Dr. Sheila Hassell Hughes
Sheila Hassell Hughes, Ph.D. is the Chief Executive Officer of Human Energy, a nonprofit organization advancing scientific research about the future of human collective consciousness, and Full Professor of English at Saint Mary’s College of California. She is a scholar, educator, and nonprofit leader with over 25 years of experience in higher education administration, interdisciplinary research, and organizational leadership.
Sheila is recognized for her pioneering work integrating humanities, social sciences, and consciousness studies, particularly through her leadership of the N2 Conference series celebrating the noosphere — the sphere of human thought and collective intelligence.
As CEO of Human Energy since February 2025, she leads initiatives exploring how humanity’s interconnected global consciousness can address planetary challenges. The organization, inspired by the work of Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, promotes scientific research, education, and media initiatives examining the evolution of collective human intelligence in an era of artificial intelligence and global connectivity. Read The Noosphere at 100: The Future of Human Collective Consciousness.
Prior to becoming CEO, Sheila served as Chief Operating Officer of Human Energy from February 2024 to January 2025, where she oversaw all project-focused tracks including Science, Education, Ethics, and Dissemination. In this role, she managed strategic planning, budgeting, track steering committees, contract management, and the implementation of conferences and events.
She co-chaired the landmark N2 Conference at UC Berkeley in November 2023, which brought together over 100 scholars and thought leaders from around the globe to explore artificial intelligence, social media, climate change, and neuroscience in relation to collective consciousness. The conference featured keynote speakers including Terrence Deacon, Jaron Lanier, Kevin Kelly, and David Sloan Wilson. Listen to Exploring the Noosphere with Sheila Hassell Hughes.
From July 2015 to January 2023, Sheila served as Dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Saint Mary’s College of California, leading the College’s largest academic unit offering over 30 undergraduate majors in the social sciences, humanities, and creative and performing arts, as well as four graduate programs.
Managing over 100 full-time faculty and 20 staff members, she implemented transformative initiatives that increased external funding by over 2,750% in five years and significantly expanded prestigious national fellowship awards. Her leadership achievements included establishing a career development program for liberal arts majors with funded scholarships for nonprofit internships, implementing a comprehensive Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) strategic plan that transformed curriculum and faculty representation, and creating a Philanthropic Advisory Board.
Sheila’s academic career spans over two decades of teaching and research excellence. As Professor of English at Saint Mary’s College since 2015, she has developed interdisciplinary courses examining the noosphere concept and its implications for understanding human collective consciousness in an age of technological innovation.
Her research expertise focuses on Indigenous American women’s literature, particularly the works of Louise Erdrich, and the intersections of literature, theology, and social transformation. She has published extensively on these topics, including Tongue-Tied: Rhetoric and Relation in Louise Erdrich’s Tracks in MELUS and Red Mother: The Missing Mother Plot as Double Mystery in Louise Erdrich’s Fiction. Listen to Traversing Spheres through Story: Indigenous Resources in Louise Erdrich’s Fiction for Thinking About the Noosphere.
From 1998 to 2015, Sheila held multiple leadership positions at the University of Dayton, including Professor of English, Chair of the Department of English from 2008 to 2014, and Director of Women’s and Gender Studies Program from 2004 to 2008. As Department Chair, she led the largest department on campus, growing the full-time faculty from 23 to 40 and establishing new undergraduate and graduate curricula in TESOL and professional writing.
She developed the department’s first diversity plan with robust outcomes and established the Herbert W. Martin Postgraduate Fellowship in Creative Writing and Diversity. During her tenure as Director of Women’s and Gender Studies, she developed and implemented a new major after the program had offered only a minor since 1976, formed a campus-wide advisory board, and significantly increased enrollment and affiliated faculty.
Sheila earned her Ph.D. in Women’s Studies from Emory University in 1997, where she was among the first full cohort of candidates to graduate with this interdisciplinary doctorate in the United States. Her dissertation, Bridging Bodies of Work: The Poetic and the Prophetic in Women’s Literature and Feminist Theology, examined the intersections of literature and spirituality. She earned her Master’s degree in English from the University of Toronto in 1991, where she was admitted with a prestigious full-ride fellowship, and her Bachelor’s degree in English with Honours from the University of British Columbia in 1988.
Sheila’s leadership development includes completion of the prestigious HERS Institute at Bryn Mawr College in 2010, a premier leadership development program for women in higher education. She was competitively selected and sponsored by the President of the University of Dayton for this intensive two-week residential program focused on advancing women leaders in academic administration. In 2013, she received the College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Award for Outstanding Service from the University of Dayton, and she was also honored with the Miriam Award for contributions to improving the campus climate for women.
As an Advisory Board Member of Human Energy since April 2022, Sheila chairs the Education Steering Committee and has been instrumental in developing the organization’s educational initiatives, including co-chairing the N2 Conference 2024 on The Noosphere & the Global South at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the East Bay Leadership Council since September 2019, a public policy advocacy organization focused on increasing economic vitality and quality of life in the East Bay region.
Throughout her career, Sheila has presented at numerous international conferences and contributed to scholarly discourse on consciousness studies, women’s literature, and educational transformation. Her work consistently demonstrates a commitment to bridging academic research with practical applications while fostering collaborative approaches to complex challenges. She has been featured in podcasts including The IDG Revolution.
Sheila’s personal mission to “see, speak, and stitch connections” drives her work across disciplines, worldviews, and organizational silos. She describes herself as “a poet at heart”, always imagining what could be while ensuring the details necessary for implementation. Her current work bridges two distinct organizations — a well-established college rich in tradition and a futurist startup — weaving connections to strengthen work, broaden vision, and ensure inclusion.
Sheila lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and continues to teach and conduct research while leading Human Energy’s mission to share a new scientific perspective introducing the noosphere as a source of meaning and orientation for future generations. Her interdisciplinary approach and decades of experience in educational leadership position her uniquely to advance understanding of human collective intelligence and its evolution in an era of accelerating technological change.
Visit her LinkedIn profile, Saint Mary’s Faculty page, Google Scholar page, and Human Energy profile. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.