Dr. Wendy M. Edmonds
Research Designs & Methods
Dr. Edmonds has 19 years of research competence in:
Awards and Recognitions
Publication
Awards and Recognitions
-
2020-2021 Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences Emerging Scholars Award.
​
-
2019-2021 International Leadership Association – Chair, Followership Learning Community.
​
-
2018 Idahlynn Karre Exemplary Leadership Award Organization: The Chair Academy Leadership.
​
-
2018 1st Place Winner for Faculty Research. University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s 7th Annual 2018 Regional Research Symposium.
Publications
-
2021 - inTOXICating FOLLOWERSHIP in the Jonestown Massacre Emerald Publishing.
​
-
2021 - When Leadership Fails: Individual, Group and Organizational Lessons from the Worst Workplace Experiences, Emerald Publishing (Co-Editor).
​
-
2019 - “Snowballing...#prayforme.” SAGE Publication Business and Management.
​
-
2018 - One Follower of Jim Jones: A Story of One Survivor Restoration. The Jonestown Report.
Speaking Engagements
Recognized internationally as a scholar-practitioner in “toxic followership,” Dr. Edmonds has a knack for exploring issues through the followership lens. Leveraging her passion for education and genuine care for people, she engages her audience through storytelling. Her goal is to shine a light on critical topics that affect our everyday life. Dr. Edmonds continues to address the other side of leadership on various platforms. ​
​
-
“Living with COVID: Our New Normal” - Featured guest speaker. COVID and Culture discussion presented by MUSE Technologies. July 30, 2020. ​
​
-
Guest Speaker – Toxic Followership. The Community Church of East Williston: East Williston, NY. August 26, 2019
​
-
Guest Speaker – The History of Glenarden: A Walk Down Memory Lane. The Gold Room: Glenarden, MD: May 25, 2019.
​
-
Panelist – Jonestown 40 Years Later - The Power to Stand: Stories of Wisdom and Resiliency. The Guild Theater: Sacramento, CA: November 17, 2019.
​
-
Guest Speaker – He’s So Crazy. Youth Against Violence in Music Gala. La Fontaine Bleue: Lanham, MD: April 13, 2017.
​
-
Keynote Speaker - Emotional Intelligence: Perfecting the Pause. Montgomery County Public Schools Business, Management, and Finance Career Cluster Graduation Ceremony: Rockville, MD: May 18, 2017.
​
-
Guest Speaker at the U.S. Capitol – Gun Violence in America. Congressional Black Caucus Stop Gun Violence in America: Washington, DC. July 14, 2016.
​
-
Workshop Presenter - Finding My Destiny & Purpose in Christ. Destiny’s Promise Retreat: Ocean City, MD: April 30 – May 3, 2015.
​
Leaders and their leadership are often commented on, while little attention is paid to the followers who support and/or enable them. Much of what we think of as toxic leadership, however, is actually the product of toxic followership. Dr. Edmonds defines toxic followership as the manipulation of individuals by a trusted party who transforms the mindset of others, whereby individuals become an extension of a toxic leaders' moral decay. Authoritarian rulers would be nothing without those who willingly follow, exchanging an ethical compass for a flawed human one. Followership is, in fact, one of the most pressing and least understood issues of our time.
​
Dr. Edmonds is an Assistant Professor in the College of Business at Bowie State University, the oldest Historically Black College and University in Maryland.
She is chair of the Followership Learning Community at the International Leadership Association – the largest followership research and practitioner group in the world. She is the first researcher to conduct focus group studies with survivors of the 1978 Jonestown Massacre that occurred in Guyana. It was that life-changing event which fueled her interest in “toxic followership”and the various perspectives of leader-follower relationships.
Recognized internationally as a scholar-practitioner in followership, an emerging field of study in orgnanizational leadership, Dr. Edmonds' most recent work focuses on the lived experiences of victims of domestic violence and the impact of spirituality. She is also the author of inTOXICating FOLLOWERSHIP
and co-author of When Leadership Fails: Individual, Group and Organizational Lessons from the Worst Workplace Experiences, two upcoming books in Spring 2021.