From left: Jill Bernard Bracy, the director of the new Supply Chain Analytics Center of Excellence, and Haitao Li, chair of the Department of Supply Chain and Analytics, show off the common area in the newly renovated UMSL Innovation Center. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

The next era for the University of Missouri–St. Louis’ award-winning Department of Supply Chain and Analytics within the Ed G. Smith College of Business officially kicks off with the opening of the Supply Chain Analytics Center of Excellence at the start of the fall 2025 semester.

This ambitious new endeavor, which will be headquartered in the newly renovated UMSL Innovation Center on campus near the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center, was designed with the idea of increasing the visibility, influence and reputation of a department that’s already producing impactful, cutting-edge research from both faculty members and students.

“The Center of Excellence brings together research, curriculum, professional development and outreach under one umbrella – building on the amazing work we already do and taking it to the next level,” said Jill Bernard Bracy, associate teaching professor and director of the Center. “Our research has always been practical, applied and impactful. With this Center, we can better bridge theory and practice, strengthen connections between academia and our public and private partners, and ensure that what we do in the classroom directly benefits our region – advancing economic growth while preparing the talent needed for the future workforce.”

The Center, which has been in development for multiple years, essentially absorbs the Supply Chain Risk and Resilience Research Institute and was the original idea of James Campbell, the former chair of the supply chain department.

“He had this grand vision that our department deserves a center that really demonstrates our excellence in supply chain analytics and also positions us as the leader in research and education and hopefully will be the nexus for collaboration,” said Haitao Li, the current chair of the department. “From the very beginning, we started working with our advisory board to define, ‘What does Center of Excellence mean?’ We really took our time to collect our board members’ input to define our mission of the Center of Excellence, and also our goals and strategies.”

Those discussions with the Supply Chain and Analytics Advisory Board produced three foundational pillars for the center: research, education and outreach, which synergize with each other. Li said the vision and initiative have received strong support from the college and campus leadership, which makes the Center of Excellence a reality.

“We’re already strong in all three components, and that creates an incredible opportunity to serve both our students and our industry partners,” Bracy said. “What excites me most is how these pieces work together. It allows us to increase our visibility and reputation on a national level and to attract more grant opportunities, partnerships and support.”

Generating more grants will help funding for the Center, which is an important part of the equation. Li said a goal is for the Center to become primarily self-sufficient through grants – like the five-year, $5 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant and multiple research projects funded by the National Science Foundation – and also through new professional development courses they plan to implement.

“We want to share our expertise with the professional community – professionals who may not want a full degree in supply chain analytics, but who are interested in a course on analytics or a certification from one of our association partners,” Bracy said. “Those types of opportunities also showcase our other programs. We can say, ‘Here’s a focused class on supply chain, and by the way, we also have a phenomenal master’s program and a PhD program.’ It allows us to meet professionals where they are – whether they just need a quick, practical course or are looking to explore all the amazing educational opportunities we offer.”

Both Bracy and Li are confident in the ability of supply chain faculty to deliver on the lofty three-pillar expectations with the Center.

“From the very beginning, we designed the center with the backbone being the department’s faculty,” Li said. “On the research side, the center is going to rely on the collective expertise of the department’s faculty. We collectively have research experience and expertise to cover a broad range of topics under the supply chain umbrella, including supply chain network design, inventory control, resource allocation, routing, scheduling, you name it. And on the analytics side, the methodology side, we have faculty who are very much into descriptive analytics and modern data visualization. Some are more into the predictive analytics side, using machine learning, data mining and AI. Some other faculty are very much into prescriptive analytics, or the use of optimization. This will form a strong base for us to continue to grow our external funded research grants, and that’s our goal.”

And one of Bracy’s top priorities is using the Center to shine a light on the expertise and research faculty members and graduate students are already doing, and how many awards faculty members are winning. A few highlights: Assistant Professor Matias Enz won the 2024 LaLonde Best Paper Award in the Journal of Business Logistics. At the 2025 Transportation Research Forum, students Juana Jaramillo Rios and Kevin Martin won Best Student Poster Award and Pardis Bahami was awarded Best Student Paper.

“My No. 1 focus is increasing visibility,” Bracy said. “We’ve built a strong reputation in the St. Louis region and across Missouri, and it’s time to really show the nation that this is UMSL, and this is who we are, and this is what we do.”

An example of how Bracy hopes to increase the visibility of UMSL’s supply chain program is a recent AP story on delivery drones; Assistant Professor Shakiba Enayati, who has done extensive research with drones, was quoted as an expert for the national piece.

“Dean Shu Schiller and I had this conversation just a couple days ago,” Bracy said. “I said, ‘It’s great when the local papers want to interview our faculty, but The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times should be coming to us.’ When those outlets think about the best of the best supply chain analytics departments, especially in agriculture and healthcare, they should be calling UMSL. That is really the visibility and reputation we’re trying to build.”