David Anderson
Villanova University School of Business
“Dr. Anderson in an innovative teacher in the classroom, teaching an array of analytics classes to undergraduates. He teaches the introductory analytics class, an upper-level data mining course as part of the analytics major, and a sports analytics course that he developed as an elective for the major. The sports analytics class focus on teaching R programming, using examples from baseball, basketball, football, tennis, and more. The students learn to apply data manipulation skills to develop and deploy machine learning models in sports.”
David Anderson, 36, is Associate Professor of Analytics at Villanova University School of Business. His research focuses on applying analytics techniques to problems in health care operations management and in pay equity and compensation. His research has been published in journals such as Nature, Annals of Internal Medicine, Organization Science, Production and Operations Management, and Decision Science.
His work has been honored at multiple research competitions, including the POM best healthcare operations competition (finalist) and the Wharton People Analytics Competition (winner of best whitepaper and best startup). He is also the co-founder of PayAnalytics, a tech startup that helps companies measure, close, and monitor their pay gaps.
He was a recipient of the 2023 Icelandic Innovation Award.
BACKGROUND
At current institution since what year? 2018
Education: Ph.D. – Robert H. Smith School of Business; B.S. in Applied Math – College of William and Mary
List of Undergraduate courses you teach: Introduction to Analytics, Data Mining, and Sports Analytics
TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR
I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when … I realized I was a truly terrible chemist. My father, three grandparents, and one great grandparent were all professors, so academia runs in my blood. I started out as a chemistry major, but a C+ in organic chemistry and a summer working in a chemistry lab, failing to pour electrophoresis gels helped me change directions into a math major. I applied to engineering, math, and business Ph.D. programs, and I liked the applied nature of the business schools the best
What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? I have two main research streams, on healthcare operations management, and on compensation and pay equity. My most significant findings are around how hospital resource constraints impact medical decision-making. We showed an increase in discharge rates when the hospital is full, and that the increase in discharge rate is correlated with an increase in readmissions. Managing healthcare resources like beds is critical to financial success, but also to patient outcomes.
If I weren’t a business school professor … I’d be a data scientist at a tech company, a researcher at a think tank, or a full-time entrepreneur. I would be happy anywhere that I get to use my statistics and optimization to solve interesting problems.
What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? I think it’s clear that I love the stuff that I teach. I spend all day doing it for my research and I bring that passion into teaching. I see the world through a math-modeling lens, and I bring that into the classroom.
One word that describes my first time teaching: Intense. The first time I taught was a full 3 credit intro to statistics course taught during a two-week Winter term during my Ph.D. program. It was a whirlwind for me, and for my students, but I enjoyed being in the classroom.
Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: Time is valuable, and it should be spent on important things. You can always stop working on things that are not going to pan out.
Professor I most admire and why: I have two answers here, one is my Ph.D. officemate, Brad Greenwood, currently at George Mason. He’s just such a productive researcher, he has a knack for asking important and timely questions, and for finding really clever natural experiments in the world to answer them.
My second answer is Margret Bjarnadottir, who is my closest collaborator. She came to Maryland towards the end of my Ph.D. program, and we’ve been working together for the past 11 years. She’s incredibly smart, the hardest worker I’ve met, and never lets me get by with “good enough.”
TEACHING BUSINESS SCHOOL STUDENTS
What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? I think statistics and analytics offer a unique way to view the world: how to take real problems and shrink them down into tractable mathematical models that we can solve with data and computers. I love teaching students to see the world that way, regardless of what their major is.
What is most challenging? Writing challenging but fair exams and assignments. Our students are so good they can replicate everything we do in class basically perfectly, so tests have to be somehow new, but I’m still figuring out how to add the right amount of “twist” to make answers not obvious but also not too hard.
In one word, describe your favorite type of student: Curious – my favorite thing is students who ask questions about how our material relates to their internship, or their job, or to their other classes. It means they are thinking about the material, rather than trying to get a good grade.
In one word, describe your least favorite type of student: Entitled
When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as …Someone who gives hard exams, but grades generously.
LIFE OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
What are your hobbies? I play the piano, I love to do drone photography, and mostly now just raising three kids.
How will you spend your summer? I’m teaching a two-week “Maymester” study abroad course in Iceland, but then the rest of the summer is prime research time.
Favorite place(s) to vacation: Iceland or Rome
Favorite book(s): Fiction: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir – it’s a great story and a fun science mystery.
Nonfiction: Are We Smart Enough To Know How Smart Animals Are by Frans de Waal. saw a documentary about Koko the Gorilla on vacation when I was young, and animal intelligence and communication has always fascinated me.
What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much? Welcome to Wrexham – it could be just a normal sports documentary, but it takes a wider lens and talks about the role that sports plays in a community and in people’s lives.
What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? I enjoy classical piano – I’ve played since I was a child, and I enjoy the emotional depth, and appreciate the musical artistry required.
THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this … co-op programs, or company-sponsored projects. Real world work for upper-level students, rather than textbook or classroom examples.
In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at … Measuring employee performance. It’s hard, but it’s incredibly important to the success of organizations.
I’m grateful for … The intellectual freedom being a professor grants me. I have never had a boss, and I have the freedom to work on whatever I think is interesting or important.
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