From Vision to Impact: Innovative Faculty Behind MITx MicroMasters Programs
You are invited to
From Vision to Impact: Innovative Faculty Behind MITx MicroMasters Programs
Thursday, February 19, 2026
1:00PM-2:00PM EST
Question and answer session to follow.
Join us for a special online event celebrating the 10th anniversary of MITx MicroMasters programs! Hear directly from some of the visionary faculty who helped shape this groundbreaking initiative:
Dr. Sara Ellison – Faculty Director, MicroMasters Program in Data, Economics, and Design Policy
Dr. Egor Matveyev – Executive Director, MicroMasters Program in Finance
Dr. Chris Caplice – Director, MicroMasters Program in Supply Chain Management
In this enlightening conversation, moderated by the Senior Director of the MITx Program Dana Doyle, these academic innovators will share their motivations for creating MicroMasters programs, their pedagogical approaches, and the lessons learned along the way. Learn how their efforts have transformed global access to advanced education and what the future holds for online learning.
We welcome you to gain unique insights into the evolution of digital education at MIT!
About the speakers
Dr. Chris Caplice serves as the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Transportation & Logistics (CTL) where he is responsible for the planning and management of the research, education, and corporate outreach programs for the center. He is Director of the MITx MicroMaster’s Program in Supply Chain Management – the very first MicroMasters credential ever offered. Since its inception in 2015, the SCx courses have over 1.2 million registrations of students from 196 countries. More than 50,000 individual course Certificates and over 6,000 MicroMasters credentials have been awarded to date. In 2018, he was awarded the MITx Prize for Teaching and Learning, the Irwin Sizer Award for the Most Significant Improvement to MIT Education, and the MIT Teaching with Digital Technology Award.
Dr. Caplice was selected as the first Silver Family Research Fellow in 2016 in recognition of his contribution to supply chain education and research. Also in 2016, he received the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) Distinguished Service Award.
Dana Doyle has been working at MIT Open Learning for over 10 years and has held roles from project management of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) creation to her current role as the Senior Director of the MITx Program.
As the Senior Director, Doyle manages a team of 20+ to support faculty in creating online open courses for the world. She also works with other units across Open Learning and MIT to further MIT’s mission.
Doyle holds a Master of Education from Northeastern University.
Dr. Sara Fisher Ellison is currently Senior Lecturer in the MIT Department of Economics. She has spent most of her career at MIT, but has also held visiting positions at institutions such as the Centre for Economic Studies in Munich, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Hoover Institution, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the Paris School of Economics. Her research has investigated a number of questions in industrial organization, with a focus on the pharmaceutical industry and ecommerce.
Ellison is the faculty director of the department's Data, Economics, and Design Policy MicroMasters and Masters programs. She has an award-winning MOOC in the MicroMasters on data analysis for social scientists that has attracted over 100,000 learners. In addition, she still enjoys the challenge of teaching MIT undergraduates and is currently one of the two instructors for the introductory microeconomics course. She also teaches and advises PhD students in industrial organization. She currently serves on the editorial board of three industrial organization journals, IJIO, JIE, and RIO and has been an associate editor at JEMS. Finally, she has consulting experience, providing litigation support and management guidance.
Dr. Egor Matveyev is a Senior Lecturer and Research Scientist in Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He also serves as an Executive Director of the MicroMasters Program in Finance. His research interests are in the fields of corporate finance, organizational economics, and corporate governance. Matveyev’s work has studied corporate director labor markets, the impact of management teams and CEOs on firm value and performance, and the challenges investors face in valuing firms’ investment options. At MIT Sloan, he teaches 15.401 Managerial Finance and 15.434 Advanced Corporate Finance.
Matveyev’s current research focus is corporate finance, with a particular interest in the role of top corporate executives in creating firm value and its implications for executive compensation and the design of corporate governance systems. Current research projects include measuring the value of CEOs, allocation of executive skill across firms, and the role of non-pay job characteristics in the executive and director labor markets.
Matveyev holds an MA in Economics from the New Economic School in Moscow and a PhD in Finance from the University of Rochester.