Education: B.Sc., Ben-Gurion University; M.Sc., London School of Economics; Ph.D., M.Res., London Business School

Professor Yael Grushka-Cockayne's research and teaching activities focus on data science, forecasting, project management and behavioral decision-making. Her research is published in numerous academic and professional journals, and she is a regular speaker at international conferences in the areas of decision analysis, project management and management science. Prof. Grushka-Cockayne is an award-winning teacher, winning the Darden Morton Leadership Faculty Award in 2011, the University of Virginia's Mead-Colley Award in 2012 and the Darden Outstanding Faculty Award in 2013 and 2022 and Faculty Diversity Award in 2013 and 2018. In 2015, she won the University of Virginia All University Teaching Award. Prof. Grushka-Cockayne teaches the core "Decision Analysis" course, an elective she designed on project management and an elective on data science. She has served as the leader of the open enrollment courses "Project Management for Executives" and "The Women's Leadership Program."

Before starting her academic career, she worked in San Francisco as a marketing director of an Israeli ERP company. As an expert in the areas of project management, Prof. Grushka-Cockayne has served as a consultant to international firms in the aerospace and pharma industries. She is a UVA Excellence in Diversity fellow and a member of INFORMS, the Decision Analysis Society, the Operational Research Society and the Project Management Institute (PMI). She is an associate editor at Management Science and Operation Research and the President-elect of the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society.

In 2014, Grushka-Cockayne was named one of "21 Thought-Leader Professors" in Data Science. Her recent "Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management" Coursera MOOC had over 100,000 enrolled, across 200 countries worldwide. Her "Data Science for Business" Harvard Online course, launched in 2021, has taught hundreds of learners around the world.

Today’s doctoral students will be offering solutions to tomorrow’s business and societal problems. The GradFUTURES initiative provides a platform for doctoral students to engage first-hand with current day business problems, inspiring them to consider the broad impact their work can have.