The COVID-19 pandemic is a clear example of how crucial supply chain management is and how disruptions can affect society, according to Elodie Adida Goodman, associate professor of operations and supply chain management. “Early on, the shortage of medical supplies revealed how vulnerable ‘long’ supply chains are,” she says. “They can span many countries due to outsourcing practices.

“The issues we have faced are evidence that building resilient supply chains will be critical for the next crisis the country will face.”

Goodman’s current research explores health-care payment systems, and her most recent co-authored articles include the forthcoming “Reference Pricing for Healthcare Services” in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management and “Outcome-Based Pricing for New Pharmaceuticals via Rebates” published in Management Science in 2021.

“I find it fascinating that changing the way payment incentives are designed can have a real effect on people’s lives, such as improving access to drugs, and physicians or patients making better treatment decisions,” she says. “Since the health-care reform of 2010, there has been more attention devoted to removing inefficiencies and reducing costs without sacrificing the quality of care. Some of this can be achieved by changing the way we pay for treatments and services.”

Goodman was recently appointed to the editorial boards of two top journals in the field: She is an associate editor for both Management Science and Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. She also serves as senior editor for Production and Operations Management. 

While her research and leadership within the field are widely respected by her peers, Goodman finds satisfaction helping students understand the complexities of analytical techniques. “I teach quantitative courses, which business students sometimes find among the most challenging in their program,” she says. 

“With the increasing importance of data analysis in the workplace, I focus on how to think about a problem and the intuition and reasoning behind a formula rather than the numbers. In my opinion, quantitative courses are not really about calculations, they’re more about reasoning.”