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Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences

Clinical Associate Professor of Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences

Portrait of Joel K. Shapiro, Faculty at the Kellogg School of Management

Joel Shapiro, JD, PhD, is Clinical Associate Professor of Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences.

Joel is an expert on helping business leaders and organizations generate business value by making better decisions and building enterprise-wide analytics strategies that achieve important business goals.  

Joel leads Kellogg's Analytical Consulting Lab and teaches advanced analytics electives in the MBA curriculum.  His work has been featured globally via regular keynote addresses and thought-leader authorship top business publications.  

He holds a PhD in policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, CA, a JD from Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, IL, and a BS in physics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI.

About Joel
Research interests
  • The role of data and analytics in organizational success; how to lead data teams and cultivate the next generation of data leaders
Teaching interests
  • The role of data and analytics in organizational success; how to lead data teams and cultivate the next generation of data leaders
  • Doctor of Philosophy, 2003, Political Analysis, RAND Graduate School
    Juris Doctor, 1998, Northwestern University School of Law
    Bachelor of Science in Physics, 1994, College of LSA, University of Michigan
  • Adjunct Faculty, School of Continuing Studies, Northwestern University, 2003-present
    Adjunct Faculty, Graduate Statistics, School of Education, Loyola University, 2003
    Physics Teacher, Lincoln Park High School, 1994-1995
  • Attorney, Schwartz & Freeman, 1998-1999
    Policy Analyst / Doctoral Fellow, RAND Corporation, 1999-2001
    Senior Researcher, ROCKMAN ET AL, 2003-2007

Analytical Consulting Lab (MECNM-615-0)

The Influential and Impactful Data Leader (MECN-938-5)

Today's organizations possess vast amounts of data, and those that use it wisely are destined to outperform those who do not. Leaders of data teams are a key ingredient to success. Great leaders of data teams come from all walks of professional life - some are trained data scientists, some have advanced degrees from other scientific domains, and many are non-data expert professionals who simply have proven themselves to be strong managers. This course will help students - regardless of quantitative or technical skillset - build and lead effective data teams, invest in the right tools, tech, and people, and cultivate influence in their organization.

Analytical Consulting Lab (MECN-615-0)

For more information and to complete the application, click here

Analytical Consulting Lab is an experiential course for students interested in applying their analytics skills to help real clients use real data to solve real problems. Projects will include a range of sophistication of analytic techniques - some might call for advanced statistical modeling and machine learning techniques, while others may focus less on analysis of data and more on helping a client craft an appropriate analytics strategy. Projects are pre-approved by faculty, and will touch many industries and aspects of business management.

Note: By application only. By applying to this course, the student commits to taking the class if they are accepted into the course. This course may not be dropped after the student has been accepted into the course.