Pasadena, CA - Dr. Ekta Vyas has built a distinguished career at the intersection of human resources leadership, organizational development, and academia, with nearly three decades of experience across major health systems, academic institutions, and global organizations. In September 2025, Marquis Who’s Who honored Dr. Vyas as a distinguished management professional in the business industry, In November, she was included in The Wall Street Journal feature of Marquis Distinguished Leaders. Of 1.6 million listees, only a small percentage of Marquis listees are recognized with the Distinguished Leaders honor. Throughout her career, Dr. Vyas has demonstrated exceptional leadership across healthcare systems, academia, consulting engagements, civic initiatives, professional associations, publications, research, mentoring, certifications, and numerous awards and recognitions. Collectively, these experiences underscore her significant influence on contemporary human resources practice, organizational strategy, workforce transformation, diversity, equity, and inclusion, thought leadership, talent development, change management, analytics-driven decision-making, culture building, and innovative communication within complex organizations worldwide.
A transformational leader, educator, author, and speaker, Ekta’s work centers on a single, powerful question: How does true transformation occur—within individuals and within organizations? Whether she is speaking at executive conferences, teaching in management schools, or advising leadership teams, her focus remains the same—helping leaders raise their level of awareness so they can lead with clarity, empathy, and purpose.
Dr. Vyas is the co-author of Mission Matters: World’s Leading Entrepreneurs Reveal Their Top Tips to Success, featuring insights from 22 top professionals on leadership and impact. She is currently working on a new book, with an updated release expected this year.
Dr. Vyas is widely recognized as a management scholar-practitioner, combining her research interests with real-world leadership experience to advance contemporary human resources practice. Drawing on her inquisitive nature and strong academic foundation, Dr. Vyas focuses on understanding and communicating the critical shifts that move individuals from managing to leading, particularly within the human resources and organizational leadership space.
Her philosophy challenges conventional thinking around organizational change. According to Ekta, transformations do not fail because leaders lack vision—they fail because leaders struggle to bring people along in a reciprocal, developmental relationship. At the heart of sustainable change is emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and conscious leadership. “Transformation is a collective pursuit,” she explains, “and it begins with listening—not just hearing, but truly understanding multiple needs and perspectives, and enhancing the human experience at organizational and societal levels.”
At the core of Ekta’s work is the belief that emotionally intelligent leaders don’t just transform organizations—they transform lives. In an increasingly fast-paced and competitive world, she emphasizes that leaders need to move beyond ego, unconscious reactivity, and the “autopilot” of the primitive brain, toward higher levels of consciousness, self-regulation, and intentional decision-making.
“Don’t try to lead others if you can’t lead yourself,” Ekta says. “Leadership begins within.”
Ekta’s journey began after arriving in the United States with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, English Literature, and Philosophy from India. Pursuing her goals of higher education, she completed her MS in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and a doctorate in Organization and Management. She quickly advanced through management and consulting roles, discovering that while managing comes naturally, leading transformational change requires a deeper mastery of emotional intelligence. In 2006, she was called to lead a complex transformation initiative at a premier academic medical institution — an experience that sharpened her understanding of how leaders’ emotional intelligence directly impacts employee engagement, organizational outcomes and success of a transformational change.
As a Ph.D. in Organization and Management, a certified Emotional Intelligence practitioner, and an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist, Ekta has influenced leaders across healthcare, academia, and technology—working within integrated, decentralized, matrixed, and union environments. She has served as adjunct management faculty in undergraduate and MBA programs, sat on multiple boards including the IHRIM Board of Directors, and is a member of the Forbes Human Resources Council.
It is her unwavering mission to help the next generation of leaders understand that leadership does not require having everything figured out—it requires the courage to grow by, listening deeply, and evolving consciously.
Today, Dr. Vyas continues to be widely recognized for helping leaders and organizations evolve through conscious, people-centered leadership.
Dr. Vyas firmly believes that Emotionally Intelligent leaders not only transform organizations—they impact lives. Her focus is to help the next generation of leaders move beyond ego-driven reactions, raise their level of consciousness, and lead with clarity, empathy, and purpose.
“Leadership begins with leading oneself,” says Dr. Vyas. “When leaders develop self-awareness and emotional intelligence, real transformation becomes possible.”
Dr. Vyas is a powerful example of how authentic leaders inspire other leaders to act with compassion, listen deeply, and remain open to diverse viewpoints. Through her work, she is positively shaping organizations and communities and making a meaningful impact on the world.
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