Pinar Keskinocak, a professor in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISyE), was appointed the College of Engineering’s ADVANCE professor by Dean Gary S. May.

“I am pleased that Pinar has accepted this role as the College of Engineering’s ADVANCE professor,” May said. “She will be working with our faculty and administrators to reduce gender bias and increase career advancement opportunities for women in the College as well as the Georgia Tech as a whole.”

The National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE program is designed to increase the participation of women in the scientific and engineering workforce by boosting their representation and advancement in academic scientific and engineering careers. To meet this goal, the program provides opportunities for people and organizations to support new approaches to improving the climate for women in U.S. academic institutions. It also supports facilitating women's advancement to the highest ranks of academic leadership.

The ADVANCE program at Georgia Tech is coordinated by the Institute's ADVANCE Team (ADVANCE professors from the Institute’s six colleges and the Center for the Study of Women, Science, and Technology). Team members take an integrated approach to institutional factors supporting the full participation and advancement of women faculty. In this position, Keskinocak will work within the College and across the Institute on a number of women-faculty issues, including developing strategies to address gender equity issues in hiring, promotion and retention of women faculty.

Keskinocak is the William W. George Chair in ISyE. She is also the associate director of research for the Health Systems Institute, and the co-director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems at Georgia Tech. Keskinocak's research focuses on the applications of operations research and management science with societal impact, particularly health and humanitarian applications, supply chain management, and logistics and transportation.