About the Team

Natalie Cherbaka is an Associate Collegiate Professor at Virginia Tech in the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) and Affiliate Faculty with the Honors College. She is focused on project-based learning across the university as a member of the design and execution teams for both the Calhoun Honors Discovery Program and the College of Engineering’s Interdisciplinary Design course.

Kimberly Ellis is an Associate Professor in the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. She teaches and conducts research in the areas of production planning, logistics planning, and applied operations research. Ellis directs the Center for Excellence in Logistics and Distribution at Virginia Tech. Her teaching effectiveness has been recognized with the Wine Award for Teaching Excellence and the College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Andrew Thomas received a B.S. in ISE in 2019 and an M.Eng. in ISE in 2020. He is currently a Consultant at Alpine Consulting Partners working to drive efficiency and effective decision making through Enterprise Performance Management systems and implementations. He stays engaged in the ISE department through his membership in the Emerging Leaders Board (ELB) working to support both students and alumni. At Virginia Tech, chicken parm from Owens is his favorite meal.

Ben LaBine received a B.S. in ISE in 2019, and he is currently a Senior Consultant for Alpine Consulting Partners specializing in financial management system implementations for public and private sector organizations. His favorite aspect of his current role is that he is constantly challenged with new and exciting problems but is able to solve them through the support of his extraordinary peers and mentors at Alpine. While at Virginia Tech, he was privileged to be one of the HokieBirds!