Barrett (Barry) W. Thomas was appointed associate provost for faculty and strategic operations in January 2025. He will begin serving in the roll full-time on July 1, 2025. Since 2020, Dr. Thomas has served as senior associate dean and the Gary C. Fethke Research Professor of Business Analytics in the Tippie College of Business. He joined Tippie in 2002 after earning MS and PhD degrees in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and BA degrees in Mathematics and Economics from Grinnell College.

Dr. Thomas has extensive experience in faculty development and policy. He also has been a leader regarding the use of artificial intelligence and has served on many campus-wide committees. At the national level, Dr. Thomas served as president of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Transportation and Logistics Society and as a vice president for INFORMS. He served for 15 years on Grinnell College’s Board of Trustees.