With Michigan State University’s supply chain management programs, you’ll not only benefit from the knowledge of a leading research university, but also its expert on-campus masters-level faculty. Communicating with professors during virtual office hours and viewing courses via streaming video make learning faster than in the traditional classroom setting.
PROGRAM FACULTY
Dr. David J. Closs is the John H. McConnell Chair Emeritus in Business Administration and is the former Chairperson of the Department of Supply Chain Management at Michigan State University. Dr. Closs received his BS, MBA and Ph.D. from MSU. Dr. Closs actively participates in logistics executive development seminars and has presented sessions in North America, South America, Asia, Australia and Eastern Europe. Dr. Closs’ recent research includes supply chain design and strategy, the role of supply chain in economic development, food safety, sustainability, and creating competitive advantage through supply chain management. Dr. Closs has authored and co-authored numerous articles and textbooks that have been published in over ten languages. Dr. Closs is an active member in the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and The Supply Chain Council. He was Editor of the Journal of Business Logistics and is Executive Editor of Logistics Quarterly. He was appointed by the Governor of Michigan as a member of the Michigan Logistics and Supply Chain Collaboration Commission. He was also appointed by the US Secretary of Commerce to the Advisory Commission for Supply Chain Competitiveness. Dr. Closs was the Founding Director of Michigan State’s Axia Institute for Value Chain Creation. Dr. Closs continues to work with the Axia Institute in research involving manufacturing and global transportation. Dr. Closs received the Distinguished Faculty Award from MSU in 2013.
Dr. David J. Frayer, Ph.D. is Assistant Dean, Outreach & Engagement in The Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University, where he leads a group responsible for design, development and delivery of executive and professional education programs and two executive education and corporate learning facilities (The James B. Henry Center for Executive Development in Lansing, Michigan and the Management Education Center in Troy, Michigan). In addition to these responsibilities, he also co-directs the annual Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Executive Seminar (June 2022). Prior to assuming these responsibilities, Dr. Frayer was involved in The Global Procurement and Supply Chain Benchmarking Initiative, a third-party procurement and supply chain benchmarking effort involving over 200 companies worldwide. He received his Ph.D. in marketing, logistics and international business at Michigan State University and previously received his B.A. and M.B.A. in marketing from Michigan State University. Prior to returning to Michigan State University for his Ph.D., Dr. Frayer was part of a product development staff group at Ameritech Publishing, Inc. (Troy, Michigan).
Dr. Frayer is co-author of Best Practice Model for ECR Alliances: Guidelines for the Development, Implementation and Maintenance of Alliances, a research report prepared for the Best Practices Operating Committee of the Joint-Industry Project on Efficient Consumer Response. He is also a co-author of World Class Logistics: The Challenge of Managing Continuous Change, a research-based book prepared for the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, New Product Development: Strategies for Supplier Integration, a research-based book prepared for the American Society for Quality and Global Supply Chain Management, a practitioner-focused book from McGraw-Hill. He has published articles in the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Marketing Education Review, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Journal of Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Management Review, Logistics Focus, The Logistics Handbook, The Distribution Management Handbook, The Handbook on Industrial Sourcing and Logistics Technology International as well as conference proceedings at the National Science Foundation, Decision Sciences Institute, Association of Marketing Theory and Practice, Institute for Supply Management and the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. Dr. Frayer is a frequent speaker at professional meetings, academic conferences and executive development programs. His research interests include strategic alliances, talent supply chain management, supply chain integration and global procurement and logistics strategy.
Dr. Frayer is a member of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, the Supply Chain Management Council of West Michigan and received the 2009 Outstanding Achievement Award for the advancement of the supply chain management profession in West Michigan.
Dr. Tomas Hult is the Byington Endowed Chair, Professor of International Business, and Director of the International Business Center in the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Dr. Hult is also the Executive Director of the Academy of International Business, with members in some 90 countries; President of the AIB Foundation and board member of the Sheth Foundation. He serves on the U.S. District Export Council and has organized teams that have helped some 12,000 firms in the U.S. expand internationally since 2006.
Dr. Tomas Hult is one of the world’s leading authorities on global strategy. He particularly specializes in topics dealing with the intersection of international business and supply chain management. Some of his recent books include: Global Supply Chain Management (2014) with David Closs and David Frayer (published by McGraw Hill Professional) and Total Global Strategy (2012) with George Yip (published by Pearson Prentice Hall). In research, Hult consistently ranks at the very top in international business and supply chain management. For his research work, he has been recognized with election as a Fellow of the Academy of International Business (one of only 83 scholars in the world bestowed with this honor, and the only one focused on supply chain management.)
