Yulia Tolstikov-Mast, PhD is a global leadership and followership expert, international researcher, and an award-winning educator. Her teaching, scholarship, and consulting focus on the internalization of leadership curriculum, non-U.S. (Global North) approaches to leadership and followership, global followership and citizenship behavior, leader-follower role switching, and international professional communication. Yulia is a passionate advocate for culturally responsible and indigenous leadership and followership research models. Her Handbook of International and Cross-Cultural Leadership Research Processes is a collaborative work where Yulia transforms her passion into action steps for researchers interested in conversations around international research practices.
Yulia published original research, conceptual, and pedagogical manuscripts in Advances in Global Leadership, Journal of Leadership Education, Global Business and Organizational Excellence (GBOE), Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, as well as in Culture 2.0, Women Courageous, and The Study and Practice of Global Leadership books, among others. Yulia is currently completing a multi-stage and multi-stakeholder exploratory study of Russian followership that she has been leading since 2015. She was the Co-Investigator in Russia for the GLOBE 2020 Project where she led the translation of the GLOBE instrument into Russian language and the verification/validation of the translated instrument.
Originally from Russia, Yulia experienced the Soviet system, Perestroika, and emerging market economy before relocating to the United States in 1996. She remained connected to her homeland through reflective publications, engagements with Russian universities, and scholarly partnerships. Yulia is one of the founding members of the Russian Communication Association. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Yulia and her family have been volunteering with Ukrainian refugees in Poland, Warsaw, hosted a Ukrainian teenager through the U4U program, and have been actively engaged with the Indiana Supports Ukraine (ISU), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization run solely by volunteers.
An entrepreneur by heart, Yulia enjoys building programs and curricula. She was a Founding Faculty, and, later, a Lead Faculty and Associate Professor at the PhD in Global Leadership Program at Indiana Tech. She has been assisting the U.S. and international universities with research and leadership curriculum development, and she has been mentoring international scholars in Central Asia, Africa, and Russia. She engaged with the American Council for International Education and also became a Fulbright Specialist to consult on higher education globally. Additionally, she is a reviewer for the newly established Carnegie Elective Classification for Leadership for Public Purpose.
Prior to joining Antioch University, Yulia was the Chair and Professor of Ethical and Creative Leadership in the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program at the Union Institute & University. In this role, Yulia enhanced the ECL curriculum by introducing the intersection of global leadership, followership, and social justice to the concentration and dissertations.
Yulia has a Black Belt in Taekwondo (First Degree Decided, Taekwondo America), is an avid explorer who loves traveling with her husband and children, always carves out time for reading (Ken Liu is her current favorite author) and spending time with her two Vizslas.
