Samantha Keppler

Samantha Keppler is an Assistant Professor of Technology and Operations at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Her expertise is in the application of operations management theories to the education sector. Her research derives insights about how to improve education operations, or the management of human and material resources in public schools, educational nonprofits, and edtech companies. Her recent interest is in teacher workarounds that compensate for insufficient resources, such as online teacher crowdfunding platforms, and their relation to the COVID-era teacher turnover crisis in the US public school system. 

Her research on education systems has been published in top peer reviewed journals in the operations management field, including Management Science and Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and has been featured in the top media outlets The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. Her ground-breaking research in collaboration with the largest teacher crowdfunding platform DonorsChoose has won a number of research awards, including the 2022 Responsible Research Award from the MSOM Research Society and the 2022 Applied Research Challenge Award from the POMS Research Society. As a thought leader in education operations, her research has also been featured in education media outlets like K-12 Dive and District Administration, and invited for presentation at the nation-wide annual state superintendents conference. 

Professor Keppler earned her PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management Science from the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University. Prior to pursuing her PhD, she was a public high school math teacher for three years in the Bronx, New York.