Biography

Patricia Bower is a Clinical Associate Professor of Management Communication at the New York University Stern School of Business. Ms. Bower brings more than 30 years of teaching and consulting experience to her current work at Stern.

Prior to joining NYU, Patricia founded and directed the Management Communication Program at The University of Rochester Simon School of Business, where she also served as a Senior Lecturer in Business Communication. In Rochester, she was also the CEO of Executive Advantage Communications, a consultancy focusing on executive speech preparation, presentations, and business writing. In addition, Patricia has held full-time academic positions at California State University, San Jose; the University of California, Santa Barbara; and Pomona College. She also served as an adjunct instructor at the Eastman School of Music, and has offered special courses at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and The European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

Patricia's current interests leverage both her business communication experience as well as her extensive performing arts background. At Stern, she created the innovative and popular course, The Performing Manager, which incorporates performance-based training and theatre improvisation to help students communicate in a more dynamic and persuasive way. She has also developed a new course, The Performing Professor, designed for doctoral candidates or others entering the teaching profession.

Professor Bower currently serves as the CEO of Performing Work, a company devoted to applying improvisational performance techniques and creative thinking to team effectiveness and leadership communication.

Patricia began her professional life as a working Equity actress in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. Notable appearances included a role in Edward Albee's "A Delicate Balance" with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, as well as a role in Euripides' "Iphigenia in Aulis" at the Circle in the Square starring Irene Papas. She also appeared at The Berkeley Repertory Theatre and served as a vocal coach for The ProVisional Theatre in Los Angeles. She received a Bachelor of Arts in English and Drama from The University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master of Arts from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Research Interests

• Leadership communication
• Team dynamics
• Advanced presentation skills

Courses Taught

• Business Communication
• The Performing Manager

Academic Background

M.A.
New York University

B.A.
University of California