Dr. Kezban Yagci Sokat is a member of the Analytics Working Group for the National Outreach Survey for Transportation, under the USDOT Combating Human Trafficking in Transportation Impact Award.​

Dr. Yagci Sokat is a Research Associate at the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) and an Assistant Professor at San Jose State University. Dr. Yagci Sokat’s research focuses on using mathematical modeling and decision analytics to alleviate human suffering. For this reason, she been conducting high impact research in the areas of human trafficking, humanitarian/non-profit logistics and healthcare. 

​

A significant part of her research concentrates on integrating real-time information into humanitarian logistics operations to advance dynamic relief response. In collaboration with local, national and international efforts, Dr. Yagci Sokat leads various multi-disciplinary projects to combat human trafficking. Dr. Yagci Sokat has served on the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force Labor Trafficking Subcommittee, where her research was acknowledged as one of the accomplishments in the past 10 years.
 
In line with national initiatives, part of Dr. Yagci Sokat’s work has been invited to National Science Foundation (NSF) workshops and she has taken a part in a number of research projects funded by government and industry organizations, such as NSF and IBM. Additionally, her work has been recognized by university centers, such as Northwestern University Transportation Center and the Supply Chain & Logistics Institute at Georgia Institute of Technology.
 
Dr. Yagci Sokat received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences (IEMS) from Northwestern University. She completed master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering (MSIE) and Health Systems Engineering (MSHS) from Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) with a Fulbright scholarship.