Professor Payal Sharma is a qualitative scholar who explores masculinity, leadership, power, and stress and trauma. Her studies focus on the occupational level of analysis. In addition, she writes about, and has organized workshops related to, qualitative research methods.

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 that are designed to educate and empower audiences about leadership development, power dynamics at work, organizational politics, and building resilience.

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.