For the first decade of her career, Professor Payal Sharma studied empowering leadership, power dynamics, and stress and trauma at work. More recently, her research has extended to examining masculinity in organizations as well as the intersection of childhood adversity and adult workplace experiences. In addition, she has written about, and organized workshops related to, qualitative research methods. Her scholarship has been published in Group and Organization Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management Inquiry, Leadership Quarterly, MIT Sloan Management Review, Organizational Dynamics.

Sharma is an award-winning instructor and regularly delivers academic keynotes and workshops for leaders across a range of sectors and industries. Through her courses and speaking engagements, she offers evidence-based toolkits which are designed to educate and empower her audiences about leadership development, power, and politics in organizations.

Before UNLV, Sharma was a visiting faculty member at the Wharton School of Business and tenure-track faculty member at Rutgers Business School, Newark and New Brunswick. She holds a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the University of Maryland, College Park; a Master's degree in higher education administration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; a Master's degree in organizational management from The George Washington University; and bachelor degrees in anthropology and history from the University of California, San Diego.