Jarvis Smallfield was born and raised on a small farm in rural Minnesota. After completing a bachelor’s degree in the Integrated Science Program at Northwestern University, he began a career in information technology focusing on web-based software development. During that time he worked in the chemical and manufacturing industries, a large hospital system, and for software consulting companies. His interest in business environments in general and the impact of leadership on employee thriving in particular grew through membership on and leadership of a variety of project teams including cross-industry and international.
Jarvis was more formally introduced to the study of organizational behavior while earning an MBA degree at Clemson University and became interested in research into the influence of leadership on follower and resulting organizational outcomes. He has subsequently joined the OB/HRM doctoral program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) because of the department’s commitment to leadership, especially relational leadership, and in particular its prominent role in servant leadership scholarship. Jarvis is now a PhD candidate entering his final year of the program developing a research stream centered on servant leadership and focusing on the influences on followers of both leadership and the team environment. He is leading research projects with UIC faculty, fellow doctoral students, and other scholars in the field as well as contributing proactively to improving the environment of the doctoral program and contributing to the success of more junior students. Jarvis is excited to use this experience to move into a long and productive career researching on the topic of servant leadership and sharing that research with students and practitioners.”