Punk Rock President

In 2007, as a first-year tenure-track professor (and one of the few with an operations research background at Virginia Commonwealth University), Laura Albert decided she needed a space to discuss what was going on in the operations research (O.R.) discipline and get the word out to students and other professionals about this fascinating field. She came up with a blog, “Punk Rock Operations Research,” that has stood the test of time and is still running and quite popular among O.R. folks. Fifteen years later, Laura is using a new platform to keep the O.R. community on the cutting edge: INFORMS.

I had the immense pleasure of interviewing Laura as the incoming 2023 INFORMS president while we were on-site in Indianapolis for the 2022 INFORMS Annual Meeting. This is my third president interview since my editorship of OR/MS Today began, and my first that was finally able to take place in person. This is one of my favorite interviews to conduct and share with our readership because it truly gives members a better glimpse into the person they elected to serve INFORMS for three years (as president-elect, president and past president). Selfishly, I love hearing what new goals and initiatives each person has planned for their presidency year, and speaking with Laura did not disappoint.

Laura is a professor and department chair of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and, as previously mentioned, author of the blog “Punk Rock Operations Research.” Her research applies O.R. methodologies to address societally important problems, and her research has advanced knowledge of how to efficiently and equitably allocate resources in public sector systems. She has collaborated with practitioners from industry and government, and her research findings have been put in practice and influenced policy. She frequently engages the media to improve awareness of OR/MS and analytics and has advocated for its widespread use in government.

Read the following Q&A to learn more about Laura and her background and the vision she has for the upcoming year at INFORMS, including a fascinating tagline project and continuing to promote both the advocacy program as well as the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion at INFORMS and in the O.R. field.

Can you give us a brief state of INFORMS from your viewpoint in terms of its major activities?

INFORMS is the leading association for operations research, management science and analytics. Our membership has been steady at about 12,000 members, the attendance at the 2022 Annual Meeting topped 6,000 and our publications have had significant growth in submissions and downloads. Although the last two years have been challenging, we are in a good place.

Your predecessors have written about INFORMS’ finances and the current operating deficit due to the pandemic years. How will INFORMS continue its financial recovery and growth during your presidency?

I am committed to being a good financial steward of INFORMS. It’s important, and thankfully, outgoing Treasurer Dave Hunt and Chief Financial Officer Darda Duncan led the effort to create INFORMS’ first five-year budget plan, which is a large step forward for financial planning and will be a tool to help us evaluate the impact of different decisions that the board will make. I plan to help the board position INFORMS to be strategic without taking on new initiatives that come with a hefty price tag. It will be necessary to look closely at what to alter or sunset as we navigate this process.

What are INFORMS’ greatest strengths?

The greatest strength of INFORMS is its members. INFORMS is a volunteer-led association, and the involvement and generosity of our members is why the membership has been steady and why our community has stayed on the cutting edge.

You noted in your candidate statement that many societally important problems remain that require OR/MS innovation, and it is your intention to position INFORMS and the profession to undertake these challenges. How will you do this?

I see two main efforts that will be helpful in 2023. The first is meetings. Our meetings are where we exchange ideas, learn and collaborate. The return to in-person meetings is a catalyst for innovation that enables our members to tackle new challenges. I found both the 2022 Business Analytics Conference and Annual Meeting to be intellectually stimulating. I enjoyed the new Wednesday format at this year’s Annual Meeting, in which I took part in the advocacy events. I welcome some experimentation with meetings to engage our members and help our community continue to innovate.

The second effort is advocacy. In the coming year, I want to continue to provide opportunities for INFORMS members to engage with policymakers so we can broaden our impact and discover new challenges where our expertise is relevant. I plan to prioritize educational opportunities that will enable INFORMS members to repackage their research findings for consumption by policymakers and government leaders to increase our impact.

Can you briefly discuss your role in the INFORMS Advocacy initiative and Advocacy Governance Committee?

I helped lead and shape early advocacy initiative efforts in 2018 along with the leadership of Jeff Cohen, INFORMS chief strategy and innovation officer, and several others. I chaired the two INFORMS Government and Analytics Summits in 2018 and 2019. In preparing for the first summit, our group coined the catchphrase “saving lives, saving money and solving problems” as we experimented with ways to succinctly state the value proposition that INFORMS offers to policymakers. The advocacy program has showcased INFORMS members’ research to policymakers and provided many opportunities for members to make a difference. I’m delighted to see continued support for the advocacy program.

Diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM has always been an issue and has been brought to the forefront in recent years. You tirelessly advocate for women and underrepresented groups, serving on the DEI Committee and even helping to write the INFORMS Code of Conduct. How do you plan to continue this important work to further DEI at INFORMS?

