Dr. Rita Kumar, Director of Singelyn Center for Innovative Analytics

Rita Kumar is a Professor of Technology and Operations Management in the College of Business Administration at Cal Poly Pomona, and is the founding Director of the College’s Singelyn Center for Innovative Analytics. Prior to joining Cal Poly Pomona, she was on the faculty of the Systems and Operations Management Department in the College of Business and Economics at California State University, Northridge.

Rita received her M.S. in Information Systems and Ph.D. in Industrial Administration from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. She teaches courses in Business Analytics, Managerial Statistics, Quality Management, and Service Operations Management.

Rita’s research interests include prescriptive analytics, with a focus on heuristic solutions to optimization problems; and assurance of learning. Her research has been published in journals including Management Science, The Service Industries Journal, International Journal of Hospitality Management, and Journal of Supply Chain and Operations Management. She has presented her research at conferences including Decision Sciences Institute, Western Decision Sciences Institute, Production and Operations Management Society, and The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

Since academic year 2015-2016, Rita has collaborated with the Boeing Company on Data Analytics projects, serving as a faculty advisor to student teams engaged in descriptive and predictive analytics research projects. Other collaborations on which she has served as a faculty advisor include PCV Murcor, InterTrend, and the City of Pomona.

Rita served as co-Program Chair and Proceedings Editor for the 29^th Annual CSUPOM (Consortium of Supply Chain and Operations Management) Conference. She is currently co-Track Chair for the Innovative Education track of the Western Decision Sciences Institute conference.

Rita serves on the Board of Directors of CSUPOM, and as Vice Chair of the Academic Senate of Cal Poly Pomona. She is a faculty advisor to the Operations Management Society (OMS), a student club of the Technology and Operations Management Department. She is a four-time recipient of the Department’s ‘Faculty of the Year’ Award.