Future of Work

Expert speakers in a variety of fields within the decision and data sciences. Members support organizations and governments at all levels as they work to transform data into information, and information into insights that lead to more efficient, effective, equitable and impactful results.

Anahita Khojandi

University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Anahita Khojandi is an associate professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the director for the Reliability and Maintainability Engineering program at University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Her research interests include decision making under uncertainty and partial information, machine learning, and reinforcement learning, with applications in healthcare, environmental engineering and sustainability, intelligent transportation systems, manufacturing, and maintenance optimization. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from University of Pittsburgh. She has served as the President of INFORMS Junior Faculty Interest Group and the Vice Chair of INFORMS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. She is also a member of INFORMS.

Highlights

  • Areas of Expertise: Healthcare applications, Environmental engineering and sustainability, Intelligent transportation systems
  • Chaired the INFORMS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee

Beril Toktay

Georgia Institute of Technology

Beril Toktay is a professor of operations management in Georgia Institute of Technology’s Scheller College of Business. Her research spans from sustainable operations, closed-loop supply chains and supply chain management. She currently teaches Business Strategies in Sustainability in MBA and Executive Education programs. Toktay has written several articles on climate change and advocates for the advancement of women and underrepresented minorities in academia. She holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Mathematics from Boğaziçi University, an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Highlights

  • Areas of Expertise: Closed-loop supply chains, Climate change Advancement of women and minorities in academia

Chris Tang

UCLA

Chris Tang is the Edward W. Carter chair in business administration in the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. Tang’s research focuses on global supply chain management. His work began in the private sector when he worked for IBM. His work helped solve internal production planning problems. His research addresses concerns such as microfinancing for the poor, mobile platforms for developing economies, creating shared values and direct procurement of agricultural products, response management in disasters and new business models in the age of the Internet. He was elected an INFORMS fellow in 2011.

Highlights

  • Areas of Expertise: Global supply chain management, Microfinancing for the poor, Disaster response management, New business models in the age of the Internet
  • Works with IBM on internal production planning

Julie Ivy

North Carolina State University

Julie Ivy is a professor in the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the North Carolina State University. Her research interests are mathematical modeling and decision analysis, which has allowed researchers and practitioners address complex societal issues, such as health disparities, public health preparedness and hunger relief. Ivy received her B.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan.

She is an active member of INFORMS. Dr. Ivy also served as the 2007 Chair of the INFORMS Health Applications Society and the 2012–13 President for the INFORMS Minority Issues Forum.

Highlights

  • Areas of Expertise: Mathematical modeling and decision analysis
  • Her research has helped address health disparities, public health preparedness, and hunger relief

Kaisa Snellman

INSEAD

Kaisa Snellman is an associate professor at INSEAD where she teaches courses in organizational behavior and organizational theory. Her work examines inequality based on gender, race, and class in industries including, education, employment, and health. She is interested in both the structural and the cultural-cognitive processes that contribute to inequality. More specifically, she studies how cultural beliefs about gender and race shape outcomes for individuals as well as organizations, and how organizations contribute to economic inequality through their employment practices.

She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in Sociology from Stanford University, and an MSc degree in Economics from Swedish School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. Prior to joining INSEAD, she was also a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Highlights

  • Area of Expertise: Inequality around gender, race, and class in education, employment, and health

Ramayya Krishnan

Carnegie Mellon University

Ramayya Krishnan is the W. W. Cooper and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management Science and Information Systems at the H. John Heinz III College and the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. His research interests focus on consumer and social behavior in digitally instrumented environments. His work has addressed technical, policy and business problems that arise in these contexts and he has published extensively on these topics. He has served as Department Editor for Information Systems at Management Science. He is an INFORMS Fellow, a former President of the INFORMS Information Systems Society and the INFORMS Computing Society. He has served as an Information Technology and Data Science expert member of multiple U.S. State Department Delegations and briefed ICT ministers of ASEAN on big data technology and policy. 

He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, a M.S. in industrial engineering and operations research, and a Ph.D. in management science and information systems from the University of Texas at Austin.

Highlights

  • Areas of Expertise: Consumer and social behavior in digitally instrumented environments
  • Served as an Information Technology and Data Science expert member of multiple U.S. State Department Delegations
  • Briefed ICT ministers of ASEAN on big data technology and policy

Scott Nestler

University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business

Scott Nestler is an associate teaching professor and the Academic Director for the M.S. in business analytics program at the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business. He has served as an analyst and leader of analytic teams in various locations, including the Pentagon and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq and is retired from the U.S. Army. His research focuses on sports analytics, ethical use of data and analytics, financial and project portfolio analysis, decision and risk analysis, forecasting and predictive modeling, talent and workforce analytics, data and information visualization, and reliability and prognostics. He has published several books and papers in the field of analytics. In 2019, he received the INFORMS Volunteer Service Award.

He holds a B.S. in civil engineering from Lehigh University, a M.S. in applied mathematics from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a Ph.D. in management science from the University of Maryland–College Park.

Highlights

  • Areas of Expertise: Sport analytics, Ethical use of data, Talent and workforce analytics
  • Veteran, U.S. Army
  • Worked for the Pentagon the U.S. Embassey in Baghdad, Iraq
  • Published several books and papers in the field of analytics

Media Contact

Ashley Smith
Public Affairs Coordinator
INFORMS
Catonsville, MD
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