Dr. Aven is an Associate Professor in Organizational Theory, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University. 

Aven’s research investigates social factors that facilitate or undermine individuals' ability to coordinate with others and in turn, succeed. Specifically, her work focuses on organizational and market relations, employing a variety of methods, including network analysis, sociolinguistics, field studies, and experimental approaches. Substantively, her main areas of interests are performance, entrepreneurship, and fraud. 

Her research and teaching have won numerous awards including the Xerox Junior Faculty Chair, George Leland Bach Excellence in MBA Teaching Award, and the Gerald L. Thompson Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. Aven’s work has been covered by outlets such as National Public Radio, The Atlantic, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg, Quartz, Science News Magazine, Vox Recode, BBC, and Business Insider. And she is an Associate Editor at Management Science. 

She currently works with and advises organizations to realize business value from data analytics and help their workforces to thrive.

Dr. Aven earned a B.A. in Sociology with a specialization in computing at the University of California at Los Angeles. After working in consulting for several years for Exeter Group, she received her PhD in Sociology from Stanford University.  

She is also committed to community, passionate about art, and sits on the advisory board for the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, where she resides with her daughter and dog.