Biographies of Candidates for 2009 Policy Council

President-Elect: Rogelio Oliva

Rogelio Oliva is Associate Professor of Information and Operations Management at the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University and Adjunct Professor at the MIT-Zaragoza Logistics Program at Zaragoza Logistics Center. His research explores how behavioral/social aspects of an organization interact with its technical components to determine the firm's operational performance. His current research interests include service operations, behavioral decision-making in supply chains, and the transition that product manufacturers are making to become service providers.

A native of Cd. Valles, Mexico, he holds a B.E. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Monterrey Technological Institute (ITESM) in Mexico, an M.A. in Systems in Management from Lancaster University (UK), and a Ph.D. in Operations Management and System Dynamics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Oliva lives in College Station, Texas with his wife Susana, and their three children. He serves as Associate Editor of the System Dynamics Review (since 2007). He co-chaired the 50th Anniversary Int. System Dynamics Conference in Boston (2007), has been thread chair (Org. Dynamics), session chair, and reviewer for the conference, and served on the SD Society Policy Council (1998-2001). More information available at http://iops.tamu.edu/faculty/roliva/

VP Electronic Presence: Robert L. Eberlein

Bob Eberlein consults and does software development for Ventana Systems, Inc. He was born in the United States, received his Bachelor's degree from the University of British Columbia and a PhD from the Sloan School of Management at MIT in 1984. As a graduate student he worked on the System Dynamics National Model project under Jay Forrester and has been involved in the field ever since. He is a founding member of the System Dynamics Society and has served as Secretary, Vice President Meetings, President and, most recently, Vice President Electronic Presence. As VP for Electronic Presence Bob intends to continue the development of web based support for System Dynamics community including the submission system, mailing lists and a System Dynamics wiki.

VP Publications: Deborah Lines Andersen

Deborah Lines Andersen is an associate professor of Information Studies and Informatics at the University at Albany, College of Computing and Information. Her PhD is in Information Science. In her recent term as VP Publications a major project was to spearhead the digitization of Dynamica. The next major project is to digitize the original System Dynamics Newsletter (Industrial Dynamics) and the earliest copies of the System Dynamics Newsletters so that they will be available online to all. Future work will include finishing the newsletter digitization project, editing the System Dynamics Bibliography, and creating a finding guide for SD materials.

VP Member Services: Krystyna Stave

Associate Professor, Environmental Studies, University of Nevada Las Vegas

Education:
B.S. Cornell University, School of Engineering
M.S. Dartmouth College
Ph.D. Yale University

I use a systems approach to study relationships between people and the biophysical environment, drawing on social ecology to examine the ways that a person's biosocial context affects the way she or he perceives and interprets environmental conditions, defines environmental problems, and develops ideas about how the environment should be used and managed, and on hydrology and ecosystem ecology to trace the effects of human activity through the biophysical system. I teach courses in system dynamics modeling, social ecology, and environmental problem-solving.

My research focus is to improve stakeholder participation in environmental decision-making. This includes environmental education to increase public awareness and understanding of environmental issues and the development of computer simulation models to support decision-making.

Secretary: J. Bradley Morrison

Assistant Professor, Brandeis University International Business School

Brad Morrison is fascinated with the challenges people face in accomplishing what they set out to do in organizations. His research focuses on implementation, which he as studied in several contexts, such as process improvement settings and firms adopting the practices of lean manufacturing. He examines the paradoxes of building organizational capability and implementing innovations. For example, why do the actions some managers take foster the very problems they are attempting to solve? His methods blend organization theory with tools of system dynamics, feedback theory, mathematical modeling and computer simulation to elucidate the relationships between structure in systems and the patterns of dynamic behavior they exhibit over time.

Brad has previously taught at the Sloan School at M.I.T. and in executive education in a variety of settings. He has been a partner at a leading global management consulting firm and has more than 15 years of consulting experience in the retail and consumer products and healthcare industries. He has assisted dozens of organizations wrestling with change in areas such as product development, sourcing, and supply chain management. He has extensive experience in Asia where he has worked in 11 countries for his clients from North America, Asia, and Europe. He has also worked in cancer research and in banking.

Brad holds an S.B. in Chemistry and an S.B. in Management Science from M.I.T., an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and a Ph.D. in Management from the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T.

Policy Council: Susan Howick

Susan Howick gained a BSc in Mathematics from Dundee University and a MSc in OR and a PhD in Management Science from Strathclyde. Before joining the Department she worked for an employee benefits consultancy, training to be an actuary. Her main research interest lies in the use of System Dynamics simulation. Susan is interested in its application to a number of areas including project analysis and technology diffusion. When applying System Dynamics to an application area, a particular focus of her research has been the integration of System Dynamics with other Management Science methods. Exploring processes and developing frameworks for the integration of methods aims to provide more robust, client-orientated decision support tools.

Susan was President of the Policy Council for the UK Chapter of the System Dynamics Society in 2007-08. She won the Operational Research Society Goodeve medal for her joint paper with Eden "The Impact of Disruption and Delay when Compressing Large Projects: Going for Incentives?" 2001. Susan is a member of the Editorial Board of System Dynamics Review. Her consultancy experience includes projects for Bombardier, Strathclyde Police, Reed Elsevier, PriceWaterhouse Coopers.

Policy Council: Birgit Kopainsky

Born 1975 in Baden, Switzerland, reside in Bergen, Norway

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher with the System Dynamics Group at the University of Bergen, Norway. My research and teaching interests lie in model based development planning and knowledge transfer. I analyze socioeconomic transformation processes as they might play out in rural regions in Europe or in developing nations. I have a master in Geography and a PhD from ETH Zurich in agricultural economics. In Switzerland I co-founded the Swiss Chapter of the International System Dynamics Society of which I was the co-president until I left for Nor-way almost two years ago. As a PhD student I also was the president of the student chapter.

As a postdoc I am not a PhD student anymore but I also don't have a permanent research position yet. For having permanent research positions we need to develop strategies for positioning ourselves with our expertise in SD in mostly non-SD environments. During my term in office I would like to structure the information and support needs of postdocs and assistant professors and portray a number of success stories in different disciplinary and institutional contexts. These success stories should serve as inspiration for young researchers in their SD career.

Policy Council: Agata Sawicka

Agata Sawicka holds a PhD in System Dynamics from the University of Bergen. Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1974, she has resided in Norway since 2000. As postdoctoral fellow at the University of Agder, she currently explores ways to make the communication of system dynamics models more effective. She is also involved in several national
and European research projects on e-government indicators and policy making. Attending the annual SDS conferences since 2000, Agata became a formal member of the Society in 2004. Since early 2007 she has been serving as AVP Member Services. In her term as PC member, she would like to continue to assist the VP Member Services. She is particularly interested in ensuring that the services the Society offers continue to meet the needs of the increasingly diverse membership.

Policy Council: Aldo Zagonel

Aldo Zagonel received his Ph.D. in Public Administration & Policy from the University at Albany in 2004. His doctoral research was grounded in group modeling skills and techniques, and involved a model-based analysis of the consequences of U.S. welfare reform. Aldo has since been working for Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, where he applies modeling and simulation to analyze critical infrastructure interdependencies and studies potential failures and disruptions. Aldo has served as Assistant Vice-President for Chapters and is the Organizing Chair of the 2009 Conference. He has close ties to his home country, Brazil, and plans to continue contributing to that Chapter of the Society. As a member of the Policy Council, Aldo would like to be involved in initiatives that increase and strengthen Society membership, and promote chapters and SIGS as focal points of activity.

RLS February 25, 2008