Program Faculty

Norm Aggon, Instructor of Operations and Supply Chain Management, Assistant Department Head

Mr. Aggon is currently the Assistant Department Chairman for The Penn State Smeal College of Business' highly ranked Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems. He teaches supply chain courses at the undergraduate level including the senior level capstone course and various junior level courses.

Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State University, Mr. Aggon had 26 years of experience in various executive and supply chain management positions. He worked for firms such as Pfizer, Engelhard and Tarmac, Ltd. and smaller independent ones such as Chemstone Corporation—a subsidiary of Merriweather Capital Corporation. His diverse senior management experience included positions such as Senior Vice President of Operations and Division General Manager. During his career he had complete P&L responsibility including sales, marketing, manufacturing, sourcing, engineering, etc. He has a B. S. degree in Engineering from Penn State and a Master of Business Administration from James Madison University.

Email: nxa12@psu.edu

Frank L. Chelko, Instructor of Operations & Supply Chain Management

Frank Chelko is a Supply Chain and Information Systems instructor with the Smeal College of Business at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. and 2008 recipient of the Dillwyn Paste III Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Mr. Chelko's instructional expertise includes: Manufacturing and Service Operations, Quality Management, New Product Introduction, Materials Management and Procurement Strategies, Lean Supply Chains as well as Six Sigma Black Belt Training/Certification. His employment for the Smeal College of Business began in the spring semester of 2001.

Email: flc105@psu.edu

Christopher Craighead, Professor of Supply Chain Management, Director of Research for CSCR

Christopher W. Craighead is the Michael H. and Laura L. Rothkopf Early Career Professor of Supply Chain Management in the Smeal College of Business at The Pennsylvania State University.  He is also the Director of Research within the Center for Supply Chain Research.  His primary research interests lie in the area of strategic sourcing and supply management, with a focus on global supply chain disruptions/risk and resilience. Professor Craighead currently teaches classes in strategic procurement and has been the recipient of awards for teaching excellence at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. He has also been the recipient of several research fellowships, competitive research grants, and research awards.

Email: cwc13@psu.edu

Gary L. Gittings, Director, Master of Professional Studies in Supply Chain Management.

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 earned a Master of Science in Transportation from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Penn State University.

Email: 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.

Email: tharrison@psu.edu

David Huff, Clinical Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management

David Huff is a Clinical Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management in the Smeal College of Business Administration at the Pennsylvania State University, joining in the fall of 2004. While finishing his Ph.D., David spent the last two years in visiting positions, first at the Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah and then at the Stern School of Business at New York University. David teaches Supply Chain Management and Management Science courses for undergraduate and Masters in Quality and Manufacturing Management programs. His research interests include inventory management decisions and their interdependencies with sales-force incentives. Dr. Huff earned his Ph.D. in Operations Management from the Univeristy of Rochester.

Email: dhuff@psu.edu

John Jordan, Clinical Professor of Supply Chain & Information Systems

John Jordan has been a member of the Smeal College of Business faculty since 2005.  Prior to joining the Penn State faculty, John worked for firms such as Capgemini and CSC Consulting. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Email: jmj13@psu.edu

C. John Langley Jr., Clinical Professor of Supply Chain Management, Director of Development for CSCR

John Langley has received worldwide recognition for his work in the field of logistics. He was the recipient of the Council of Supply Chain Professionals (previously Council of Logistics Management) Distinguished Service Award, was named one of the “Top Five Logistics Leaders” by the Logistics and Supply Chain Forum, and was awarded Honorary Distinguished Logistics Professional” by the American Society of Transportation and Logistics.

Professor Langley earned his Ph.D. in Business Logistics, along with a M.B.A in Finance, and a B.S. in Mathematics, from Penn State and has had the privilege of teaching over 7,000 students (undergraduate, M.B.A., Ph.D., and executives) at the University of Tennessee, Penn State, and Georgia Tech.

Email: jlangley@psu.edu

Vidya Mani, Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management

Vidya Mani has expertise in the fields of Retail Operations, Empirical Research in Supply Chain, and Humanitarian Operations. She has been a member of the Smeal College of Business Faculty since 2011. Dr. Mani earned her Ph.D. in Operations Management from University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

Email: vmani@psu.edu

Susan Purdum, Instructor of Supply Chain and Information Systems, Administrative Director for CSCR

Susan Purdum has been a member of Penn State's Smeal College of Business faculty since 2000.  She earned has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Penn State and an M.B.A. in Management from the University of Massachusetts.

Ralph Sees, Instructor of Supply Chain and Information Systems

Dr. Sees joined the faculty of the Supply Chain and Information Systems Department after a career as a medical logistician spanning 29 years. Before coming to the Smeal College, Ralph worked for a major defense contractor as the principal consultant assisting the Department of Defense (Health Affairs) in the development and adoption of a SAP-based Enterprise Resource Planning software application designed to support intermediate-level medical logistics operations. A retired Army colonel, Ralph has 27 years of active duty experience in medical supply chain management and healthcare operations within the Department of Defense, in assignments ranging from tactical unit and installation-level hospital operations, to major command and control headquarters, to strategic medical supply chain oversight in support of recent military operations. He earned his Ph.D. in Business Logistics from Penn State University.

Email: rhs6@psu.edu

Alan Stenger, Professor Emeritus of Supply Chain Management

Since joining the Penn State faculty in 1972, Dr. Stenger has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in supply chain management, logistics systems management, logistics research methods, carrier management, transportation economics and quantitative methods in logistics. He was Graduate Advisor for the Department of Business Logistics for 16 years, and is currently Associate Director of the Center for Supply Chain Research.

Dr. Stenger's research interests focus primarily on the organization and management of supply chain and logistical activities in manufacturing and merchandising firms, with particular emphasis on the use of decision support and information technology as enablers. He earnd his Ph.D from the University of Minnesota.

Email: ajs@psu.edu

Douglas J. Thomas, 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.

Email: 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 State?'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 Bethlehem'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.

Email: ethomchick@psu.edu

John E. (Gene) Tyworth, Chairman, SC&IS Department and Professor of Supply Chain Management

Gene Tyworth has expertise in supply chain systems analysis and logistics cost models for transportation mode choice. His work experience includes transportation 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 M.B.A. and Ph.D. in Logistics from Lundquist College of Business, University of Oregon.

Email: jet@psu.edu

Veronica H. Villena, Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management

Veronica H. Villena is an assistant professor of supply chain and information systems in the Smeal Business School at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research has focused on how buyers and suppliers inadvertently create relational inertia when they commit to establishing strategic partnerships. She is also interested to examine which mechanisms these companies should purposefully set to avoid this inertia and how it can change when buyers and suppliers are embedded in larger networks. Dr. Villena earned her M.B.A. in Operations Management and her Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management from IE Business School in Madrid,

Email: vhv1@psu.edu