Big Ten Academic Alliance Department Executive Officers Program

Özgür Araz 

U.S. Bank Distinguished Professor and Chair of Supply Chain Management and Analytics

Özgür Araz is the U.S. Bank Distinguished Professor and Chair of Supply Chain Management and Analytics. Prior to UNL, he was a College of Public Health faculty member at UNMC. His research interests include business analytics, supply networks, and healthcare operations and his work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, Veterans Engineering Resource Center, HDR, Boys Town of Nebraska, Nebraska Medicine, and the University of Nebraska Foundation. He is a member of INFORMS, the Production and Operations Management Society, and Decision Sciences Institute. His work has been published in many journals, including high impact medical and health care journals. He is a member of the editorial review board of Production and Operations Management and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management; Associate Editor for IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering and Decision Sciences; and Public Health Area Editor for Health Systems. He earned his industrial engineering bachelor's degree from Istanbul Technical University, master's degree from State University of New York at Buffalo, and doctorate from Arizona State University.

Kate Brooks

Professor and Head, Agricultural Economics & Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication

Kate Brooks is a Professor and Head of Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication. In this role, she leads the integration of faculty, staff, academic programs, governance, and resources across two academic units, building a shared vision for a future school while maintaining strong disciplinary identities. Brooks' research is focused on meat and livestock economics, specifically pork production issues, meat and livestock marketing, and consumer preference related to animal cloning and fat injected steaks. Throughout her career, Brooks has integrated teaching, research, Extension, and leadership with interests spanning agribusiness, agricultural markets, and the livestock industry. She has received multiple teaching excellence awards and has served in leadership roles at the department, college, university, and professional organization levels. Brooks joined UNL in 2013 after serving on the faculty at West Texas A&M University. She holds a bachelor's degree in agribusiness from Kansas State University, a master's degree in agribusiness from Illinois State University, and a doctorate in agricultural economics from Oklahoma State University.

Sarah Gervais

Professor and Chair, Psychology

Sarah Gervais is a Professor and Chair of Psychology. Her research focuses on sexual objectification, dehumanization, and sexual violence and lies at the intersections of social psychology, women's studies, the law, and public health. Her work, including the Objectification of Women Lab, has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. She has been recognized for her mentoring and teaching and has been the recipient of the Georgia Babladelis Best Paper Award from the Society for the Psychology of Women, as well as the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. She is past Associate Editor of Psychology of Women Quarterly, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and British Journal of Social Psychology. She also a specialty editor of Frontiers in Social Psychology. She earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of St. Thomas. Her master's degree in social psychology and doctorate degrees in social psychology and women's studies are from Pennsylvania State University.

Miechelle McKelvey

Professor and Chair, Special Education and Communication Disorders

Miechelle McKelvey is a Professor and Chair of Special Education and Communication Disorders. Prior to UNL, she was at UNK for two decades, serving in expanding leadership roles, including Associate Dean of the College of Education, Chair of Communication Disorders, and Interim Chair of Teacher Education. She began her career as a clinical speech-language pathologist at Good Samaritan Hospital. Her research specializes in augmentative and alternative communication assessment and intervention, focusing on adults with acquired neurogenic disorders such as aphasia, ALS, cerebral palsy, and autism. As a principal investigator, she has secured clinical research funding to innovate visual scene displays and establish tailored AAC assessment protocols across diverse populations. She has maintained nearly 30 years of active leadership with top professional organizations, including ASHA, NSLHA, and ISAAC. She serves as the Vice President for Research and Academic Affairs for the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders. She earned her communications disorders bachelor's degree from UNK, master's degree from UNO, and doctorate from UNL.

Larkin Powell

Professor and Director, School of Natural Resources

Larkin Powell is a Professor and Director of the School of Natural Resources. The school has 75 faculty with expertise in climate, water, soils, and biodiversity in working landscapes. His administrative background includes serving as Associate Dean in the Agriculture Research Division and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. As professor of conservation biology and animal ecology, he teaches courses on wildlife management and research, and his research program focuses on landscape dynamics, animal demography and movements, and decisions made by private landowners in the Great Plains and throughout the world. He is a Fellow of the Wildlife Society, and the author of eight books including The Best of Intentions: A Story of Landscape Change in the Heart of the Great Plains, released in 2025. He earned his bachelor's degree in biology from Graceland University, his master's degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from Iowa State University, and his doctorate in ecology from the University of Georgia.