Professor Susan Cholette Awarded Y.F. Chang Endowed Chair

Susan Cholette, Ph.D., Professor of Decision Sciences, was awarded the Y.F. Chang Endowed Chair in Fall 2024 by the Lam Family College of Business (LFCoB) for her exceptional research in international business.

This prestigious award was established by Yung-Fa Chang, Ph.D., who founded the Evergreen Group in 1968, a Taiwan-based company that is now the seventh largest shipping company in the world. A self-made billionaire, Chang established the Chang Yung-Fa Foundation with the aim to give his entire fortune away to support education and other causes that bring a positive change to the world. 

In 1998, Chang donated $1 million to San Francisco State University to establish the Y.F. Chang Endowed Chair, which is held for three years and is bestowed upon a professor who demonstrates excellence in research in international business. The recipient's teaching load is reduced by three courses each year to allow them more time to support the advancement of international business studies. Previously held by Retired Professor Gerald "Buddy" Ungson, Ph.D., this endowed chair was awarded to Professor Cholette by the Y.F. Chang Endowed Chair Selection Committee made up of Committee Chair Sanjit Sengupta, Ph.D., Professor of Marketing, Shuming Liu, Ph.D., Professor of Finance, and Rachel B. Gross, Ph.D., Associate Professor and  John and Marcia Goldman Chair in American Jewish Studies. Professor Sengupta commented, "The selection process was competitive, with several strong applications. Our selection committee adopted a rigorous review process based on each applicant's academic and societal impact in international business.” Highlighting the impact of Cholette’s work, he added, “The Committee noted Dr. Cholette’s published research on international agro-food supply chains and the global wine industry in quality journals, conferences, and book chapters. The Committee was also impressed by her commitment to advancing international business activities in the Lam Family College of Business over the next three years."

Professor Cholette grew up in Upstate New York, where her father was a professor at State University of New York (SUNY), Cortland. However, she had not originally planned on a career in academia or, indeed, on earning a Ph.D. Cholette majored in Electrical Engineering at Princeton University, but after working as a computer engineer, she became more interested in solving applied business problems rather than making computers run faster. This decision led her to study Operations Research at Stanford University, where she earned her Ph.D. in 1996. Cholette first worked as a supply chain consultant for Aspen Technologies, often visiting client companies, including international ones, to tackle their supply chain issues. She later joined an inventory management startup called Nonstop Solutions, but it did not live up to its name. Laid off with all the other project managers and many of the other local tech workers in the 2001 dot-com crash, she saw an opening for a tenure-track position at San Francisco State University. She applied, got the job, and has been with the LFCoB since 2002, where Cholette started with teaching operations management classes. While she has taught many other Decision Sciences classes, such as statistics, project management, and spreadsheet modelling, her favorite subject remained supply chain management. Cholette had the opportunity to revisit her logistics experience in developing and teaching graduate and undergraduate supply chain management classes.    

Professor Cholette also began doing research in supply chain management, focusing on food and sustainability. She said, “Supply chain management was not really something most people gave much thought to until the pandemic when supply chains started breaking.” Her interest in food was partly driven by its economic relevance: California is an agricultural powerhouse, and the Port of Oakland, where Evergreen has terminal operations, is one of the most important agricultural export ports in the nation. She became interested in studying sustainability during her graduate research on economic models, dealing with climate change and food supply chains that are often complex, far-flung, and energy intensive. Her most frequently cited paper is a transportation carbon footprint study of wine distribution, showing that transport mode, not distance, is the main driver of emissions. Cholette explained, “It may seem counter-intuitive, but driving a few miles out of your way to pick up a bottle of wine imported from New Zealand may have a greater carbon footprint than the voyage taken to get that bottle to the store, including the ocean voyage across the Pacific.” This paper used software that her co-author had developed for commercial use, and Professor Cholette provided free access to SF State students to use it for their own projects.  She was also the advisor on several masters’ theses that quantified the GHG emissions associated with distributing various products.

Cholette has also addressed waste reduction in two publications analyzing how reusable containers can be used effectively in food supply chains. Many of her co-authors are fellow scientific members of the Food and Wine Supply Chain Council. She has traveled to France, Germany, Italy, Chile, and South Korea, often combining the delivery of short courses with conferences or other research opportunities. Cholette is a frequent visiting professor at University of Insubria in Varese, Italy. Her host, Professor Alessia Pisoni, Ph.D., noted, “Dr. Cholette’s course in sustainable supply chain management is beloved by our students. Faculty and students alike have appreciated her research seminars over the years, many of which have compared Californian and Italian agrobusinesses and how agents in both can learn from each other.”

Professor Cholette has been a Lam-Larsen Distinguished Teaching Professor (2021-2023), a Principal Investigator on a Multiyear Business in Education Grant, and has served as the Lam-Larsen Director for the Center for Ethical and Sustainable Business (2021-2023). LFCoB Dean Eugene Sivadas, Ph.D., stated, “Professor Cholette is a star teacher, committed scholar, and actively engages with our local and global communities. A long-time faculty member, she has served the college in a variety of capacities. She is highly deserving of this honor.”

Cholette keeps current with local industry through her involvement with a local professional group, Women in Logistics. As their scholarship director, she has overseen the program that awards funds to those studying supply chain management, many of whom have been SF State Gators. 

Considering her plans for the award, Cholette remarked, “I have some manuscripts that desperately need to be finished up, but I’m talking with some of my co-authors at the University of Bologna to start a new project modelling traceability and coordination of food supply chains, which would not only lead to fresher, higher quality foods, but also reduce food waste, which is not only a financial drain but a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.”

Read more about Professor Cholette on her faculty profile page.