Hosting Great Speakers at the Isenberg School This Semester!

The Spring semester is off to a great start.

One of the highlights, I find, of each semester, is the speakers that we bring to campus, which enhance the education of our students and even the faculty. Also, the provide novel networking opportunities.

Sometimes the logistics of scheduling speakers can be challenging since the one inviting should also be present. This semester I have made commitments to speak at Yale University, the Mitre Corporation, the University of Buffalo, and Carnegie Mellon University.  I am also hosting speakers through our UMass Amherst INFORMS Speaker Series plus speakers in my course on Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare class.

Through the UMass Amherst INFORMS Speaker Series, we have three, already confirmed, great speakers: Dr. Renee Pratt of the Isenberg School, Dr. Michael Johnson of UMass Boston, and Dr. Les Servi of MITRE. The students of the award-winning UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter, which I have been the Faculty Advisor of for 12 years, help out with the logistics and the advertising of these talks. They prepared the nice posters below.

Dr. Michael Johnson will be speaking on March 4, 2016, and his topic will be Community-Based Operations Research. Once we receive all the information on his presentation, we will disseminate. Dr. Johnson is behind the terrific INFORMS initiative: Pro Bono Analytics.

With topics this semester such as Information Technology and Healthcare, Community-Based Operations Research, and Cybersecurity, I am sure that the talks and  the discussions with the audience will be very stimulating and engaging!

In addition, this semester, I am hosting the following speakers in my Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare class:

Mr. Jeff Hescock, who is the Director of Emergency Management and Business Continuity at UMass Amherst, and who was the first guest speaker in my class this semester;

Mr. Thomas Lynch - Director of Security - Baystate Medical Center Springfield;

Mr. Brad Campbell, 1st Vice Chair, American Red Cross of Western Massachusetts, Executive Director, Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Western MA;


Mr. Rasmus Dahlberg,  Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark;  (I also hope that Mr. Dahlberg will give a UMass Amherst INFORMS presentation);

Lt Col James G. Bishop, Lt Chief, Public Affairs, Westover Air Reserve Base. We will also have Skyping in  Mr. Ken Hundemer, Director of Operations for the Denton Amendment Humanitarian Assistance Program, located at Charleston Air Force Base, SC.

The above speakers are part of our Professor for a Day initiative at the Isenberg School.

Looking forward to all of our guest speakers!