He is also the Graduate Advisor (Director of the PhD program for the Management Department) and Co-Director of the Center of Leadership Excellence for the McCombs School. He earned his PhD in Management from Cornell University. He teaches and consults on topics relating to leadership, managing power and politics, leading groups and teams, and negotiations. The recipient of numerous teaching awards, Dr. Burris was named to the "Faculty Honor Roll" in 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2013, received the Hank & Mary Harkins Foundation Award for Effective Teaching in Undergraduate Classes in 2012, the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award in 2011, the ING Professor of Excellence award in 2011, and the 2009 Trammell/CBA Foundation Teaching Award for Assistant Professors.