Alumni Hall of Fame
Academic / Professional Achievement (2024)

Dr. Linda K. (Brown) Stroh is a member of the St. Marys Memorial High School Class of 1966. She earned two degrees from Northwestern University: a Post-Doctorate in Organizational Behavior from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and a Doctorate in Human Development. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from McGill University and a Master of Arts Degree from Concordia University in Montreal.

Professor Stroh taught in the United States and Vienna, Austria. She has published eleven books and more than one hundred articles related to management and human development issues. She has also consulted with over forty Fortune 500 organizations on such topics as motivation, leadership, change management, problem solving, strategic planning, women in management, and global and domestic management issues. Dr. Stroh’s most celebrated book, “Trust Rules: How to Tell the Good Guys from the Bad Guys in Work and Life,” was recommended by U.S. News & World Report for all executives’ nightstands. The book is based on surveys and interviews with Fortune 500 CEOs, entrepreneurs and others from all walks of life. Dr. Stroh often comments that the outgrowth of this book was based on growing up in St. Marys, Ohio, where trusting your neighbors and the general community was such a huge part of her own development.

Dr. Stroh has been interviewed and appeared on NBC’s Nightly News, CNN, CNBC, NPR and Oprah and Friends Network. Her research has been featured in popular print media such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Fortune, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Business Week, and…The Evening Leader. Her research and books have been translated into Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese.

Professor Stroh was commended by the U.S. Department of Labor for her co-authored distinguished glass ceiling study, “All the Right Stuff.” She was awarded the National Academy of Management’s Sage Publications Research Scholar Award, named Graduate Teaching and Research Faculty Member of the Year and awarded the Outstanding Woman of Achievement, Academic Category, Women in Management. She was among the first academics chosen to go to Vietnam to train management leaders as Vietnam began its move from a command to a market economy. 

Dr. Stroh has received thirteen major research grants including a MacArthur Foundation Grant to assist low income people in Chicago, Illinois, and a major Ford Foundation Grant to examine mixed income housing in inner city Chicago to assess the impact on work and family life. Linda also received a major U.S. Department of Labor Grant and worked to establish a Labor Relations School in Gdansk, Poland. 

Professor Stroh has served on the Boards of Directors of the Excelligence Corporation, the Center for Employment Dispute Resolution, the Human Resource Management Association of Chicago, and Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Lake County. Dr. Stroh served for many years as the academic adviser to the IPA, an association of thirty of the top 100 multinational companies in the United States and Canada. Linda most recently served on the Advisory Board of the organization, Friendly Voices, a non-profit organization established during COVID. Friendly Voices’ main service was to connect the elderly across the United States, who had little or no contact with family or others, with a “friendly voice” during this challenging time in their lives. When Dr. Stroh retired, she was awarded the title of Professor Emerita of Organizational Behavior and Human Development at Loyola University Chicago Graduate School of Business, for her remarkable service to the university for over 30 years. The IPA also established a Graduate Student Scholarship in her name for her outstanding service to their organization.

For excellence in her profession as a distinguished scholar and widely respected expert in her field, and service to others beyond herself, the St. Marys Memorial High School Alumni Foundation inducts Dr. Linda K. (Brown) Stroh into the St. Marys Memorial High School Alumni Foundation Hall of Fame for Academic/Professional Achievement.