Building for the Future: Lisa Maillart named Interim Chair of Industrial Engineering
Our department values an inclusive, collaborative, and transparent culture, and I will prioritize nurturing that kind of environment so that our faculty, staff, and students can flourish in their academic pursuits.
As the Department of Industrial Engineering enters its second century at the University of Pittsburgh, its leadership is poised for new change and growth.
Professor Lisa M. Maillart, PhD Student Recruitment Coordinator, will serve as Interim Department Chair effective July 1, according to an announcement by James R. Martin II, U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering. Maillart succeeds Professor and former Senior Associate Dean Larry Shuman, who will step into the role of interim associate chair.
“Last summer the School engaged in a national search for a new Chair of Industrial Engineering while appointing Larry as interim chair and Karen Bursic (undergraduate), Lisa Maillart (PhD recruitment), Jay Rajgopal (graduate), and M. Ravi Shankar (research) as department coordinators. During that period, I have witnessed a stronger, more vibrant culture of collaboration as well a new sense of forward momentum,” Dean Martin said. “These individuals set to advance undergraduate and graduate education, recruitment, and research, while also developing initiatives that supported the school’s strategic plan.
“Their work over the past year has helped to refocus department expectations and aspirations and so a mutual decision was made to pause the search and continue these visible signs of advancement under Lisa’s interim leadership.”
“I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as interim department chair. In concert with the Swanson School’s leadership and my departmental colleagues, I will lead the department forward in a consensus-driven way toward rigorous academic goals,” Maillart said. “Our department values an inclusive, collaborative, and transparent culture, and I will prioritize nurturing that kind of environment so that our faculty, staff, and students can flourish in their academic pursuits.”
A graduate of Virginia Tech (BS, MS) and University of Michigan (PhD), Maillart has been a faculty member in the department since 2006 following an appointment as assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University, and leads the Department’s Stochastic Modeling, Analysis and Control Laboratory. In 2017 she was selected as a Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar to the Netherlands and serves as vice president of the Greater Pittsburgh Area Chapter of the Fulbright Association. She has executed multiple faculty searches; refocused PhD recruitment within the department; and served in officer positions in multiple INFORMS subdivisions.
This year Maillart was accepted to Drexel University’s Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Science (ELATES at Drexel®) program, a one-of-a-kind professional development program for women in academic STEM fields. ELATES at Drexel is a one-year, part-time program that focuses on increasing personal and professional leadership effectiveness, leading and managing change initiatives within institutions, using strategic finance and resource management to enhance organizational missions, and creating a network of exceptional women who bring organizational perspectives and deep personal capacity to the institutions and society they serve.
Maillart’s research focuses on decision-making under uncertainty for medical decision making and healthcare applications, as well as maintenance operations. Her most recent funded research includes "Optimization of Milk Bank Operations” (W.K. Kellogg Foundation) and co-participant in “Clinical implications of drug shortages during COVID-19 in the U.S. and Canada” (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality).