Klomparens, the Dean of the MSU Graduate School), "Building Mutual Expectations and Resolving Conflicts in Graduate Education," on the use of interest-based conflict resolution approaches for graduate students and their faculty mentors. Additionally, he co-coordinates, as a MSU Museum adjunct curator, the "Our Daily Work, Our Daily Lives" program(with Yvonne Lockwood of the MSU Museum) which explores and presents the culture of workers and the workplace.In 1998, John spent eleven months as a visiting professor in the Labor Relations Unit at the University of Port Elizabeth, South Africa.He is a member of the Core Faculty of MSU's African Studies Center. Prior to joining the staff of the School, John spent five years as the Education and Research Director of the United Paperworkers International Union. In that role, he devoted much of his time to the Union's efforts in the areas of joint labor/management cooperation and workplace innovation. John was a charter member of the national joint committee formed between the UPIU and Scott Paper, and also worked on joint program training, design and evaluation with a number of other paper companies. John holds degrees from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. He worked for five years on the staff of the University of Michigan Labor Studies Center. He has taught labor studies on the community college level in both Oklahoma and Michigan and has taught history and education courses at the university level.

click here for a list of John's publications

Julie L. Brockman, Assistant Professor

Julie L. Brockman is an Assistant Professor in the School of Labor and Industrial Relations at Michigan State University. She is an instructor and consultant for the Labor Education Program (LEP) and the Program on Innovative Employment Relations Systems (PIERS). As an instructor for LEP, Julie has conducted workshops at local and national levels for union organizations and their joint partners. As a consultant for PIERS, she assists unionized organizations, both within the private and public sectors, in developing and implementing joint initiatives. Julie also coordinates the Conflict Resolution Program for MSU's Graduate School. This program focuses on teaching graduate students and faculty how to prevent and resolve conflict for the purpose of improving graduate education. Julie's primary research interests focus on the workplace as a location for adult learning and development; negotiation and conflict resolution; and the process of joint union/management collaboration.

Prior to her work with the School of Labor and Industrial Relations, Julie was employed by the Nestle' Chocolate and Confections facility in Fulton, NY ('86-'95) and the TRW, Inc. Aircrafts Components Group in Euclid, Ohio ('84-'86). Julie received graduate degrees in Organizational Communication from Ohio State University and Labor and Industrial Relations from Michigan State University. She recently completed her doctoral degree in Adult Education from Michigan State University.

Julie can be reached at (517) 432-4772 OR brockma4@msu.edu OR School of Labor and Industrial Relations, 416 S. Kedzie Hall, E. Lansing, MI 48824.

click here for a list of Julie's publications

Michael J. Polzin, Assistant Professor

Mike Polzin is an Assistant Professor in the School of Labor and Industrial Relations, Michigan State University. He joined the faculty of the School in June 1994 and works primarily in PIERS, the Program on Innovative Employment Relations Systems and with the Labor Education Program.

In the Labor Education Program, Mike conducts training in a variety of areas including leadership development, strategic planning and work transformation, including lean production and High Performance Work Systems. He also is Director of the Police Union Executive Leadership Program and coordinates the School's training and education efforts with the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Trades. Within PIERS he serves as a senior consultant and facilitator and has facilitated a number of joint labor-management initiatives including organizational assessments, design of new work systems, and other training and change efforts to help foster a collaborative process for improving organizational effectiveness of quality of the work environment. Mike also teaches a course on Training and Development (LIR 811) in the School's Master's Program, and teaches a course on Research, Communication, and Presentation Skills in the Modern Labor Concepts undergraduate certificate program conducted with the United Auto Workers Region 1-C.

Prior to coming to MSU, Mike spent several years with District 1199C, National Hospital and Health Care Employees Union, as Deputy Director of a statewide training and upgrading program for nursing home workers. For five years, he worked on the education/organizational development staff of a Philadelphia-based consulting firm that created democratically structured employee owned enterprise. Mike was on the staff of the Michigan Governor's Office for Job Training promoting employee ownership, gain sharing and participative work systems to union and management leaders throughout the state.

Mike has taught in the Labor Studies Program of Penn State University and the Union Leadership Academy of Rutgers University. In addition, he has taught courses for Grand Valley State University and in the Master of Management program of Aquinas College. Mike holds a degree in Psychology from Aquinas College and a doctorate in Adult Education from Temple University. In his dissertation he explored the factors that influenced worker participation in workplace decision making and problem solving. Current research interests include police union perspectives on challenges facing police departments, techniques to aid problem solving within groups-in-conflict, and teaching-learning strategies to enhance workplace education.

click here for a list of Mike's publications

Donna Winthrop, Assistant Professor

Donna Winthrop is an Assistant Professor in the School of Labor and Industrial Relations at Michigan State University. Donna teaches in both the academic and outreach programs of the School. In the academic program, Donna teaches Organizational Behavior. In the outreach program, she helps unionized organizations improve performance and employee satisfaction. She provides consultation, training, and group facilitation in the areas of organizational management and change, quality improvement, knowledge management and learning, strategic planning, and labor relations including union-management joint activities and collective bargaining. She works in healthcare, K-12 and higher education, food processing, manufacturing, skilled trades, and government at the local, state, and federal levels.

Donna's work experience includes union membership and management positions.