Meet UVA Darden’s Newest Faculty Members

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business welcomed seven new professors ahead of the 2023–24 academic year.

The newest additions to the top-ranked Darden School faculty include scholars in a range of fields, with new voices bringing teaching expertise and novel research in the areas of Quantitative Analysis; Technology and Operations Management; Strategy, Ethics & Entrepreneurship; and Accounting.

New Darden faculty members include:

Dean Abbott, who joins Darden as the second Bodily Bicentennial Professor in Analytics, coming aboard as a visiting scholar. Abbott will focus his attention on writing, industry research and curriculum development, and will bring his insights as an internationally recognized expert and innovator in data science and predictive analytics. He has been active in this field for more than two decades. Abbott earned his bachelor’s degree in computational mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his master’s degree in applied mathematics from UVA.

Saed Alizamir, who joins the Quantitative Analysis area as an associate professor. His research examines social responsibility and public sector operations. He focuses on problems in public policy that involve private-public interactions and dynamic decision making, most recently an associate professor at Yale School of Management. He earned his Ph.D. from Duke University in business administration, his master’s degree in operations research from the University of Florida and his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Sharif University of Technology.

Christoph Herpfer, who joins the Finance area as an assistant professor. Most recently, Herpfer taught at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. His research interests include corporate finance, banking, and law and finance.  Herpfer earned his Ph.D. in finance from École Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne and Swiss Finance Institute, and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in finance and economics from the London School of Economics. He is actively collaborating with industry partners on applying big data and advanced statistical tools from his research in the healthcare finance space, and he is developing a course on healthcare finance.

Pnina Feldman, who joins as a visiting associate professor in the Technology and Operations Management area. Most recently at Boston University, her research examines how digital technologies affect operations strategy decisions — with emphasis on services, platforms, pricing, and consumer engagement — and the policy implications of these decisions. She earned her Ph.D. in operations and information management from the Wharton School, her master’s degree in industrial engineering and her bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and management from Technion – the Israel Institute of Technology.

Rory McDonald, who joins the Strategy, Ethics & Entrepreneurship area as a visiting associate professor. McDonald studies how firms successfully navigate new markets. McDonald was most recently an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School in the Technology and Operations Management area. He received his Ph.D. in management science and engineering, his master’s in sociology and his MBA from Stanford. He also earned a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of South Florida.

Simmi Mookerjee, who joins the Accounting area as an assistant professor. Mookerjee’s research interests include corporate social responsibility, political economy, human capital disclosure, information intermediaries and voluntary disclosure. She recently earned her Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Washington. She also earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from the University of Kansas. Mookerjee worked as an accountant prior to earning her Ph.D.

Chris Parker, who joins the Technology and Operations Management area as a visiting associate professor. Most recently an associate professor at American University, Parker’s research focuses on how IT-enabled applications are changing consumer behavior and how firms interact with their customers. He received his Ph.D. and a master’s in management science and operations from the London Business School.  He also earned a master’s degree in computational finance from the University of Essex and a bachelor’s degree in business economics and quantitative studies from Oklahoma State University.