About

I am an Associate Professor in the Operations Management area at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. My research centers on socially responsible and sustainable operations, with an emphasis on emerging economies and underserved populations. More specifically, my work spans three interrelated areas: 1) not-for-profit operations, 2) healthcare supply chains, and 3) smallholder agricultural supply chains. An overarching theme of my research is to study how organizations in these sectors can better support underserved communities and generate broader societal impact through the effective design of operational policies and interventions. In my research, I work closely with industry collaborators to motivate research questions from real-world challenges and data. I also aim to deliver implementable solutions and actionable insights to make a practical impact.

Refereed Publications

"Truncated Balancing Policy for Perishable Inventory Management: Combating High Shortage Penalties," with T. Ayer and C.C. White, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 25(6), 2352-2370, 2023.

• Finalist, 2015 INFORMS George Nicholson Student Paper Competition 

"Inventory Sharing for Perishable Products: Application to Platelet Inventory Management in Hospital Blood Banks," with T. Ayer, C.C. White, J.N. Bodeker, and J.D. Roback, Operations Research, 71(5),1756-1776, 2023.

• Honorable Mention, 2019 INFORMS George B. Dantzig Dissertation Award

"Partial Completion as a Nonprofit Strategy," with A.  Atasu and K. Ramachandran, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 24(6), 2962-2981, 2022 (Special Issue on Responsible Research in Operations Management).

• Selected to the 2021 MSOM Sustainable Operations SIG Conference

"Extended Producer Responsibility for Pharmaceuticals," with I. Alev, A. Atasu, and L.B. Toktay, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 24(1), 524-541, 2022.

"Truthful Mechanisms for Medical Surplus Product Allocation," with A. Atasu, T. Ayer, and L.B. Toktay, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 22(4), 735-753, 2020.

• • Winner, 2021 M&SOM Best Paper Award

  • Winner, 2019 MSOM Award for Responsible Research in Operations Management

  • Winner, 2017 MSOM Student Paper Competition 

  • Winner, 2017 INFORMS Doing Good with Good OR Student Paper Competition 

  • Winner, 2017 POMS College of Sustainable Operations Best Student Paper Competition

  • Selected to the "Mechanism Design for Social Good" Workshop at the 2017 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation

"Prioritizing Hepatitis C Treatment in U.S. Prisons," with T. Ayer, A.J. Bonifonte, A. Spaulding, and J. Chhatwal, Operations Research, 67(3), 853-873, 2019.

• • Finalist, 2016 INFORMS Pierskalla Best Paper Award 

"Analysis and Improvement of Blood Collection Operations," with T. Ayer, C. Zeng, C.C. White, and V.R. Joseph, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 21(1), 29-46, 2018.

• • Winner, 2017 MSOM Practice-Based Research Competition

"American Red Cross Uses Analytics-Based Methods to Improve Blood Collection Operations," with T. Ayer, C. Zeng, C.C. White, V.R. Joseph, M. Deck, K. Lee, and Z. Ozkaynak, INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics, 48(1), 24-34, 2018. 

• • Finalist, 2017 INFORMS Franz Edelman Award

"Effective Medical Surplus Recovery," with A. Atasu, L.B. Toktay, and W.M. Yeo, Production and Operations Management, 26(6), 1142-1162, 2017 (Special Issue on Not-for-Profit Operations Management).

Working Papers

"Index-Based Yield Protection for Smallholder Farmers," with K. Lu and J. Song, under major revision for Management Science.

• Selected to the 2024 MSOM Sustainable Operations SIG Conference

"Sharing Platforms in Emerging Markets: The Role of Human Intermediaries," with O. Adebola and P. Arora, under major revision for Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.

• People's Choice Award, 2022 Early-Career Sustainable OM Workshop

• Finalist, 2022 INFORMS Public Sector Operations Research Best Paper Award

"Sustainable Sourcing of Agricultural Products: Fixed vs. Flexible Premiums," with V. Agrawal, under major revision for Management Science.

• People's Choice Award, 2023 Early-Career Sustainable OM Workshop

"Mitigating Shortages of Generic Drugs: The Role of Reliability Certification," with R. Swinney and X. Wu. 

"Feature-Based Scheduling and Dynamic Learning with a Large Backlog," with B. Keskin. 

Book Chapters

"Healthcare Inventory Management," with T. Ayer, C.C. White. In Research Handbook on Inventory Management (Editor J. Song).

Practitioner-Focused Articles

"How NGOs Can Help More People with DIY Solutions," with A. Atasu, K. Ramachandran. Harvard Business Review, August 17, 2021.

"Bridging Surplus with Need: Improving Healthcare in the Developing World," with A. Atasu, T. Ayer, L.B. Toktay. HuffPost, November 15, 2017. 

Selected Awards

• Meritorious Service Award, Management Science, 2020, 2024

• Meritorious Service Award, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2020-2024

• Distinguished Service Award, Management Science, 2021, 2023

• People's Choice Award, Early-Career Sustainable Operations Workshop, 2023

• Finalist, INFORMS Public Sector Operations Research Best Paper Award, 2022

• People's Choice Award, Early-Career Sustainable Operations Workshop, 2022

• Winner, M&SOM Best Paper Award, 2021

• Honorable Mention, INFORMS George B. Dantzig Dissertation Award, 2019

• Winner, MSOM Award for Responsible Research in Operations Management, 2019

• Winner, MSOM Student Paper Competition, 2017

• Winner, INFORMS Doing Good with Good OR Student Paper Competition, 2017

• Winner, MSOM Practice-Based Research Competition, 2017

• Winner, POMS College of Sustainable Operations Best Student Paper Competition, 2017

• Finalist, INFORMS Franz Edelman Award, 2017

• Finalist, INFORMS Pierskalla Best Paper Award, 2016

• Finalist, INFORMS George Nicholson Student Paper Competition, 2015

Teaching

Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

• • Operations Management (Daytime MBA), Spring 2019-2025

  • Sustainable and Socially Responsible Operations (Ph.D.), Spring 2021, Fall 2022

Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology

• • Management Science (Undergraduate), Spring 2017