M. Bixby Cooper, PhD is an Associate Professor with the Department of Supply Chain Management. He received his BS from the University of North Carolina, his MBA from the University of Virginia and his PhD from the University of Alabama. Dr. Cooper has spent time in Japan, Korea, Australia and Brazil, gaining invaluable knowledge about their cultural and business practices. Through his travels and research abroad studying distribution practices, Dr. Cooper has gained a greater understanding of the ideology of logistics and distribution. Dr. Cooper pulls from these international experiences to enhance his lectures and encourage students to understand cultural differences existent in the business world. He believes a great challenge to conducting business abroad is dealing with a diversity of cultures and languages. Despite these inherent challenges, he stresses the value of doing business abroad and its ability to broaden students’ understanding of the global environment. Dr. Cooper hopes to see Michigan State University improve its joint programs with universities abroad, specifically with universities that have strong business programs.
MS in Supply Chain Management
Dr. William A. Donohue is currently a distinguished professor of Communication at Michigan State University. He received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 1976. Dr. Donohue has published over 100 articles and books in the areas of conflict, communication, negotiation and mediation while also conducting workshops and other intervention activities focusing on communication, leadership development, and conflict management. His recent book, Critical Conversations as Leadership, provides a broad understanding of the role of communication in effective leadership. Dr. Donohue is a past president of the International Association for Conflict Management and is currently on the editorial board of several major journals. Dr. Donohue is also a Fellow of the International Communication Association and the International Association for Conflict Management.
Dr. Stanley Griffis is the Bowersox-Thull Endowed Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management in the Broad College Department of Supply Chain Management at Michigan State University. Dr. Griffis is the Ph.D. program director for MSU’s Logistics Ph.D. program, and a member of the board of directors for Western Decision Sciences. Dr. Griffis’ research focuses on illicit supply chains, real-world vehicle routing, last mile logistics, and consumer valuation of logistics services. Dr. Griffis has published extensively in prominent academic journals including Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Operations Management, Decision Sciences, Transportation Journal, European Journal of Operations Research, Journal of Supply Chain Management, and a variety of others. Additionally, Dr. Griffis is a past National Science Foundation grant awardee for his work on illicit supply chains in wildlife trafficking supply chains.
Dr. Ahmet Kirca is an Associate Professor of International Business and Marketing at Michigan State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina, Columbia. Prior to joining MSU in 2006, he worked at GWU in Washington, DC. Kirca serves as the Director of International Business Center (MSU-CIBER). His research focuses on international business and marketing strategy with a focus on firm internationalization, innovation, organizational culture and applied meta-analysis. Kirca teaches international business/marketing and global supply chain management courses in various undergraduate, MBA and Ph.D. programs. He also offers workshops and seminars on applied meta-analytic techniques.
Jason Miller (PhD: The Ohio State University) is an Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management and the interim department chairperson for the Department of Supply Chain Management at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business. He teaches an MBA course in integrated logistics systems, a Master of Science course on distribution fulfillment, and a Ph.D. seminar overviewing the application of economic theories to frame the investigation of supply chain management phenomena. He specializes in processing and synthesizing government and private data sources to help practitioners make better decisions. Jason’s analyses are frequently quoted by mainstream media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, NBC News, NPR, Reuters, and Business Insider, as well as industry-focused news outlets including FreightWaves, Journal of Commerce, Commercial Carrier Journal, Retail Dive, Transport Dive, and Supply Chain Dive. Jason frequently speaks at industry-sponsored webinars discussing current macro-economic conditions and works with practitioner groups and outlets such as the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), the Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies (CAPS), and Supply Chain Management Review to provide updates about the current state of the labor market, manufacturing, retailing, wholesaling, transportation, and international trade. He disseminates some of his content through LinkedIn for those that find this type of material interesting.
Dr. Sriram Narayanan is the Kesseler Family Endowed Faculty Fellow of Supply Chain Management at the Broad College of Business, Michigan State University (MSU) in the Supply Chain Management Department. He earned his doctoral degree in Operations, Technology and Innovation Management at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Sriram’s primary research interests are innovation, organizational productivity, sustainability and disability inclusion in supply chains. He has published more than 30 articles in top-tier supply chain management journals. His research is practice focused, and he is also a regular contributor to Supply Chain Management Review, a leading practice journal. His work has been cited in several popular press outlets. As an aside, he is the co-creator of the Abilities, Opportunities, and Future of Work podcast – available on iTunes in partnership with the Michigan Rehabilitation Services (A division of the Labor and Employment Office). Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked in the industry in procurement and project leadership roles with Maruti Suzuki Motor in India and HCL Technologies – a leading IT services company.
