Faculty Profiles

Damian Beil joined Tauber Leadership in July 2017 as Business School Co-Director. Professor Beil had been an integral part of the Tauber community for several years as a faculty advisor for award-winning Tauber teams, and considers Tauber to be "one of the best things U-M has to offer students and faculty." As Professor of Technology and Operations, Dr. Beil teaches the MBA operations management core and advises graduate student groups in collaborative projects with private industry. READ MORE >

Professor Bozer served for 11 years as the Engineering Co-Director of the Tauber Institute for Global Operations. He is also the Co-Director/Co-Founder of the Lean Manufacturing and Lean Logistics Certificate Programs offered through IS+D at the College of Engineering. READ MORE >

Dr. Chesney has won multiple teaching awards and was involved in the formation of a multidisciplinary Design Minor in the College of Engineering. He was also involved in the formation of an internal center to create hardware and software for children with cognitive and physical disabilities through a collaboration between the College of Engineering and CS Mott Children’s Hospital. READ MORE >


"Students are hungry for real stuff. So touring plants and assessing them is something they really embrace. It is real, not theory. Having an experience where they can go out into the industrial world and be capable of assessing it is something they value. I hear from students who took the RPA course at Michigan saying they use it all the time... The educational process tends to go naturally to theory but students move to “how does this really work?” READ MORE >

Tauber team project faculty advisor Richard E. Hughes is an Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, and also holds appointments in Biomedical Engineering and Industrial & Operations Engineering. Dr. Hughes believes that the most important skill for today's Operations students to develop is critical thinking. He highly values the educational impact of the real-world situations institute students experience during their Tauber team projects. READ MORE >

Professor Kapuscinski served for 8 years as the Business Co-Director of the Tauber Institute for Global Operations. He is currently the John Psarouthakis Research Professor of Manufacturing Management and Chair of Technology and Operations. READ MORE >

Professor Sridhar Kota is the Herrick Professor of Engineering in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Michigan and serves on the Executive Committee for the Tauber Institute for Global Operations. A career highlight was serving as the Assistant Director for Advanced Manufacturing under President Obama and developing policy recommendations and implementation strategies to enhance U.S. competitiveness and foster innovation-based manufacturing of emerging technologies. READ MORE >

Associate Professor of Industrial & Operations Engineering Mariel Lavieri has been a faculty advisor for several Tauber projects. Dr. Lavieri applies operations research to healthcare topics, developing dynamic programming, stochastic control, and continuous, partially observable state space models to guide screening, monitoring and treatment decisions of chronic disease patients, as well as models for health workforce and capacity planning. READ MORE >

"There is no doubt in my mind that if engineers and business majors learn about lean, they will have definite job security in the years to come."
Debra Levantrosser is a leading advocate of lean in Michigan, lecturer for Industrial & Operations Engineering, and Tauber Institute team project advisor. READ MORE >

Brian Love is Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Materials Sciences, and Dentistry. Since 2003, Dr. Love has advised over a dozen Tauber team projects. READ MORE>

William S. Lovejoy is a noted researcher, educator and author whose research interests focus on managing across functional boundaries, innovation, and health care. Lovejoy's integrated product development course (taught jointly with the School of Engineering and the School of Art & Design) has enjoyed coverage by CNN, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Businessweek. READ MORE >

"Leadership experience in operations, planning, supply chain, and as a program management executive in the automotive industry, prepared me well to teach at Ross and to advise action-based learning teams."
Lisa Pawlik teaches business communication, and enjoys advising students tackling real-world problems for both the Ross MBA MAP program and the Tauber Institute’s14-week team projects. READ MORE >

Dr. Prakash Sathe brings extensive leadership experience from the automotive industry to his work as a IOE lecturer and Tauber team project advisor. His automotive work spans 25 years, both at OEMs and at first tier suppliers. His experience includes Director of Reliability for Electrical Steering at TRW, Director of Warranty and Reliability at Chrysler, Volkswagen, ALPS, Donnelly Mirrors, Behr, and Continental Automotive Systems. Sathe says, "I look at how I can help [students] relate to the real-world of industry with everything I teach." READ MORE >

Eric Svaan has served for over 23 years as a faculty advisor for the Tauber Institute for Global Operations. He is a lecturer of Technology and Operations for the Ross School of Business, and co-teaches the Integrated Product Development course in conjunction for the STAMPS School of Art & Design. READ MORE >

Thirty-nine years ago, Brian Talbot gave up a high profile job in the private sector to pursue a career in academia at the University of Michigan. His current research focuses on the development of heuristic and optimal solution procedures for production and manpower planning, vehicle loading and resource-constrained scheduling. He is also investigating issues in industrial ecology, green manufacturing and sustainable supply chains. READ MORE >

Alumna StephanieTharp returns to U-M after serving as Program Chair of Industrial Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Design. She currently runs a design studio that produces commercial and speculative products, and is the recipient of several design awards. READ MORE >