About the Founder & Researcher
Dr. Patrick D. Fagan, PhD, MBA | Organizational Psychologist and Founder of H.U.M.A.N.
Dr. Patrick D. Fagan brings together the perspectives of an organizational psychologist and an executive who has led human resources and talent strategy at significant scale. A former Chief Talent and Human Resources Officer for New York City Public Schools, he has spent his career thinking about a question that sits at the heart of leadership: how do organizations recognize, develop, and support human capability while remaining accountable for the experiences of the people they serve?
His doctoral research at Capella University, A Qualitative Study on Challenges Faced and Strategies Used by African American Men in Senior Leadership (2025), explored the experiences of 15 African American men in senior leadership positions. Using a qualitative descriptive approach informed by Social Cognitive Career Theory, the study examined barriers to advancement and the strategies participants described using to navigate them. Six themes emerged, spanning discrimination and limited support through transformational leadership, skill development, and the importance of professional relationships.
The study reinforced an important conviction in his work: leadership development cannot focus solely on the individual. Opportunity, organizational systems, relationships, and access to meaningful preparation also matter. Those ideas, together with his executive practice, inform his approach to human-centered talent and leadership systems.
Dr. Fagan developed the H.U.M.A.N. Talent Leadership Framework to connect trust and fairness, responsible use of intelligence, human capability, leadership readiness, and the lived experience of change. The accompanying Leadership Readiness Diagnostic offers structured behavioral self-reflection and practical development actions. It is a research-informed developmental tool, not an assessment validated by his dissertation.
A principle guiding the work: Leadership readiness should be developed before promotion, not treated as something that begins after the title changes.
The dissertation at a glance
- Research question: "How do African American men in top leadership positions describe their challenges and the strategies they use to overcome barriers to top leadership positions?"
- Design: generic qualitative descriptive study; purposive recruitment of 15 participants in the United States; Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis; guided by Social Cognitive Career Theory, grounded in Bandura's social cognitive theory.
- Six themes: racism, discrimination and segregation; lack of support and code-switching; workplace and interpersonal problems; transformational leadership style; personal growth and skill acquisition; networking and building relationships.
- Limits: a focused demographic, a small purposive sample, self-report and social-desirability considerations, and limited transferability. The findings do not apply uniformly to all leaders or organizations.
- The study did not evaluate the H.U.M.A.N. diagnostic, and its participants are not a normative sample for it.
How my research informs H.U.M.A.N.
Founder interpretation, not an empirically tested relationship. The five dimensions did not emerge directly from the six themes.
- H / Honor the Human Contract
- Reported discrimination, limited support and organizational barriers highlight the importance of dignity, fairness, trust and access to opportunity.
- U / Use Intelligence Wisely
- An extension drawn from contemporary executive practice and responsible AI principles, not a direct empirical finding of the 2025 dissertation.
- M / Mobilize Human Capability
- Personal growth, skill acquisition, mentorship and professional networks point to capability and opportunity beyond job titles.
- A / Accelerate Leadership Readiness
- Transformational leadership, skill acquisition and support networks inform preparation before advancement. The dissertation did not test a readiness score.
- N / Navigate the Human Side of Change
- Reported workplace and interpersonal challenges and code-switching foreground the human experience of organizational systems. This is a conceptual connection, not a change-management experiment.