In recognition of his significant academic contributions to the field of leadership, McIntire Professor Jeffrey Lovelace was recently named the winner of the Rising Star Early Career Award by the Network of Leadership Scholars and Exeter Centre for Leadership at University of Exeter Business School, United Kingdom.
Lovelace is the fourth recipient of the annual award, which aims to help promote the work of a highly promising junior scholar in order to raise the award winner’s profile among their peers and facilitate networking with senior academics within the field. The Rising Star Early Career Award carries a £1,500 prize to promote future research, a plaque, and an invitation to join the committee to judge applicants next year. Lovelace will be honored for the achievement in person during the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management to be held Aug. 5-9 in Seattle, WA.
“I want to humbly thank the Network of Leadership Scholars for this amazing recognition. The NLS and its members have long inspired my research, and I am appreciative for the community of support they promote,” Lovelace says. “In addition, I want to thank the McIntire School of Commerce, my fellow McIntire Management colleagues, and the mentors who have been so helpful to me in my career. In particular, I would like to recognize Sam Hunter, Rick Jacobs, Don Hambrick, Tim Pollock, Jon Bundy, and the Oxford Centre for Corporate Reputation for their support. I look forward to using this recognition as motivation to pursue impactful efforts that help leaders have a positive impact on people and organizations.”
Since earning his Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Pennsylvania State University in 2017, Lovelace has focused his research on examining leadership in a wide range of areas, including the social and cognitive influences that shape leaders’ perceptions and the impacts of their decision-making on their peers and organizations.
In addition to co-authoring a theory researching determinants of CEO celebrity attainment in “The Push and Pull of Attaining CEO Celebrity: A Media Routines Perspective,” he has published eight other peer-reviewed articles, two books, and nine book chapters in a variety of outlets, including Academy of Management Review; Academy of Management Journal; Journal of Management; and The Leadership Quarterly in his relatively brief academic career. Lovelace has also presented his research 24 times at various conferences, while reviewing peer research for multiple top-tiered outlets and earning recognition as an International Research Fellow for the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation in 2020.
Lovelace, who teaches McIntire’s Leadership Across the Disciplines course, also serves as Director of Commerce School’s Leadership Minor program, which he was instrumental in successfully refreshing and relaunching following a dormant period.
Prior to his transition into academics, Lovelace served as an Officer in the U.S. Army from 2002 until 2014, and has remained committed to supporting inclusion and advocating for underrepresented students. A volunteer in the McIntire Ally program, Lovelace also supports his fellow veterans and made significant strides by obtaining a space on UVA Grounds for the Veteran Student Center, which opened its doors in September 2021.
Read the official announcement at NLS.
About NLS
The Network of Leadership Scholars provides a forum for people from varying backgrounds, disciplines, nationalities, and perspectives to interact and generate knowledge related to the field(s) of leadership. Its mission is to foster interconnectivity and create linkages that allow the organization to develop meaningful new frameworks for investigating and practicing leadership, aspiring to break down silos among the various approaches and disciplines in the study of leadership and create research partnerships among scholars and practitioners around the world to propel the advancement of significant new knowledge.
