Associate Chair for Academic Administration and
Director of Professional Practice and
Director of Education and Projects, Center for Health & Humanitarian Systems
Education
- Ph.D. Industrial Engineering (2006), Georgia Tech
- M.S. Industrial Engineering (2001), University of Central Florida
- B.S. Industrial Engineering (1998), University of Jordan
About
Dima Nazzal is the Associate Chair for Academic Administration and a Principal Academic Professional in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. As the Associate Chair for Academic Administration, she is in charge of strategic opportunities and programs in ISyE’s educational portfolio and curricula, the operational excellence and coordination of activities across ISyE’s educational programs, and ensuring effective and efficient academic program resource allocation and planning. As Director of Professional Practice, she is responsible for the capstone senior design course, and the cornerstone junior design course. She is also director of Education and Projects for the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems. Dr. Nazzal currently serves as the Chair of the Georgia Tech Faculty Executive Board and on the Georgia Teach Athletic Association Board of Trustees. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, she was Director of Research and Development at Fortna, Inc., an Engineering Design and Consulting company.
Research
Her research focuses on modeling, design, and control of discrete event logistics systems, including healthcare delivery systems, manufacturing systems, and distribution systems. Her recent work has focused on hospital system surgery scheduling and supply optimization, health equity in Georgia, US election voting systems, higher education response to COVID-19, and understanding and driving higher childhood vaccination rates in developing countries. Past work focused on modeling and design of order fulfillment solutions in distribution systems; scheduling and dispatching policies in semiconductor manufacturing, and energy systems development. She has worked with companies, non-governmental organizations, and healthcare providers, including Georgia Department of Public Health, ExxonMobil, Samsung, Emory Health, Emory University School of Public Health, Gates Foundation, and Walt Disney World. See here for relevant publications.
Teaching
Dr. Nazzal enjoys teaching courses in manufacturing, warehousing, and facility logistics system design and operations, as well as advising senior design teams. She is the recipient of multiple teaching awards including Education Innovation award from the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers in 2022, The Innovation in Education Award from Center for Teaching and Learning at Georgia Tech in 2021, the Georgia Tech Women in Engineering Outstanding Teacher Award in 2015, and the Most Outstanding Faculty Member Award from the University of Central Florida IIE Student Chapter in 2011.
Dr. Nazzal’s commitment to higher education extends beyond teaching and research to strengthening shared governance at Georgia Tech. As Chair of the GT Faculty Executive Board, she works collaboratively with faculty and administrators to shape policies, address matters of importance to the Institute, and ensure transparency and trust in decision-making. Her experience on Georgia Tech’s COVID-19 Campus Recovery Task Force deepened her belief that meaningful progress comes through open dialogue, shared responsibility, and a collective commitment to academic excellence.
Representative Publications
- *Fujimoto, A., B., Keskinocak, P., Nazzal, D. 2025. “Variation in COVID-19 vaccination and adverse outcomes: a state of Georgia case study” BMC Public Health, 25 (1), 3128.
- *Castillo-Zunino, F., Hester, K. A., Keskinocak P., Nazzal, D., Smalley, H. K., Freeman, M. C. 2025. “Associations between family planning, healthcare access, and female education and vaccination among under-immunized children” Vaccine, V44, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.126540.
