Peter Rios

Peter Rios, DSL, PhD, is Clinical Assistant Professor and Academic Director of Leadership and Management at New York University’s School of Professional Studies. A bilingual leadership scholar-practitioner and founder of the Maximize brand, he brings more than twenty years of experience helping leaders and organizations navigate complexity, change, and the future of work. His teaching and consulting integrate cutting-edge tools such as generative AI with evidence-based leadership and business practice, preparing students and executives to lead with both strategic insight and human-centered wisdom.

As an expert consultant and advisor to senior leaders, Dr. Rios has worked with Fortune 500 companies, universities, government agencies, faith-based institutions and nonprofits across the United States. Latin America, the Caribbean and beyond. His clients have included Harvard University, the Lilly Endowment of Eli Lilly and Company, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Through Peter Rios Consulting, he supports executives and their teams on issues of contextual and global leadership, organizational change, equity and inclusion, innovation and strategy execution.

In higher education, Dr. Rios has held faculty appointments at Penn State, Colorado State, Indiana Wesleyan University, and the Pacific School of Religion at Berkeley. His work is deeply informed by his own journey - from the U.S. Marine Corps to the university classroom and global stages - which shapes his conviction that leadership is ultimately about service, courage, values, and transformation. He is a published author whose books include Untold Stories: The Latinx Leadership Experience in Higher Education and Maximize!: 12 Keys to Unlocking Your Greatest Potential (and its Spanish edition, ¡Maximiza!), which extend his commitment to maximizing human potential at scale.

He holds a PhD in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Graduate Schools, a Doctor of Strategic Leadership degree from Regent School of Business, completed doctoral work in organizational change and leadership at the University of Southern California, and the prestigious Entrepreneurship Program for Veterans (EBV) at the Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University. An active content creator with a growing global audience on social media, Dr. Rios regularly shares insights on leadership, innovation and change, and personal and professional growth.