Dr. Amy Zidulka is an Associate Professor in the School of Business and serves as Co-Director of the Centre for Creative Changemaking. She teaches creativity, innovation, and strategic management and leads the MBA program's capstone strategy residency experience. She initiated and organized the Royal Roads Design Thinking Challenge, an innovative and societally focused reimagination of the standard business case competition and the Royal Roads Design Thinking Practitioner and Educator Conference. Her class “Leading Innovation” has been recognized three times with the MBA Professionalism and Dedication Award from graduating classes. She is the recipient of the 2025 Royal Roads Courageous Changemaker Award, in recognition of her pedagogical innovation and commitment to anti-polarization work inside and outside the university.
Experience
Dr. Zidulka's research examines how creativity, innovation, and collaboration happen, particularly in large bureaucracies, and transformation of universities in the post-digital era. She recently developed a research focus on anti-polarization and dialogue across difference. Her work has been published in outlets like Journal of Management Education and Healthcare Management Forum and presented at conferences such as the Academy of Management.
Dr. Zidulka has conducted action research over multiple years with the BC Ministry of Health and Alberta Health Services and facilitates design thinking workshops for organizations. Beyond research, she led the MBA program review and redesign (2006-2009), served as intellectual lead for Communications within the School of Business and has supervised approximately 100 MBA capstone projects. Prior to academia, Dr. Zidulka spent a decade as an artist in Alaska, focusing on commissioned portraits of commercial fishing boats.
Education
2017
Doctor of Education in Adult Learning (Organizational Creativity and Innovation)
University of Calgary
2000
Master of Arts in English Literature
University of Victoria
1995
Bachelor of Arts in English Literature/Creative Writing
Concordia University
1992
Bachelor of Science in Architecture
McGill University
Publications
Zidulka, A., & Mitchell, I. K. (2025). Leadingpublic sector interorganizational collaboration in healthcare:Lessons from the intersection of climate and health. Healthcare Management Forum. SAGEPublications
Zidulka, A. (2024). A social media platform to advance critical management education and the Mode 3university. Academy of Management Conference Proceedings, Chicago
Krause, W. & Zidulka, A. (2024). Holding complexity and multiple truths: A listening circle for Israel andPalestine. International Leadership Association Conference, Chicago
Zidulka, A. (2023). The university as learning community: A post-classroom and post-digital vision for highereducation. Canadian Associationfor the Study of Adult Education Conference Proceedings, Toronto
Zidulka, A. (2022). The university as a hub of connection: A vision for a post-digital institution. Online EducaBerlin (OEB), Berlin, Germany
Zidulka, A. (2022). Social innovation requires a new, post-digital vision of the university. International SocialInnovation Research Conference (ISIRC), Halifax
Zidulka, A., & Kajzer Mitchell, I. (2018). Creativity or cooptation? Thinking beyond instrumentalism whenteaching design thinking. Journal of Management Education
Zidulka, A. (2018). Practice theory as a response to community of practice theory's limitations: An empiricalexploration. Organizational Learning, Knowledge, and Capabilities (OLKC) Conference Proceedings,Liverpool, UK
Zidulka, A. (2016). Weaving together creative problem-solving (CPS) and design thinking in an MBA class. InS. Junginger & J. Faust (Eds.), Designing Business and Management. Bloomsbury
