Humanitarian Crisis Management
Studying how organizations, communities, and information systems respond under pressure during disasters and emergencies.
Ph.D. Student · Sabancı Business School
Parinaz Kiavash
Data, decisions, and dignity in crisis response.
Parinaz Kiavash is a Ph.D. student in Business Analytics and Operations Management at Sabancı Business School. Her work brings together humanitarian operations, social media analytics, machine learning, and text analysis to help understand needs, improve response, and support evidence-based decision-making during disasters.
- Humanitarian Operations
- Social Media Analysis
- Crisis Informatics
- Data-Driven Decision Support
Research Lens
Humanitarian crisis management, supply chain optimization, and social media analytics
About
A research profile shaped by operations, analytics, and social impact.
With a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and a Master’s degree in Executive Management, Parinaz develops research at the intersection of humanitarian crisis management, humanitarian supply chain optimization, and advanced analytics. Her work focuses especially on how digital traces and public communication can be turned into operational insight.
She is particularly interested in the demand side of humanitarian response: how social media data can help detect, understand, and anticipate emerging needs during disasters, and how this information can strengthen coordination, responsiveness, and effectiveness in relief operations.
More broadly, her research reflects a commitment to using rigorous analytical methods to address complex societal challenges, with an emphasis on practical relevance, interdisciplinary thinking, and evidence-based humanitarian action.
Research interests
Building analytical intelligence for crisis response and humanitarian operations.
Her research agenda is driven by a simple question: how can data science make humanitarian decision-making faster, fairer, and more responsive when uncertainty is high and needs are urgent?
Humanitarian Supply Chain Optimization
Designing better allocation, coordination, and planning approaches for relief operations with an emphasis on efficiency and equity.
Social Media Analysis
Using online communication data to understand public needs, information flows, disaster response behavior, and crisis communication.
Machine Learning & Text Analytics
Combining computational methods with real-world humanitarian problems to generate actionable, interpretable insights.
Motivation
Turning public signals into operational insight.
Disasters generate both urgent needs and massive information flows. Parinaz is interested in connecting those two worlds: translating noisy, real-time digital signals into meaningful intelligence that can support humanitarian planning, improve communication, and help organizations respond with greater precision and accountability.
Selected publications
Research that connects analytical rigor with humanitarian relevance.
Featured below are selected publications aligned with public records currently visible through Google Scholar and publisher pages. Additional publications can be added easily as the profile grows.
Can social media predict demand in humanitarian crises? A case study of the 2023 Türkiye earthquake
This paper examines whether social media data can be used to predict humanitarian demand during a major disaster. Framed around the 2023 Türkiye earthquake, it speaks directly to the challenge of transforming public digital signals into information that can support crisis response and operational decision-making.
Fair and Effective Vaccine Allocation During a Pandemic
This study formulates a vaccine allocation problem over multiple periods, integrating disease progression, vaccination effects, supply limits, and capacity constraints. The model aims to reduce expected mortality while also addressing inequity, highlighting Parinaz’s broader interest in combining optimization and fairness in public-interest operations.
Contact & links
Open to academic collaboration, interdisciplinary research, and meaningful conversations.
For research-related inquiries, collaborations, or speaking opportunities, the fastest way to reach out is by email.