Mission Statement
The College of Humanitarian Operations and Crisis Management (HO & CM) is a set of members from the POMS community that seeks to create a focus group of researchers and practitioners to study how to manage operational systems under stress or severe resource constraints. A prime objective is to foster a creative environment among academics and practitioners to recognize how operations management plays a crucial role in dealing with the alleviation of human suffering under conditions triggered by cataclysmic acts of man and nature. Another major objective is to determine how operations management can provide early warning of impending events as well as reducing the severity of disasters and ensure sustainable transition of disaster relief efforts into longer term development. The HO & CM College plans to accomplish its objectives through avenues of academic as well as practice-oriented research. We intend to develop new pedagogical materials for teaching in this burgeoning field of Humanitarian Operations and Crisis Management.
The College will organize research tracks, mini conferences, panel discussions and workshops at the POMS conferences in an effort to connect the communities of academics and practitioners with a common goal of achieving effective and efficient humanitarian operations and management of crises. We plan to publish a special issue of the POMS journal dedicated to the evolving field of HO & CM.
Board Members
President: Nezih Altay, DePaul University
Secretary: Trilce Encarnacion, University of Missouri-St. Louis
Treasurer: Gloria Urrea, University of Colorado, Boulder
VP Meetings: Felipe Aros-Vera, Ohio University
VP Awards: Christopher W. Zobel, Virginia Tech
(Junior) VP Awards: Melih Celik, University of Bath, UK
(Junior) VP Meetings: Andres Jola-Sanchez, Texas A&M University, USA
VP Outreach: Marie-Ève Rancourt, HEC Montréal
VP Communication: Gemma Berenguer, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Spain
Past President: Alfonso J. Pedraza-Martinez, Indiana University
Awards & Competitions
2021 Best Paper Award Competition
The POMS College of Humanitarian Operations & Crisis Management (HOCM) invites all researchers/practitioners to submit their papers to the HOCM Best Paper Award Competition. The objective of the competition is to identify and honor outstanding papers in the fast-growing field of HOCM. Naturally, the topic of the paper should fall within the scope of HOCM.
2020 Best Paper Award Competition
The College of Humanitarian Operations and Crisis Management is very pleased to announce the results of its 2020 Best Paper Award Competition. We are pleased to announce that two papers tied for second place in the competition this year:
2020 Recipient(s)
"Is authoritarian leadership an effective approach during humanitarian operations?" by Mojtaba Salem, Maria Besiou, and Niels Van Quaquebeke.
- Mojtaba Salem, Kuhne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany
- Maria Besiou, Kuhne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany
- Niels Van Quaquebeke, Kuhne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany
Second Place Tie (1)
"Collaboration in the field. A behavioural approach" by Lea Rüsch, Murat Tarakci, Maria Besiou, and Niels Van Quaquebeke.
- Lea Rüsch, Kuhne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany
- Murat Tarakci, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Maria Besiou, Kuhne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany
- Niels Van Quaquebeke, Kuhne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany
Second Place Tie (2)
"Impact of Incorporating Returns into Pre-Disaster Deployments for Rapid-Onset Predictable Disasters" by Jon M. Stauffer and Subodha Kumar.
- Jon M. Stauffer, Texas A&M University
- Subodha Kumar, Temple University
Past Events
2021 HOCM Online Mini-Conference: Friday, April 30, 2021 (EDT)
The HOCM College will be hosting our online mini-conference on Friday, April 30, 2021 (EDT). Join us to explore new topics relevant to humanitarian operations and crisis management and to learn from practitioners and academics.