Hi, I’m Baozhen M. Luo-Hermanson, PhD, founder of Dao Yin Leadership. My mission is to ease the unnecessary pain that often comes with organizational growth. While challenges are inevitable—no pain, no gain—many struggles can be prevented when care is embodied by leadership and embedded in the culture. I’m here to guide and support your transformative journey—from suffering to thriving.
My Journey to Dao Yin Leadership
I’ve been on both the receiving and giving end of uncaring leadership—experiences that became the foundation of Dao Yin Leadership.
Early in my academic career, I rose quickly—earning tenure and a sabbatical. On the surface, I thrived; inside, I was breaking. As the only woman of color, immigrant, and youngest faculty in my department, I felt unseen. My leaders were well-meaning but unequipped to support someone like me. Burnout left me detached and barely functional—living proof that unsupportive leadership is one of the strongest predictors of burnout.
Years later, as a leader myself, I struggled to balance authority and connection. When I snapped at a brilliant but challenging postdoc, I realized: caring leadership isn’t just about intent—it’s a skill.
Care is intelligence. And like any intelligence, it can be learned, practiced, and mastered.
Care Intelligence™ is the ability to balance power hierarchy and shared unity to effectively meet human needs for wellbeing and growth—both individually and collectively.
A Dao Yin Leader™ applies Care Intelligence to navigate complexity with compassion and clarity, guiding organizations toward both excellence and care.
My Path from Research to Impact
My background in Sociology and Gerontology spans over two decades of research and teaching on power, inequality, social change, identity, and wellbeing. Care has been the common thread—shaping my ability to help leaders build more caring, effective cultures through systems thinking and relational dynamics across diverse, cross-cultural organizational contexts.
I've led across diverse organizational settings such as launching new ventures and co-directing a prominent research center at a joint-venture university navigating complex terrain. With extensive coaching and consulting training, I blend leadership experience, research insights, and practical tools to help leaders turn care into transformative change.
More Explorations:
Born and raised in China, immigrated to the US in 2003
Author of the book Shopping Cultures (2009) exploring how race and ethnicity shapes Chinese American youth’s dating attitudes and behaviors
Delivered TEDx memoir talk “Searching for Myself in My Names” (2016)
Fellow of Gerontological Society of America (since 2017)
Co-editor of the upcoming Research Handbook of the Sociology of Ageing (2025)
Published widely on aging and care (see google scholar)
