Five Michigan Ross Professors Earn Promotions
Five faculty members at the Ross School of Business recently received promotions that were approved by the University of Michigan Board of Regents. These promotions recognize their expertise in their respective fields.
Justin Frake was promoted to associate professor of strategy, with tenure. Frake studies how individual perceptions and preferences shape organizational outcomes — often in unexpected ways. His research focuses on strategic human capital, stakeholder perceptions, organizational misconduct, and causal inference. Frake is also an associate editor at Management Science. His research has been published in Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, and Marketing Science. He currently teaches Strategy 502 (Corporate Strategy, MBA) and STRAT 898 (Causal Inference Methods, PhD). Frake holds a PhD in strategic management and entrepreneurship from the University of Maryland.
Samantha M. Keppler was promoted to associate professor of technology and operations, with tenure. Her research focuses on how the private sector influences public education across three domains: educational supply chains, community-based nonprofit services, and educational technology/generative artificial intelligence. A recognized thought leader in education operations, her award-winning, peer-reviewed work — including groundbreaking collaborative research with the crowdfunding platform DonorsChoose — has been published in top journals, including Management Science, and featured in major media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Education Week. A former public high school math teacher in the Bronx, Keppler holds a PhD in industrial engineering and management science from Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Sarah M. Miller was promoted to professor of business economics and public policy, with tenure. Her research focuses on health economics, particularly the impacts of income and health insurance expansion policies. Miller is a co-editor for the Journal of Public Economics and was awarded the 2022 ASHEcon Medal as a leading health economist under 40. Her widely cited work appears in top-tier outlets like the American Economic Review, the New England Journal of Medicine, and The New York Times. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2012.
James D. Omartian was promoted to associate professor of accounting, with tenure. His research investigates how information shapes organizational decision-making and market outcomes, utilizing rigorous econometric methods and large-scale datasets to analyze how internal systems, disclosures, and regulation influence managerial behavior. This research spans two streams: managerial control dynamics within complex organizations and information frictions at firm boundaries. His scholarly work appears in leading publications like the Journal of Accounting Research and The Accounting Review. Additionally, he teaches the MBA core Managerial Accounting course. Omartian holds a Ph.D. in Accounting from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Nirupama S. Rao was promoted to associate professor of business economics and public policy, with tenure. Her research examines the economic effects of fiscal policy, focusing on how taxation and regulation influence firm production, investment, and pricing decisions across industries like oil, alcohol, and corporate research and development. Rao, who has served as a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers and previously worked at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is a recipient of the National Tax Association Dissertation Award and the 2019 Journal of Public Economics Atkinson Award. She holds both an undergraduate degree and PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
