For three decades, Nada Sanders has operated at a fault line many business thinkers prefer to ignore — where elegant mathematical models collide with the unpredictable realities of human behavior.

She did not arrive at supply chain management by design. Growing up in a family of engineers and medical professionals, Sanders followed a familiar path. She earned an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and, for a time, considered medical school. She completed prerequisite courses, excelled in microbiology, and was fascinated by the hidden world beneath a microscope. But when coursework required dissecting frogs, something shifted.

“I love animals,” she says. “The idea was unfathomable to me. I remember thinking, ‘How do I break in and set all these frogs free?'”

Medicine was no longer the path. A colleague introduced her to operations management — at a time before supply chain was widely recognized as a discipline. It was, as Sanders describes it, “applied engineering.” For someone with a quantitative mindset and a growing interest in the complexity of organizations, it marked the beginning of everything.

A toolbox that could forecast anything

Sanders enrolled in a doctoral program at Ohio State University, immersing herself in quantitative operations research. She also earned a master's degree in finance and minored in organizational behavior, building a multidisciplinary foundation that would shape her career.

The turning point came with an elective course taught by a visiting professor from Carnegie Mellon University. The topic was forecasting. Using models to predict crime patterns in Pittsburgh, the professor demonstrated how volatile data could inform real-world decisions, such as police resource allocation.

“The same tools could be used to forecast anything,” Sanders says.

From climate modeling to aircraft trajectories to business demand, the universality of forecasting became central to her scholarly identity.

When the data fought back

With a prestigious dissertation award granting access to companies, Sanders set out to apply advanced models to real-world data. At 25, she envisioned clean datasets and elegant mathematical solutions. Instead, she found handwritten records scattered in abandoned railway cars, inconsistent data, and layers of organizational complexity. She climbed into those railway cars, transcribed data by hand, and quickly learned that business reality rarely mirrors theory.

Rather than retreat, she adapted. “Instead of saying, ‘This isn't how it should be,' I asked, ‘What does the real world look like?'”

Her adviser recognized that she was working at the intersection of forecasting, human judgment, and interconnected systems — an emerging field now known as supply chain management. That early experience shaped her philosophy: forecasting is not just about models. It requires understanding what to measure, how to interpret data, and when human judgment should prevail.

“It's not about what's right or wrong,” she says. “It's about what's real.”

Seeing through the hype

After decades in academia and industry, Sanders approaches emerging trends with measured skepticism.

She recalls the rise of lean production systems in the 1990s, when companies showcased successes while hiding failures, creating pressure and unrealistic expectations. She sees parallels in today's conversation around artificial intelligence.

“Most companies are using AI for narrow tasks,” she says. “Agentic AI is still largely hype.”

Organizations often overestimate competitors' progress while struggling to extract meaningful value themselves. Meanwhile, the push to signal AI adoption can overshadow investments in people.

“AI has democratized information, but it has not democratized critical thinking,” Sanders says. 

Drawing on the Pareto principle, she advises companies to focus on high-impact use cases rather than sweeping transformations and to invest in human capabilities that technology cannot replace.

Every student, every industry

Teaching is central to Sanders' work. At D'Amore-McKim, she makes a point of getting to know every student.

“Forty-five is nothing,” she said. “I get to know every single one.”

Her approach is personalized. While students learn core supply chain concepts, assignments are tailored to their interests — from automotive production to global concert logistics.

“Supply chain is not logistics,” she tells them. “It's a network of decisions and information.”

Whether in finance, entertainment, sports, or the arts, the underlying principles remain consistent, even as applications vary.

Keep showing up

When asked for advice, Sanders is direct: “Do not get discouraged. Keep getting up. Keep showing up.”

She points to her own experience revising one of her books. After receiving critical feedback, she scrapped the manuscript and rewrote it entirely.

“I didn't sulk,” she says. “You keep showing up.”

The revised book received strong reviews, reinforcing her belief in persistence.

Beyond resilience, Sanders emphasizes curiosity and humility. After 30 years, she says she has learned that no one has all the answers, especially in a rapidly evolving world. What endures are human skills: critical thinking, communication, and relationship-building.

“If you could take only one course,” she tells students, “it should be communication.”

In an era where AI levels the playing field for access to information, the differentiator is the ability to think clearly, ask better questions, and connect meaningfully with others — skills that require showing up, again and again, just as Sanders advises.