Esra Ekinci is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering, Izmir Bakircay University. She received her BSc degree in Industrial Engineering from the Middle East Technical University, and completed her MSc and PhD studies in Industrial Engineering at Dokuz Eylul University. She has also gained professional experience in software and retail industry firms, contributing to data-driven decision processes and operational improvement projects. She has led and contributed to several applied projects in the areas of retail systems, supply chain analytics, and sustainability-oriented decision modelling. She has published numerous peer-reviewed papers in international SCI and SSCI-indexed journals, including IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Socioeconomic Planning Sciences, Journal of Cleaner Production, Transportation Research Part E, Science of the Total Environment, Business Strategy and the Environment, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Industrial Management and Data Systems, and Kybernetes. Her teaching disciplines include operations management, quantitative modelling, decision support systems, and multi-criteria decision analysis. Her research interests include sustainability, retail supply chain management, system dynamics, regional development modelling, and data-driven optimization approaches.