Lea Rüsch

Dr. Lea Rüsch is Assistant Professor of Decision Sciences at IE Business School Madrid and co-manager of the Research Institute on Leadership and Operations in Humanitarian Aid (RILOHA). She earned her PhD with distinction from Kühne Logistics University, where her dissertation on humanitarian operations collaboration received the Dr. Friedrich Jungheinrich Foundation Prize.

Her research examines behavioral aspects of humanitarian operations:

• Leadership and communication strategies for interorganizational coordination
• Resource allocation under funding constraints
• Social media dynamics in crisis response
• Collective action problem-solving

Key insights include identifying trust barriers in cluster coordination systems and demonstrating how message authenticity increases information diffusion during crises.

Her award-winning PhD research comprised three studies:

• Coordination challenges in humanitarian clusters (Production and Operations Management)
• Cross-promotion patterns among humanitarian organizations (runner-up AOM award)
• Social media message diffusion during COVID-19

She has presented findings internationally including at LSE, Rotterdam School of Management, and INFORM conferences. At RILOHA, she facilitates research bridging operations management and leadership theory in humanitarian contexts.