The Black Industrial Engineers (BIndx, pronounced BIND-ex) group is composed of IOE students and faculty/staff who come together informally for meaningful conversations and fellowship to promote learning, mentoring and networking. BIndx meetings occur as informal monthly discussions to help form relationships between faculty/staff and minoritized students. Also, BIndx will host a diverse group of guest speakers throughout the semester with a specific focus to facilitate conversations, build connections and empower self-reflection.

Today's speaker will be:
Dr. Gian Gabriel-Garcia
Assistant Professor
H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
IOE Alum

Abstract: Mentorship has been intricately woven into the fabric of my career. As I began my undergraduate education in Industrial Engineering, I was fortunate to have had mentors who found me and who invested in me and my growth. It did not take long for me to appreciate the value of mentorship. As such, I have sought to give and receive mentorship in various forms. Throughout this talk, I will tell the story of my journey in Industrial Engineering, starting from my undergraduate education at the University of Pittsburgh, through my graduate student years at the University of Michigan, and now at my current position as a faculty member at Georgia Tech. As I take you along my journey, I will discuss the role of mentorship at various points in my career, how that mentorship has shaped my experiences, and how my understanding of mentorship has changed over time. I will also relay some of the lessons I learned along the way, including how to receive, give, and find mentorship as you navigate your own careers.

Bio: Dr. Gian-Gabriel Garcia is an Assistant Professor in the H. Milton and Caroline J. Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. In his research, Dr. Garcia is interested in developing data-driven frameworks which integrate prediction and decision analytics as motivated by high-impact problems in health policy, personalized medicine, and medical decision-making. He is especially interested in how health equity, interpretability, and social/behavioral dynamics impact decision-making at the patient and policy levels. This research spans several disease areas, including concussion, opioids, maternal health, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic diseases. His research has also received recognition through various awards, including the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the INFORMS Bonder Scholarship for Applied Operations Research in Health Services, the SMDM Lee B. Lusted Prize in Quantitative Methods and Theoretical Developments, first prize in the INFORMS Minority Issues Forum Paper Competition, and first prize at the INFORMS Minority Issues Forum Poster Competition. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Dr. Garcia was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Technology Assessment and Harvard Medical School. He also earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan, and B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. In his service efforts, Dr. Garcia is passionate about supporting under-represented and minoritized students in engineering through mentorship and outreach.