About
Elena Karahanna
Distinguished Research Professor & C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry Distinguished Chair in Business Administration
Management Information Systems Department
Terry College of Business, University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
Email: ekarah@uga.edu
Elena Karahanna is a University of Georgia Distinguished Research Professor and the C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry Distinguished Chair in Business Administration in the MIS Department, Terry College of Business, at the University of Georgia. She has also held visiting appointments in Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, and Italy and was on the faculty at the University of Cyprus and at Florida State University.
She holds a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from the University of Minnesota with specializations in Organization Theory and Organizational Communication, and B.S. in Computer Science (summa cum laude) and MBA degrees from Lehigh University.
Elena’s research for over 25 years has focused on the impact of information systems on how individuals work, interact, communicate, coordinate, and decide. Her current research focuses primarily on responsible AI, bots, and health IT. Her research has been published in leading scholarly journals in Information Systems (e.g., Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of the Association for Information Systems) and other disciplines (e.g., Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Academy of Management Discoveries, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science) as well as in practitioner journals (e.g., MIS Quarterly Executive, Cutter Benchmark Review, Business Horizons). Elena’s research is highly cited with over 41,000 citations as per Google Scholar. She has won two MIS Quarterly Best Paper Awards for 2012 & 2022, an AIS Best Publication Award in 2023, and three of her articles are among the top 25 most frequently cited articles in the history of the MIS Quarterly. For her research achievements, Elena has received the Terry College of Business Outstanding Research Award in 2010 and the Terry College of Business Distinguished Research Award in 2021, and was named a University of Georgia Distinguished Research Professor in 2016. She was also named a Fellow of the Association for Information Systems in 2012 for outstanding contributions in research, teaching and service to the Information Systems discipline, an INFORMS Information Systems Society Distinguished Fellow in 2021, and received the AIS LEO Award (the highest award in the information systems discipline) for exceptional lifetime contributions to the field.
Elena has served as Senior Editor at the MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, and the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, and serves or has served as Associate Editor at Management Science, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and the European Journal of Information Systems. She has also guest co-edited a special issue of the MIS Quarterly on “The Role of Information Systems and Analytics and Chronic Disease Prevention and Management,” a special issue of the Journal of Management Information Systems on “IT to Foster Mental Health,” a special issue of IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management on “IS Leadership,” a Special Issue of MIS Quarterly Executive on “New IS Leadership Roles in a Digital World,” and a Special Issue of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science on “The Future of Technology and Marketing.” For her editorial work, she received the Management Science Inaugural Best Associate Editor Award. She is serving as conference co-chair for the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) in 2024, and has served as program co-chair for the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) in 2014 and in 2020, as Doctoral Consortium co-chair for the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) in 2014 and 2023, and as conference co-chair for the Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS) in 2011 and in 2016. Elena also co-founded the Senior Scholars Consortium, the Doctoral Student Corner, and SIGLead, a special interest group on IS Leadership. She has also served as a Senior Consultant with Cutter Consortium’s Business-IT Strategies practice. For her service contributions to the profession, Elena received the AIS Sandra Slaughter Service Award in 2015 and the INFORMS Information Systems Society President’s Service Award in 2023.
Elena has taught a variety of courses in the undergraduate, MBA, Masters, and Doctoral programs and has received teaching excellence awards from Florida State University in 1998 and from the University of Georgia in 2003, 2011, and 2013. She has also chaired (or currently chairing) 15 dissertations and served (or is currently serving) as committee member or as an external examiner on another 33 dissertation committees.
Elena’s current research examines (a) health information systems including telehealth solutions and coordination in healthcare teams; (b) responsible AI; and (c) social bots.