What's Your StORy? Anna Svirsko

Name: Anna Svirsko

Employer: United States Naval Academy

Job Title: Assistant Professor

INFORMS member for 5 years

I think that we sometimes forget how much representation matters. One thing I noticed during grad school is that very few of our colloquium speakers were women. So one small thing that universities can do is be aware and make sure to invite female speakers. I do think things are changing, and more women are getting involved in INFORMS than ever before! 

During my time at Pitt we looked to get our INFORMS Chapter very involved with our students and with other chapters across INFORMS. We focused on expanding our events to include both academic and social events for our members to participate in. Through my involvement with the Pitt INFORMS Chapter, I had the opportunity to expand my network and make friends from other student chapters that I talk with regularly.  

For me, this was an award where the nomination meant more than winning the award. It meant a lot to me that our faculty advisor recognized the hard work I put into developing our chapter, and was willing to take the time to nominate me for the award. 

I would tell myself not to be afraid of failure. It happens to everyone and the best thing you can do is learn from it and move on. 

"Live Life in Color: It’s too short to just wear black and white."

It has been different than what I thought it would be. Originally, I thought that I would be very independent and not have to feel as much pressure to report to anyone. But what surprised me is that I actually feel a lot of pressure from my students to teach them something new and interesting and to make class fun each day. 

I think of analytics as a tool box of things that we use to analyze data and use that data to get relevant answers for real-life problems.