Arizona State University: ASU Professor Receives Most Prestigious Award In Supply Chain Management

Press release from Arizona State University:

Hunter McCormick

August 20, 2021

Dale Rogers, the ON Semiconductor Professor of Business in the Department of Supply Chain Management at the W. P. Carey School of Business, has been named the recipient of the CSCMP 2021 Distinguished Service Award by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals.

The award is bestowed upon an individual for significant achievements in the logistics and supply chain management industry. Presented annually, the award was instituted in 1965 as a tribute to logistics pioneer John Drury Sheahan. In September, Rogers will accept the award at CSCMP’s EDGE Conference, the largest of its kind for the supply chain management industry. 

Dale Rogers
Download Full Image

“This award means a lot to me,” Rogers said. “It’s great recognition for our department and the work that is being done here. Previous award winners include leading practitioners and academics. I’m the first Sun Devil to ever win this award and I hope there are several more.”

Rogers, who came from Rutgers University as a professor of logistics and supply chain management, is the director of the Frontier Economies Logistics Lab and the co-director of the Internet Edge Supply Chain Lab at Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School. He is the principal investigator of the $15 million CARISCA Project and director of Global Projects for ILOS - Instituto de Logística e Supply Chain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 2012, he became the first academic to receive the International Warehouse and Logistics Association Distinguished Service Award in its 130-year history. He is a board advisor to Flexe, Enterra Solutions and Droneventory and is a founding board member of the Global Supply Chain Resiliency Council, Reverse Logistics and Sustainability Council and serves on the board of directors for the Organización Mundial de Ciudades y Plataformas Logísticas. 

He has published in the leading journals of the supply chain and logistics fields. Rogers has been principal investigator on research grants from numerous organizations, as well as is a senior editor at the Rutgers Business Journal, area editor at Annals of Management Science, and associate editor of the Journal of Business Logistics and the Journal of Supply Chain Management.

Rogers has made more than 300 presentations to professional organizations and has been a faculty member in numerous executive education programs at universities in the United States, Africa, China, Europe and South America as well as at major corporations and professional organizations. He has been a consultant to several companies and a principal investigator on research grants from numerous organizations as well as an author of several books including the lead author of a new book on the subject of supply chain financing with Rudi Leuschner at Rutgers Business School and Tom Choi at the W. P. Carey School.

We caught up with Rogers to learn more about his work.

Question: What is the coolest thing about your career at ASU?

Answer: We have great faculty in ASU’s supply chain management department. The people that we get to work with both in the department and across the university are folks that are at the top of their game. It is a real privilege to get to work on research and new ideas with the supply chain expertise level of people that are here. 

Also, at most universities, central administration gets in the way and most are good at saying, “No.” Here, we have central administration infrastructure, such as ASU International Development with Stephen Feinson that facilitates research and innovation instead of being obstructionist. We’re encouraged to take risks and not just do incremental research, but work on topics that might be transformative in some way.

Q: What gets you up in the morning these days?

A: Right now, we have the CARISCA Project — the largest grant funding in W. P. Carey’s history. Several of my colleagues from ASU’s supply chain department are working on it with me, along with faculty from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. Plus, we have the Internet Edge Supply Chain Lab and the Frontier Economies Logistics Lab where we are working with many companies doing interesting research.

Q: What do you say to students and prospective students who are interested in supply chain?

A: Most of the recruiters that come to W. P. Carey know about our strong supply chain program. We have the best companies in the world come to recruit our students. Supply chain management majors from ASU end up with challenging and great careers. There are a lot of opportunities. 

Q: What do you like to do when you are not working on research?

A: I love playing basketball. It’s getting harder every year, but I still love it. I try to play every week.

Arizona State University’s Interplanetary Initiative and Learning Enterprise, in collaboration with the Zuckerberg Institute and Beagle Learning, have launched an ambitious new approach for engaging learners, employees and community partners in addressing community-based problems that matter to them.

The approach is called OpenCitizen, a program that follows a proprietary inquiry process to identify and research local community needs and develop innovative and actionable plans to address them.

OpenCitizen inaugural event to be held at Arcosanti Nov. 12–14.
Download Full Image

“For master learners, the OpenCitizen project provides guidance and a process for any person or any team to pursue the topic, problem or issue of their choice,” said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, vice president of ASU’s Interplanetary Initiative. “Want to learn how to build a robot? Want to take action on a social problem? Gather your team, and we're ready.”

OpenCitizen is a unique program opportunity that launches Nov. 12, 2021, with the OpenCitizen Gathering, a curated event hosted at Arcosanti, Arizona.

Nicknamed, “The Urban Laboratory,” Arcosanti is an environmentally conscious retreat developed in 1970 as an experimental town in Arizona’s high desert, 70 miles north of Phoenix. The weekendlong event will feature thematic tracks on diversity, equity and inclusion, the future of learning, the environment and climate change. 

“We can all recognize when there's a problem, but few of us have the training and confidence to jump in and make change, and even fewer of us know how to do that in the most effective way,” Elkins-Tanton said. “With OpenCitizen, we are offering a process, a scaffold, for any group — a team, a class, a neighborhood — to pursue the topic of their own choosing. Learn how to learn, and then, learn how to do! We're looking for anyone wanting to turn their ideas into actions.”

With a goal of uniting and celebrating passionate changemakers who are committed to taking positive action in their communities, OpenCitizen participants will experience a highly collaborative series of workshop sessions. These sessions are designed to introduce open-inquiry processes, learner-centered pedagogies and strategies for how teams can move from inquiry to action. Interested participants may apply to attend the event through an application process, which is open through Aug. 31.

It’s anticipated the OpenCitizen Gathering will include community and business leaders, innovators, educators, students and lifelong learners interested in tackling issues in three thematic tracks, including diversity, equity and inclusion, the future of learning, and the environment and climate change.

ASU’s Learning Enterprise will offer badging, certification and ASU credit, and Interplanetary Initiative and Beagle Learning will create and administer the process. The event’s registration fee covers entry, two-night accommodations and six meals throughout the weekend. Needs-based scholarships are available.

Space is limited for this exclusive event. To learn more, or to join a community of passionate change-makers who are committed to taking positive action in their communities, visit opencitizenproject.org or email info@opencitizenproject.org. 

This press release was produced by Arizona State University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.