Dr. Carin Lightner-Laws

Faculty Member

Office:
Management, Marketing & Supply Chain Management
College of Business
CarinLightner-Laws@clayton.edu

Biography

Dr. Carin A. Lightner-Laws is a Professor of Management and Supply Chain Management in the College of Business at Clayton State University (CSU). She currently serves as the Director of the Center for Supply Chain Management and the Advisor for the Student Supply Chain Roundtable at CSU.

She has received numerous awards for her service activities including the Advisor of the Year award at CSU (2021, 2022, 2023, and 2025), CSU Heritage Bank University Professorship award (2019), the College of Business Outstanding Service Award (2018, 2022), the Career Services Faculty Champion (2024), and the CSU Heritage Bank University Professorship (2019-2020).

Dr. Lightner-Laws earned a Ph.D. in Operations Research-Industrial Engineering from North Carolina State University, an M.O.R. in Operations Research-Mathematics from North Carolina State University, and a B.S. in Mathematics from North Carolina Central University. She also holds a Post Bachelorette certification in Logistics and Supply Chain Management from the University of North Carolina -Greensboro.

Education

Ph D, Operations Research- Industrial Engineering, North Carolina State University, 2008

MS, Operations Research- Mathematics, North Carolina State University, 2002

BSc, Applied Mathematics, North Carolina Central University, 1999

Other, Supply Chain and Logistics Management, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2009

Awards and Honors

2023-2024 Faculty Champion of the Year, CSU Career Services, Award, 2024

2024 Student Organization of the Year Award, CSU Student Life, Award, 2024

Outstanding Community Service Award, CSU/ Supply Chain Roundtable, Award, 2023

Outstanding Program/Activity of the Year, CSU/ Supply Chain Roundtable, Award, 2023

2023 Faculty Advisor of the Year, Supply Chain Roundtable, Award, 2023

Intellectual Contributions

Carin Lightner-Laws, Iryna Hayduk, The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Student Grades and Productivity, Interactive Learning Environments – December 2025

Constance Lightner, Carin Lightner-Laws, A New Day in Higher Ed: HyFlex Universities, Interactive Learning Environments/Taylor and Francis – February 2024

Tameka Womack, Carin Lightner-Laws, , AN EXPLORATION OF THE VALUE CHAIN AND ISSUES DURING COVID-19 VACCINE DEVELOPMENT, Quarterly Review of Business Disciplines – August 2021

Constance Lightner, Carin Lightner-Laws, A blended model: simultaneously teaching a Quantitative Course Traditionally, Online and Remotely, Interactive Learning Environments/Taylor and Francis – January 2016

Vikas Agrawal, Constance Lightner, Carin Lightner-Laws, Neal Wagner, A bi-criteria evolutionary algorithm for a constrained multi-depot vehicle routing problem, Soft Computing/ Springer – September 2017

Contracts, Grants, and Sponsored Research

Lydia Hall, Craig Hill, Carin Lightner-Laws, Kamran Moghaddam, Keith Miller, STW-Technic Supply Chain Improvements, STW-Technic, Private, 17500, Funded – June 2021 to November 2021

Presentations

Carin Lightner-Laws, Iryna Hayduk, Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Student Grades and Productivity , SE Informs 2023, Informs – October 2023

Constance Lightner, Carin Lightner-Laws, Tameka Womack, A Digital Reckoning: COVID-19's Impact on Universities' Technological Infrastructure, SE INFORMS 2021, SE INFORMS – October 2021

Carin Lightner-Laws, Academic Connection: Educating Tomorrow’s Supply Chain Professionals, ASCM CONNECT Annual Conference, Association for Supply Chain Management – September 2022

Carin Lightner-Laws, Constance Lightner, Joie Hain, Anita Whiting, CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVING ONLINE AND HYFLEX COURSES, USG Teaching and Learning Conference 2024, USG – March 2024

Carin Lightner-Laws, Constance Lightner, The New Normal: HyFlex Universities, USG Teaching and Learning Conference 2023, USG – March 2023

Service to the University & University System of Georgia

College, Center for Supply Chain Management, Administrative Assignment, Other – January 2024 to Present

College, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Committee Member – Spring 2017 to Present

University, University Hearing Panel, Committee Member – August 2017 to Present

University, Student Fees Advisory Board, Committee Member – Fall 2023 to Present

College, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Committee Chair – Fall 2019 to August 2023

Service to the Profession

Committee Chair, COUNCIL OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONALS, International – November 2024 to Present

Committee Member, Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM), International – December 2020 to Present

Reviewer, Journal Article, Decision Science Journal of Innovative Education, International – January 2016 to Present

Reviewer, Journal Article, Intelligent Systems with Applications Journal Spring 2020 to Present

Reviewer, Journal Article, International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics Journal, International – January 2017 to Present

Service to the Community

Committee Member, Delta Sigma Theta- Delta Academy, National – Spring 2022 to Present

Teaching Interest

-Operations Management
-Principles of Supply Chain Management
-Business Analytics
-Decision Making- Uncertainty
-Business Statistics

Research Interest

Dr. Lightner-Laws' research interests are in the areas of operations management, supply chain management, data analytics, logistics/transportation optimization, hybrid flexible teaching/learning, AI and Advanced Technology Impact on teaching/learning. Dr. Lightner-Laws has published her research in numerous journals including Soft Computing, the International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics, and Educational Technology Research and Development.