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Professors Pinar Keskinocak and Julie Swann, co-directors of the Center for Health & Humanitarian Systems (CHHS) and professors in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISyE) have been honored with George Tech’s 2016 Steven A. Denning Award for Global Engagement.

Dr. Keskinocak holds the William W. George Chair in ISyE and ADVANCE Professor in the College of Engineering, and Dr. Swann is the Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash Professor in ISyE. The center focuses on transforming global health and humanitarian systems through education, outreach, and innovative solutions and was recently named one of the 4 Phase I Interdisciplinary Research Centers (IRC) on campus.

The Denning Award for Global Engagement recognizes Georgia Tech faculty who have demonstrated sustained outstanding achievement and commitment to the advancement of the Institute’s global engagement. Keskinocak and Swann founded the Center for Health & Humanitarian Systems at Georgia Tech in 2007 with Dr. Ozlem Ergun (now at Northeastern University) with the vision of applying advanced science and evidence-based approaches to improve healthcare delivery and operations, public health decisions, and humanitarian systems (for both disasters and long-term development).

Keskinocak and Swann carry out the center’s vision by implementing cutting edge solutions, capacity building, sharing of best practices and the creation of next generation leaders. The education offering includes case studies and teaching resources, degree courses and hands on opportunities for students, as well as a professional certificate program for practitioners across NGOs, government, private sector and academia around the world to train in health and humanitarian supply chain management. In the outreach area, the center hosts speakers and events with partners from across various sectors active in global health and humanitarian operations, including the 8th annual Conference on Health & Humanitarian Logistics to be held in 2016 at GA Tech after traveling around the world. The global impact of the center’s education and outreach extends across 6 continents to over 85 countries where course and conference participants have lived and worked and across the more than 200 collaborating organizations working to save and improve lives.

This Denning award is funded through the generous support provided in the establishment of the Steven A. Denning Chair in Global Engagement in the Office of International Education.

About the Steven A. Denning Award for Global Engagement
This award seeks to recognize a tenured or tenure-track faculty member who has made a significant and sustainable impact in one or more of the following areas:

• Promoting the recognition of Georgia Tech in other countries
• Advancing research, education, and economic development engagement at the international level
• Enriching the experiences of international students or scholars
• Incorporating global perspectives in teaching or international components into the curriculum
• Giving of their time and influence to organize and/or promote international events, visitors, or other international exchanges at Georgia Tech
• Creating new ideas, structures, procedures, or products which promise to eliminate international inequalities, to promote global cooperation, or to foster respect for human dignity among nations and peoples of the world.