Department Chair of the University of Michigan Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, Dr. Julie Simmons Ivy is honored for her new appointed as the Vivian L. Carpenter Professor of Engineering.
On Monday, November 4, 2024, the University of Michigan will honor Dr. Julie Simmons Ivy, Professor and Chair of Industrial and Operations Engineering (IOE), as the newly appointed Vivian L. Carpenter Professor of Engineering. The ceremony will take place in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and features a lecture by Dr. Ivy titled “IOE is My Superpower: Transforming Data, Enabling Smarter Decision Making, Making a Better World.” Karen A. Thole, the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering, will join her for the event.
Dr. Carpenter earned three degrees from the University of Michigan, including becoming the first Black graduate of the U-M IOE Department. This distinguishing reason is why Ivy decided to name her professorship after Carpenter.
A trailblazer, Dr. Carpenter currently serves as the President of Supreme Communications Group, LLC, and is the author of The Fifth Letter, which she is developing into a TV series with Hidden Empire. Previously, she was President of Atwater Entertainment Associates, LLC, a key investor in Detroit’s MotorCity Casino.
Her career also includes board service for organizations like the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) and extensive academic contributions, such as research on institutional theory and public-sector accounting innovations. She has taught at Florida A&M University and served as the Assistant Dean and Director of Academic Programs for their School of Business and Industry. She also taught at Wayne State University and U-M. Dr. Carpenter is actively involved in philanthropy, notably raising funds for the Detroit Music Hall. Personally, she is also a mother and grandmother to two daughters and granddaughters.
A U-M IOE alumna, Dr. Ivy returned to Michigan Engineering after more than 15 years on the faculty of North Carolina State University, where she is the Edgar S. Woolard Professor Emerita. Dr. Ivy earned her Ph.D. and B.S. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan, and her M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Tech. Her educational foundation has been instrumental in shaping her career as an expert in decision-making under uncertainty.
Dr. Ivy’s research focuses on modeling complex interactions and understanding how multiple factors and policies impact outcomes, to improve decision quality. By employing systems science methods—including analyzing large datasets, simulation modeling, decision theory and stochastic processes—she has advanced the fields of hunger relief and health decision-making. Her work on Markov decision processes (MDPs) and partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) has been particularly transformative, providing tools to optimize decisions even when outcomes are uncertain or partially known. Her research will continue to influence public healthcare, hunger relief, personalized medicine and many other critical fields.
In addition to her research, Dr. Ivy is deeply committed to empowering women of color and underrepresented minorities in STEM. Through the INFORMS Minority Issues Forum, NSF ADVANCE grants, and numerous workshops, she has supported the development of minority graduate students, faculty and professionals for over 25 years. She also received the INFORMS 2020 WORMS Award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS (WORMS). Among many other positions, she is a Fellow of IISE, INFORMS and a member of the National Academies Board on Mathematical Sciences and Analytics.