Dr. Simone Peinkofer received her Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management from the University of Arkansas in 2016 and currently is an Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management in the Department of Supply Chain Management in the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Her research interests focus on consumer issues in supply chain management and omni-channel fulfillment operations. Her research has been published in top logistics and operations management journals such as the Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Operations Management, and the Production and Operations Management Journal. Dr. Peinkofer has nine years of teaching experience and has taught classes in the area of logistics. In her free time, she enjoys spending time in the outdoors (i.e., hiking, backpacking, skiing) with her husband and son.
Tobias Schoenherr, the Hoagland-Metzler Endowed Professor of Purchasing and Supply Management, is an award-winning scholar and teacher focusing on the area of sourcing, with a particular interest in buyer-supplier relationships. Having obtained his Ph.D. from Indiana University in Operations Management and Decision Sciences, he has been teaching at numerous universities, both domestically and internationally, primarily in the areas of strategic sourcing and supply management. He was recently recognized as being among the Top 10 Thought Leaders in Supply Chain Management worldwide and has published more than 75 peer-reviewed articles in journals like Management Science, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Marketing Research, and Production and Operations Management. He is currently serving as the co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Operations and Production Management, and as an Associate Editor and Editorial Board Member for numerous other journals. Dr. Schoenherr has worked with global organizations such as John Deere, Raytheon, Stellantis, McKinsey, and the World Bank. For more information, please see https://broad.msu.edu/profile/schoen48/.
Dr. Sri Talluri is currently the Hoagland Metzler Endowed Professor and a Professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. His research interests are in the areas of supply risk, buyer–supplier relationships, sustainability in supply chains and performance evaluation. His methodological expertise includes deterministic and stochastic modeling, game theory, empirical methods and data envelopment analysis. He has authored or coauthored more than 100 articles in journals, such as IIE Transactions, Journal of Operations Management, Decision Sciences, Production and Operations Management Journal, International Journal of Production Research, European Journal of Operational Research, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of Business Logistics, and others. His research has garnered more than 13,000 citations with an H-index of 53. Sri currently serves as the Co-Editor in Chief of the Decision Sciences Journal. He is a Fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute, and a member of the Decision Sciences Institute and the Production and Operations Management Society.
Dr. Shawnee Vickery is the Demmer Legacy Professor of Business Administration, Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management and Co-Founder of the MS in Supply Chain Management in the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in business administration from the University of South Carolina. Professor Vickery’s research and teaching interests are in the areas of operations strategy, supply chain integration, and health care management. Her work has appeared in journals such as Management Science, Journal of Operations Management, IEEE Transactions, Decision Sciences, European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Production and Operations Management, and others. She is the recipient of MSU’s Teacher-Scholar Award, the Richard J. Lewis Quality of Excellence Faculty Award and the William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award. Over her career at MSU, she has served the Broad College of Business in various capacities, including Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Research (2006-2008), Co-director of the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (now the Burgess Institute) (2008-2011), and Faculty Director of the Demmer Center for Business Transformation (2011-2017). Dr. Vickery is recognized for her work in the areas of operations strategy, production competence, and supply chain integration. Her research, which is highly cited, has focused on empirical studies examining factors which affect competitive performance in key industries.
Joseph Sandor Former President and CEO of Creative Procurement Strategies, Joseph Sandor is the Hoagland-Metzler Endowed Professor of Practice in Supply Management Emeritus in the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. 
During his time with Creative Procurement Strategies (CPS) Sandor advised clients such as Harley-Davidson, John Deere, Electrolux, Rolls-Royce, Whirlpool, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Motorola, ConAgra, Delphi, Sandia, Schlumberger and the USAF. Prior to forming CPS, Sandor was CPO and director of Corporate Purchasing and Logistics for the Sara Lee Corporation for 15 years. Earlier he held supply management positions at Schlumberger and General Motors.
He earned a BA from the University of Miami and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He has Certified Purchasing Manager (CPM) and Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) credentials and was an adjunct professor at The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. At MSU, he co-directed the annual Purchasing and Supply Management Executive Seminar and the Supplier Relationships Program, the ISM/MSU Leadership Awards, the Federal Government Supply Management Interface, the Executive Advisory Board, the MSU Executive Speaker’s Series and the Broad Executive Summit. In retirement he facilitates a weekly on-line Master’s class with MSU Executive Development.
