(See Projects story on InSight visual spreadsheet.)

What part of the world are you from?
I was born in Lansing, Michigan, and spent my childhood years in Colorado, North Dakota, and Arizona.

How did you get interested in Industrial and Operations Engineering?
I pursued areas that I liked, excelled in, and seemed good for a future career. I'm adept at problem-solving and math modeling, and I love having a positive impact for people. Operations Research pulls all that together to solve real-world problems - not just mathematical curiosities - and to help people make decisions. It was the right match for me.

How did you end up at R&D?
While I was a graduate student at the University of Michigan, Larry Burns gave a presentation about the research opportunities at GM R&D. It seemed like a great position, so after the meeting I handed him my resume. About two weeks later I had a job offer.

What were your early assignments?
I modeled production systems, including throughput analysis, maintenance systems, production leveling/stability metrics, and manufacturing-related cost-driver studies.

What are you working on now?
I'm on a two-year rotation in GM Engineering to learn other GM operations, contribute in new ways, and develop new bridges and topic areas for research. My current assignment is leading the development of decision-support tools and methods for engineering issues that include test scheduling, engineering capacity assessment, and engineering process improvements.

What excites you about your research?
I like helping people make decisions via decision-support tools, analysis methods, and insights - and then seeing my work produce a positive impact for GM.

What are you most proud of?
As a researcher, deriving an analytical result that provided the key building block for throughput analysis of GM production systems.

As a manager, hiring truly exceptional researchers, then working with them to develop new decision-making capabilities for GM in the areas of maintenance, throughput analysis, line design, math modeling, and risk management.

What is your work like life?
My work keeps evolving almost daily, because it moves in phases and new projects are always on the horizon. That makes it hard to describe a typical day. I do spend a fair amount of time with subject-matter experts to identify opportunities, develop solutions, test and validate results, and communicate and document project work. I also spend a lot of time on communications - meetings, e-mails, calendaring, and developing and giving presentations.

What are your other research interests?
I have a keen interest in the fundamental enablers of effective work systems. This includes contributions from evolution, complex systems, information processing, and problem decomposition. I'm also intrigued by visual methods that help people from different functions rapidly formulate, accept, analyze and present problems - for example, using "cause-and-effect" influence diagrams to capture and communicate system interactions and performance.

What do you do when you're not working?
I spend time with my children, pursuing activities and helping their lives along. We go sailing, play pool, bike, do house projects, see movies, and take occasional trips. For hobbies, I teach and go dancing, sing and perform a cappella music, see friends, and work out. I also spend about two hours a day commuting, so I use the time to practice songs, hear the news, and learn some Spanish.