Jill Bernard Bracy, associate teaching professor and director of the Supply Chain Analytics Center of Excellence, is the latest guest on the Inside UMSL podcast.
Jill Bernard Bracy can pinpoint the moment the general public became acutely aware of supply chain issues: the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Once everyone ran out of toilet paper, it became a lot easier to explain who we are and what we do,” Bernard Bracy said with a laugh.
Bernard Bracy is the director of the recently launched Supply Chain Analytics Center of Excellence at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, as well as an associate teaching professor in the Ed G. Smith College of Business. The Center is headquartered in the newly renovated UMSL Innovation Center, and it aims to increase the visibility and influence of the Department of Supply Chain and Analytics to benefit the St. Louis region.
On the latest episode of the Inside UMSL podcast, Bernard Bracy joined host Nate Fleming to discuss the Supply Chain Analytics Center of Excellence, what sets it apart from other institutions in the field and UMSL’s forward-thinking approach to supply chain education.
Bernard Bracy views the Center as the meeting ground between academia, industry and government.
“Our job is to really bring all of the components together from the academy, from the government and the industry to bridge practice and theory so we can truly provide impactful research and the workforce that our industry needs,” she said.
With input from the Supply Chain and Advisory Board, Bernard Bracy and her colleagues developed three foundational pillars for the center: impactful applied research, hands-on education and outreach and service initiatives. As part of the education pillar, the Center strives to provide a variety of experiential learning opportunities for UMSL students.
“One of the things we really pride ourselves on is the application of knowledge,” Bernard Bracy said. “So, they get a great rigorous theoretical education in the classroom, but then they also get these amazing opportunities to apply what they’re learning in real-world settings.”
For instance, the Center created an internship with help from advisory board members where students earn real-world experience rotating between positions with three global companies based in St. Louis: Anheuser-Busch InBev, Bunge and World Wide Technology. The goal is to show students how products truly flow from the start of the supply chain all the way to delivery to the end consumer. Additionally, students learn about different industries, leadership styles and workplace cultures.
Bernard Bracy added that the Center recently launched a new program with Boeing focused on procurement. Students will work with the aviation leader for one to two years, utilizing theoretical knowledge from their coursework.
In both cases, it means that students will be workforce ready upon graduation.
“The supply chain is constantly changing, constantly evolving,” Bernard Bracy explained. “It’s never the same. Technology has a lot to do with that; data-driven decisions have a lot to do with that. So, we’re really preparing our students to use data to make decisions. When they leave our program, they are citizen data scientists. They are ready to lead by fact, to lead with data in order to make changes.”
That keen focus on data is what sets UMSL apart from other institutions.
“Data visibility is critical to making the supply chain flow as effectively and efficiently as possible, and that’s where the analytics component comes in,” Bernard Bracy said. “If we really want the supply chain to operate as one unit, we have to break down the barriers and the silos that have traditionally been there between different companies, different organizations, and the analytics piece allows us to do that. Because the more data visibility we have, the better we can match supply and demand.”
A joint initiative of the Office of Admissions and University Marketing and Communications, the Inside UMSL podcast launched last year and features interviews covering innovative teaching, groundbreaking research, exciting extracurricular opportunities, athletics and other campus initiatives.
New episodes of the podcast are available monthly on the Inside UMSL podcast page or wherever you listen to podcasts.