- * Wu, D., Hamilton, H., Jagrowski, L., Nazzal, D., Steimle, L. (2024). Revisiting the small-world property of co-enrollment networks: A network analysis of hybrid course delivery strategies. In print. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. Preprint DOI: https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/jp6aq
- *Barenji, A.V., Montreuil, B., Babalou, S., Nazzal, D.; Benaben, F., DeMillo, R. 2023. An agent-based simulation platform for a safe election: From design to simulation. Information, 14, 529. https://doi.org/10.3390/info14100529
- *Yamin, K., Jadali, N., Xie, Y., and Nazzal, D. 2023. “Novelty detection for election fraud: A case study with agent-based simulation data.” AI Magazine 00:1 -8. https://doi.org/10.1002/aaai.12112
- *Smalley, H. K., F. Castillo-Zunino, P. Keskinocak, D. Nazzal, Z. Sakas, M. Sarr, M.C. Freeman. 2023. Factors associated with vaccine coverage improvements in Senegal from 2005 to 2019: A quantitative retrospective analysis, to appear in BMJ Open. 13: e074388. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-074388
- * Sakas, Z., Hester K. A., Rodrigues, K., Diatta, S. A., Ellis, Gueye, D. M., Mapatano, D., Mboup, A. S., Oguto, E. A., Yang, C., Bednarczyk, R. A., Freeman, M. C., Sarr, S., Bueno, N., Castillo-Zunino, F., Darwar, R., Dounebaine, B., Dudgeon, M.R., Escoffery, C., Isett, K. R., Jaishwal, C., James, H., Keskinocak, P., Montagnes, B. P., Nazzal, D., Orenstein, W., Rueda Robayo, M., Rosenblum, S., Smalley, H. K., (2023). Critical success factors for high routine immunization performance: A case study of Senegal, Vaccine: X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvacx.2023.100296
- * Hester K. A., Sakas, Z., Ellis, A. S., Bose, A. S., Darwar, R., Gautam, J., Jaishwal, C., James, H., Keskinocak, P., Nazzal, D., Oguto, E. A., Rodrigues, K., Castillo-Zunino, F., Dixit, S., Bednarczyk, R. A., Freeman, M. (2022). Critical success factors for high routine immunization performance: A case study of Nepal, Vaccine: X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvacx.2022.100214
- *Navabi-Shirazi, M., El Tonbari, M., Boland, N., Nazzal, D., Steimle, L. (2022). Multi-criteria Course Mode Selection and Classroom Reassignment Due to Reduced Densities for Social Distancing During a Sudden Pandemic. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.1131
- *Micek, K., Hester K. A., Castillo-Zunino, F., Chanda C., Darwar, R.; Dounebaine, B., Ellis, A. S., Keskinocak P., Leslie, A., Manyando, M., Manyando, M. S., Nazzal, D., Ogutu, E. A., Sakas, Z., Kilembe, W., Bednarczyk, R. A., Freeman, M. (2022). Critical success factors for routine immunization performance: A case study of Zambia 2000 to 2018, Vaccine: X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvacx.2022.100166
- *Steimle, L., Sun, Y., Johnson, L., Besedeš, T., Mokhtarian, P., Nazzal, D. (2022). Students’ Preferences for Returning to Colleges and Universities During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Discrete Choice Experiment Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 82.
- *Castillo-Zunino, F., Keskinocak, P., Nazzal, D., and Freeman, M. C. (2021). Health Spending and Vaccination Coverage in Low-income Countries. BMJ Global Health, v6: n5 https://gh.bmj.com/content/6/5/e004823
- *Musselman, A., Thomas, V., Nazzal, D., Venkatesh, A., Mallapragada, D.S., and Papageorgiou, D. J. (2021). The Impact of Development Priorities on Power Generation Expansion Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa. Energy Systems.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12667-021-00433-z
- *Musselman, A., Thomas, V., Boland, N., and Nazzal, D. (2019). Optimizing Wind Farm Siting to Reduce Power System Impacts of Wind Variability. Wind Energy, v22, p. 894-907.
- *Siebert, M., Bartlett, K., Kim, H., Ahmed, S., Lee, J., Nazzal, D., Nemhauser, G., and Sokol, J. (2018). Lot Targeting and Lot Dispatching Decision Policies for Semiconductor Manufacturing: Optimisation Under Uncertainty with Simulation Validation, International Journal of Production Research, v56, n1-2, p 629-641.
*Denotes co-author who is a current and/or former undergraduate or graduate research student.