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Kezban Yagci Sokat

Assistant Professor
Recognition Year(s): 2024
Area of Impact: Community or Social Impact
School: Lucas College and Graduate School of Business, San Jose State University
Location: United States

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Summary

Kezban Yagci Sokat is an assistant professor of business analytics at San José State University, a research associate at the Mineta Transportation Institute, and a member of Human Rights Working Group. Her research focuses on using decision analytics and management sciences to alleviate human suffering in the areas of public health, humanitarian operations, and human trafficking. She aims to create awareness, inform decision- and policymaking, and increase the quality of life for all, especially those who are victims of humanitarian crises and crimes. While meeting these aims, Yagci Sokat wants to achieve efficient, effective, and equitable problem-solving.

Description of Research Impact

Yagci Sokat is a recognized researcher and thought leader in social impact, known for her work in human trafficking, humanitarian operations, and public health. Her stream of research in human trafficking, in particular, has informed decision-making and been used in training activities; it also creates publicity that raises awareness of the problem.

Yagci Sokat’s work on the intersection of human trafficking and transportation, funded by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), was used by the U.S. Senate for outreach to key transportation industry stakeholders, such as Uber and Lyft. Yagci Sokat is the lead researcher on the Not on Transit project, in collaboration with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority of California, and funded by the Federal Transit Administration. The project aims to increase public awareness on human trafficking.

Yagci Sokat is also well-known for her efforts relating to supply chains. She presented at the Workshop on Draft National Action Plan–Labor Exploitation and Supply Chains, co-organized by the Department of Protection of Victims of Human Trafficking, the Presidency of Migration Management, and the International Organization for Migration, and funded by the E.U. Support to the Fight Against Trafficking in Human Beings in Turkey project. Yagci Sokat’s presentation aimed to train Turkish antitrafficking practitioners on the role of supply chains for Türkiye’s new National Action Plan. She received the IBM Public Impact Award for her work on human trafficking in global supply chains.

Yagci Sokat has served on various multidisciplinary committees in the U.S. to aid local and national collaborative efforts as a recognized researcher. She currently serves on the Research and Data subcommittee of USDOT’s Advisory Committee on Human Trafficking. She is the chair of the Forced Labor Working Group and a member of the Analytics Working Group for the National Outreach Survey for Transportation under USDOT’s Combating Human Trafficking in Transportation Impact Award. Yagci Sokat has served in California on the Los Angeles Labor Trafficking Subcommittee and the South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking, as well as in Illinois on the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force’s Labor Trafficking Subcommittee, where her research was recognized in the force’s 10-year accomplishments.

Yagci Sokat has trained human trafficking experts from all backgrounds, including task forces and Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel, California transportation personnel, such as the Central Valley Transit Managers and L.A. Metro, and members of the public locally and internationally. She has presented alongside many influential representatives from such organizations as the U.S. Department of Labor, the Department of Justice, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, and the Department of Homeland Security. Her work has been highlighted by the media in the U.S., Türkiye, and Sri Lanka.

Examples of Research Impact

Select Publications

  • Kezban Yagci Sokat, “Addressing Forced Labor in Supply Chains in California,” Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 16, no. 100735 (December 2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2022.100735.
  • Kezban Yagci Sokat et al., “Forced Labor and Transportation: Multi-disciplinary Perspectives,” Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 23, no. 100999 (January 2024), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2023.100999.

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