Session 1: Why Achieving Work-Life “Balance” Might be the Wrong Goal 

Alyssa Friede Westring a professor and chair of the Department of Management & Entrepreneurship at the Driehaus College of Business​. She is a Vincent de Paul Professor and served as an inaugural DePaul Presidential Fellow. ​She teaches management courses with an emphasis on organizational behavior and career management.

Westring's research focuses broadly on the interplay between work, family and other life domains. She has a particular interest in women's careers in medicine and science. As a co-investigator on an NIH RO1 grant, she writes and speaks extensively about the culture for women in Academic Medicine. (Her TEDx talk on this topic can be viewed here.) Her scholarly writing can be found in Academic Medicine, The Journal of Vocational Behavior and Human Resource Management. She also writes for the popular press at the Huffington Post, Harvard Business Review and The Chronicle of Higher Education blogs.

Westring is co-author of the book Parents Who Lead: The Leadership Approach You Need to Parent with Purpose, Fuel Your Career, and Create a Richer Life, which was published by Harvard Business Review Press in March 2020.