Madjid Tavana
Professor and Chair
“I am strongly committed to an interactive classroom style that motivates students and promotes critical thinking. I try to make learning interesting, exciting and fun for students by mixing presentations, case studies and real-life projects in a hands-on environment.”
Degrees Held:
- Post-Ph.D. in Strategic Information Systems – The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania
- Ph.D. in MIS – American University in London
- PMIS in MIS – Drexel University
- MBA in MIS – La Salle University
- B.S. – Tehran Business College
Career Highlights:
- Professor and Distinguished Chair of Business Analytics and Chairman of the Business Systems and Analytics Department at La Salle University
- Honorary Professorship in Management Information Systems and Operations Research at the University of Paderborn in Germany
- Distinguished Research Fellow at the Kennedy Space Center, the Johnson Space Center, the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center, and the Air Force Research Laboratory
- Recipient of the prestigious Space Act Award from NASA
- Over 22 edited books and 350 research papers published in international scholarly academic journals
- Editor-in-Chief of these journals: “Decision Analytics Journal,” “Healthcare Analytics,” “Supply Chain Analytics,” “International Journal of Applied Decision Sciences,” “International Journal of Management and Decision Making,” “International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems,” and “International Journal of Knowledge Engineering and Data Mining.”
- Editor of these journals: “Annals of Operations Research,” “Information Sciences,” “Expert Systems with Applications,” “Computers and Industrial Engineering,” “Intelligent Systems with Applications,” and “Journal of Innovation and Knowledge.”
- Visiting Scholar at the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management
- Hold several Visiting Professorship positions in Italy, France, Switzerland, Korea, China, Ukraine and Mexico.
Which online degree program(s) do you teach?
What do you want students to take away from your classes? What do you want them to learn?
I am strongly committed to an interactive classroom style that motivates students and promotes critical thinking. I try to make learning interesting, exciting and fun for students by mixing presentations, case studies and real-life projects in a hands-on environment.
I perceive myself as a demanding teacher—tough but fair, challenging but also very humane. I challenge my students to take an active role in their education and invite them to join me as partners in the learning process. I encourage student participation in each and every class that I teach. I continually strive to blend theory and practice and remind students of the many “out of textbook” issues and implications of managerial decision-making. I capitalize on my students’ strengths and empower them to overcome their weaknesses.
What advice would you give to those considering your online program?
We solve problems and make decisions with every breath—using our heart and head, in bedrooms and boardrooms, on canvas, and a computer. While some problems are solved by habit, others are complex and difficult to solve. Decision analytics is the science of using quantitative methods and technology to solve problems and derive meaning from data to make informed decisions.
I teach my students that decision-making is a balancing act on a three-legged stool of analysis, judgment and action. To make informed decisions, we must keep these three legs even while juggling fact and fiction, knowledge and ignorance, good and evil, known and unknown, or instinct and experience. If we cannot keep the three legs stable, we fall to the ground.