Program Faculty

Smeal has assembled a faculty of leaders who possess that exceptional combination of intelligence, character, vision and compassion; the most valued qualities in business leadership.

The Smeal faculty ranks among the top 20 for research excellence across all disciplines. In strategy, we are ranked third in the country, with two of our professors listed among the top 10 coaches in the world for strategy and leadership.

Faculty members in the Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems have won numerous teaching awards, have earned national and international reputations, and are respected by both business professionals and academics.

Here you find a complete listing of your faculty leaders for the Master of Professional Studies in Supply Chain Management.

	John Stevens, Director, Master of Professional Studies in Supply Chain Management. John Stevens has teaching experience in operations management and business strategy. He is an Emeritus Professor of Management, former Chair of Lehigh University’s Department of Management and a founder of Lehigh’s Center for Value Chain Research. An Army National Guard major general, John returned to active duty in September 2001 to serve as Assistant Deputy Commanding General, United States Army Material Command where his duties included weapons system life cycle cost management, performance metrics and measurement, support to deployed forces and construction management. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati and is a graduate of the Army War College and the Army Logistics Management College. jes58@psu.edu
	Gary L. Gittings, Faculty Lead, On-Line Certificate Program, Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems and Sr. Research Associate, Pennsylvania Transportation Institution Gary Gittings has teaching expertise in principles of supply chain management, order fulfillment and distribution systems, and supply chain systems design and strategy. His research focus is freight transport and logistics policy, with particular emphasis on infrastructure finance, decision-making, and investment. Gary currently is the Faculty Lead for the Supply Chain and Information Systems Graduate Certificate Program offered by Penn State's World Campus and the Smeal College of Business. He also is a Senior Research Associate with the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute and a Research Associate with the Center for Supply Chain Research, both at Penn State University. For the last seven years, Gary has been teaching online courses in the graduate certificate program which provides fully accredited supply chain management education to adult learners, regardless of location, via the World Wide Web. Gary earned a Master of Science in Transportation from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Penn State University. glg@psu.edu
	Terry P. Harrison, Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems Terry Harrison has teaching and research interests in the areas of supply chain management and modeling, large scale production and distribution systems, decision support systems, applied optimization and the management of renewable natural resources. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in Management Science. tharrison@psu.edu
	Douglas J. Thomas, Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management Douglas Thomas has expertise in inventory management, production planning and coordination, and sales and operations planning. He is a research associate with the Center for Supply Chain Research and teaches courses in supply chain management and quantitative modeling at the undergraduate and MBA levels. He has twice been honored with the MBA Excellence in Teaching Award and is a frequent faculty leaver in both open-enrollment and custom executive development programs. His current research interests include coordinating production and inventory planning across the extended enterprise and connecting decision models to logistics performance measurement. He earned his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. dthomas@psu.edu
	Evelyn A. Thomchick, Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management Evelyn Thomchick has expertise in international logistics, transportation policy, and logistics education and skills. She is academic program co-director of Penn Stateв's Executive Management Program for Transportation and Highway Engineers. Prior to joining Penn State, she was employed by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, where she worked on the implementation of a computer-based model designed to schedule ocean vessels for Bethlehemв's Marine Operations Division. She also served on a systems design team that studied the U.S. air cargo transportation system, at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. She earned her Ph.D. in Engineering Management from Clemson University. ethomchick@psu.edu
	John E. Tyworth, Professor of Supply Chain Management John Tyworth has expertise in supply chain systems analysis and logistics cost models for transportation mode choice. He is the current chair of the Supply Chain and Information Systems Department at Penn State. John teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in supply chain and logistics management. His work experience includes traffic management and air cargo operations. He was an active duty officer in the Air Force when he performed transportation/logistics duties under the Strategic Air Command and the 14th Air Force (RVN). In addition, he continued his service as a reserve officer in the acquisition/procurement area for HQ Air Force and later for DLA. He also has consulting experience with major companies in the railroad, trucking, air cargo, food products, forest products, wire and cable, offshore rig/platform supply, and information technology industries. He earned his Ph.D. in Logistics from Lundquist College of Business, University of Oregon. jet@psu.edu