About the Center

Alexandra Sedlovskaya

Alexandra Sedlovskaya is Associate Director at the C. Roland Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard Business School. Alexandra designs and executes research pertaining to management education and pedagogies that support participant-centered learning. Project areas include case teaching, curricular innovations, program assessment, gender and diversity, student evaluations of teaching, and teaching effectiveness.

Alexandra obtained her MS, MPhil, and PhD in Psychology from Yale University in 2011 and extended her research training as a postdoctoral associate at the Yale School of Management. As a doctoral student, Alexandra has been awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Grant to conduct research on diversity and social stigma within organizations. Alexandra earned her BA at Wesleyan University, graduating as a valedictorian in 2004.

Clare Flaherty

Clare Flaherty is the Christensen Center's Manager of Projects and Media. Clare is responsible for the all of the center's multimedia products and projects, including website, coaching videos, and all media content for both internal and external clients. Clare joined the Center in 2005 as Coordinator and has also worked as a Faculty Assistant here at the Business School. Before HBS, Clare was an Advertising Associate Producer, producing television and radio commercials for regional and national clients.

Clare received her Master's in English Literature from Harvard University Extension School in May 2011 and her thesis on Anne Brontë's Didactic Philosophy was short listed for the Dean's Outstanding Thesis Award. In January 2013, her article on the influence of Humphrey Davy on Anne Bronte was published by Bronte Studies.

Tara Abbatello

Tara Abbatello joined the Christensen Center in August 2006 as Teaching and Learning Analyst. Tara assesses teaching and learning-related data to support the Center's service offerings to HBS faculty. She also assists in the tracking the Center's activities as it continues to expand the scope of its services and faculty clients.

Tara previously worked at HBS as a Faculty Assistant and as a Research Associate. As a Research Associate, she worked with faculty and doctoral students to design and implement experiments and surveys to study negotiation and decision making, with an emphasis on how biases affect decisions. Tara earned her B.A. cum laude in Psychology (Psi Chi) from Boston University.

Outside of work, Tara enjoys reading, baking, and spending time with her husband and their two beautiful sons. She has also been known to make extremely decadent chocolate truffles.

Nancy Edmunds

Nancy Edmunds joined the Christensen Center in September 2010. Nancy is the point person for all center scheduling and direct service coordinating; she oversees the administrative functions for the center, and assists with project work. Nancy's previous careers include theatrical stage management and administration, banking, and freelance editing and she continues to teach writing. She holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from UMass Boston, and an M.A. in English from Westfield State College.

Karina Lin-Murphy

Karina provides faculty support on course development with a focus on pedagogical innovation. Her support areas include teaching across modalities and technologies, as well as course and instructional design. Karina previously oversaw faculty development at the Harvard Extension School and Harvard Summer School, where she led initiatives and workshops in emerging pedagogies.

Karina has a Master’s in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology.

Maria Lemus

Maria Lemus is a Staff Assistant at the Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning. As the face of the Center, she supervises all center scheduling, administration and direct services. Having joined in March 2024, she has a background containing focuses in project management, event coordination and public relations. Previously, she was an intern at Case Services, where she handled permissions clearance and enforced copyright compliance. She is a certified Professional Scrum Master I and holds a certificate of project management from the Year Up program, where she was a standout of its Class of Summer 2023.