There are a lot of exciting efforts underway in the DEI space, thanks to the leadership of many INFORMS members and the board of directors. The DEI Ambassadors Program, the introduction of an unconscious bias video, the first-ever LGBTQIA+ reception and the Military Veterans Interest Forum reception at the 2022 Annual Meeting are some examples of steps that INFORMS has taken to be more inclusive. One of the 2023 DEI Ambassador projects seeks to collect more demographic data about members so we can better understand who our members are and make more informed member engagement decisions. I’ve already updated my data in my INFORMS account, and I encourage other members to do the same. In the next year, I intend to support and shape the next steps to keep the momentum going.

You are a career-long INFORMS member and have served in numerous capacities, including as VP of marketing, communication and outreach, when you shepherded in a renewed INFORMS online presence and reenergized INFORMS media efforts. What’s next in this space?

I want to enhance the INFORMS brand. When I was the VP of marketing, communication and outreach, I introduced the new INFORMS logo at the 2016 Member Meeting, and it has served INFORMS well. The only thing missing is a tagline. Members often have to explain what INFORMS is to nonmembers, and those who are not familiar with INFORMS don’t know that INFORMS is an acronym. A tagline will better market INFORMS and improve its branding; in conjunction with an improved online presence, a tagline could help INFORMS broadcast its messages to the world. It is my hope that we don’t stop with a tagline and continue to explore ways to enhance the INFORMS brand.

Are there any other new goals or in-the-works INFORMS initiatives that you could share with the membership?

I am focused on doing what I can to help the INFORMS community stay on the cutting edge of innovation. I see a need to evaluate our meetings, align programming and improve mobile engagement. Mobile engagement is particularly exciting because it allows us to get the most out of our membership when we’re not all together at conferences such as the Annual Meeting.

You have earned numerous INFORMS awards, as well as the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow Award, Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers Fellow Award, INFORMS Impact Prize, National Science Foundation CAREER award and Fulbright Award. What have these bestowments meant to you and your career?

I am honored and humbled to be recognized by my peers. 

Membership is essential to the financial health of INFORMS, and you noted in your candidate statement that it is “critical to enhance the membership experience, especially for practitioners.” Can you elaborate on ways you might try to reach these sought-after professionals and encourage them to join INFORMS?

Focusing on early-career practitioners is a crucial market segment, and it’s my sense that INFORMS is not realizing its potential to capture these practitioners as members. I’m a lifelong academic who educates students who become practitioners, so I would argue that our academic members can help. In the coming year, INFORMS will study this market segment, and the board will explore how to better serve this member segment. The potential for INFORMS is enormous.

What compelled you to become an INFORMS member?

As a first-year Ph.D. student, my advisor and mentor, Sheldon Jacobson, told me that I should sign up for an INFORMS membership. At the time, I imagined that I could make better use of the $30 that a student membership cost. Sheldon sat me down and told me about the importance of being a member of a professional organization and how it would give me so much over my career. He was right. I became an INFORMS member then, and I’ve been a member ever since.

What motivates you to continue your all-important volunteer commitments, and how do you find the time/energy?

It’s fun! I try to choose volunteer commitments that align with my interests and values. If I look back on my volunteer commitments, most of the personal fulfillment came from the people I worked with and the friendships I made along the way.

What do you like to do for fun?

Spending time with my family is what I most enjoy. These days, I am busy keeping up with them by attending marching band competitions, concerts and cross-country meets. Outside of that, I enjoy being physically active by running and cycling. I still occasionally take part in my pandemic hobbies of baking bread, assembling jigsaw puzzles, playing golf and going birding.

Is there one particular area or initiative that you really want to move the dial on during 2023?

In many ways, we are still emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. I want to be intentional about that transition. For that reason, I have decided to focus on a bundle of efforts that we can move the dial on in 2023, including developing a tagline, improving membership mobile and meetings engagement, attracting early career practice members, strengthening our AI identity, advancing DEI efforts and communicating INFORMS’ message to policymakers. Finally, there is an amendment under current consideration to modernize the INFORMS Constitution. It is crucial that at least 20% of INFORMS members cast a ballot; otherwise, none of the ballots will be counted. You can still cast your ballot through February 28, 2023, if you haven’t already.

Looking further ahead, what’s your vision for INFORMS and the profession 5 or 10 years out?

We have the methods and expertise to make a difference in the world. In the past few years, we have seen many of our members rise up to address the world’s greatest problems in public health, supply chains, artificial intelligence, equity in public sector systems and many other areas. Over the next decade, I expect our community to continue to make major advances and rack up more “big wins.” It is my hope that 10 years from now, the OR/MS community will be widely recognized for being on the cutting edge and driving meaningful change around the world.