Telesilla Kotsi

Telesilla Kotsi is an assistant professor of operations management at the Fisher College of Business. She joined the Management Sciences department after receiving her PhD from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Telesilla combines quantitative rigor with field research—unusual in operations management. For example, in her current work, she uses mathematical modeling in combination with experimental methods to understand both strategic interactions and behavioral factors in organizational decision-making.

Nonprofit operations management is an important area of research, given the growing accountability gap as nonprofit funding becomes increasingly competitive. Nonprofits face unique pressures: they must provide goods and services to beneficiaries in a timely, equitable, and efficient manner while ensuring they do no harm to other stakeholders and responding to donors' demands for accountability and transparency. Therefore, Telesilla's primary research interest centers on how allocation of resources (cash, assets, personnel, etc.) affects a nonprofit's own performance and services provided to its beneficiaries. Telesilla envisions a future where data-driven operations management helps nonprofits maximize their social impact while maintaining the trust of donors and communities they serve, and where corporations can strategically align profit motives with societal benefit through evidence-based operational frameworks.

To understand the unique challenges faced by nonprofits, Telesilla has visited refugee camps in Greece, interviewed foodbank managers in the USA, and analyzed transportation and personnel data collected by a large humanitarian organization that operates worldwide.

Prior coming to the US for pursuing her doctoral studies, Telesilla worked at INSEAD Humanitarian Research Group as a Research Assistant and received a MSc in Operations Research with Computational Optimization from the University of Edinburgh in the UK. Her BSC Degree is on Mechanical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece.

Awards

• Poets and Quants Best 40 Under 40 Professors. 2024.
• M&SOM Society Award for Responsible Research in Operations Management. Honorable Mention. 2022.
• Elwood S. Buffa Doctoral Dissertation Award, Decision Sciences Institute. 2021.
• Finalist for the Panschar Associate Instructor Award, Operations and Decision Technologies, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. 2018.
• Doctoral Student Research Productivity Award, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University Bloomington. 2017.
• Dean's Fellowship, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. 2014.
• Onasis scholarship for hellenes studying broad by the Onasis Foundation, Greece. 2014-2019.
• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Bursary by the School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh. 2011-2012.

Published Research

• Kotsi, T. O., Lowrey, J. 2024.  Beneficiary-Centric Approaches in Humanitarian Operations (Book Chapter). A Research Agenda for Humanitarian Logistics book. Elgar: In press.
• Kotsi, T. O., Aflaki, A., Aydin, G., Pedraza-Martinez, A. J. 2023. Allocation of Nonprofit Funds Among Program, Fundraising, and Administration. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2020.0660
• Kotsi, T. O., Wu, O., Pedraza-Martinez, A. J. 2022. Donations for the Refugee Crisis: In-kind Versus Cash Assistance. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2021.1073.

• PhD., Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
  • Double Major: Operations Management and Decision Sciences
  • Dissertation title: "Essays on Resource Allocation Decisions of Nonprofits"
  • Committee: A.J. Pedraza-Martinez (Chair), O. Wu, K. Bretthauer, L. Yan
• M.Bus., Operations Management, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
• MSc., Operations Research with Computational Optimization (distinction)
  • School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
• Diploma Mechanical Engineering (5-year degree, highest GPA)
  • Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

• Kotsi, T.O., Gülserliler, E., and Pedraza-Martinez, A.J. "Safety and Equity Tradeoffs in Armed Conflicts"

• Kotsi, T.O., Chu, S.H. and Hill, J. "Aligning Corporate Social Responsibility and Supply Chain Objectives in Surplus Drug Donations"

• Villa, S., Kotsi, T.O., and Urrea, G. "Federal Funding for Nonprofits: Impact of Grant Types on Organizational Performance"

• Kotsi, T.O., Megahed, M., Besiou, M., and Pedraza-Martinez, A.J. "Balancing Programmatic and Administrative Costs: Donors and Operating Conditions Effects on Humanitarian Operations"