Professor named INFORMS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Ambassador

Published: February 18, 2021

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Alice Smith, Joe W. Forehand/Accenture professor of industrial and systems engineering, was named a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Ambassador for the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science, or INFORMS, for her project “Stimulating Participation of Underrepresented Groups in INFORMS Editorial Boards.”

The project aims to widen the diversity of people who are included in the peer-reviewing and editing process of scholarly journals, specifically INFORMS journals. It is one of 11 projects selected for the year and ambassadors for each project will present their findings at the INFORMS annual meeting.

“I am very honored to be named an INFORMS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Ambassador,” said Smith, who also holds a joint appointment with the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering. “I have been active in broadening participation in STEM, especially engineering, for more that 30 years and there is still much to do. This project aims to improve this situation by demystifying the journal reviewing and editing processes and providing role models and lessons learned from successful editors. INFORMS is the largest professional society for industrial and systems engineering and sponsors a wide variety of respected journals, so it is the perfect place to enact this potentially impactful project.”

Submitted by: Cassie Montgomery