Rama Yelkur, Founding Board and Inaugural ISM President
Rama Yelkur is the Dean of the College of Business and Professor of Marketing at Texas Woman’s University. Prior to that she served in a variety of roles, including the Dean of the School of Business at St. John Fisher College in New York, Dean of the Carmona College of Business at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan, and Director of International Business Programs and Professor of Marketing at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and a Marketing faculty member at Texas A&M International University. At Saginaw Valley State University, she also served as the Director of the Stevens Center for Family Business, serving family businesses through succession planning for the next generation. She has consulted and conducted corporate training internationally including in countries such as France, Portugal, Spain and Vietnam. She is the recipient of several grants through the U.S. Department of Education to assist SMEs become globally competent and to conduct student programming. She has extensive international experience and has been instrumental in establishing partnerships with Universities in Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, China and India. Her passion is to educate students to become globally competent and provide them with the skills to function in a contemporary, globally intertwined, technologically advanced workplace.
Yelkur has nearly three decades of consulting experience in sports marketing, advertising, and sponsorships, working with organizations such as Kimberly Clark, NBC Universal, and the NFL. Her work on Super Bowl advertising, in particular, has been cited in national media including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes Magazine, Fortune, Kiplinger and USA Today. She is also frequently contacted by CNBC, CNN, FOX TV, and producers of shows and media buyers regarding Super Bowl advertising. She has extensive experience on public and private boards. She is the past chair of the Women Administrators in Management Education Affinity Group of AACSB – International and has organized programming to develop leadership among women and minorities. She is the Past President of the Marketing Management Association (MMA) and Past President of the Executive Board of the Midwest Business Administration Association (MBAA)-International. She also serves on the Induction Planning Committee for the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Rama is a Certified Global Business Professional. She is a graduate of the Management in Leadership Education program through the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She received her Doctorate in Business Administration from Mississippi State University with a specialization in Marketing, her MBA from PSG College of Technology in India and her BSc. in Mathematics from Ethiraj College in India.
Carrie Trimble, Founding Board, Vice President of Marketing
Carrie Trimble is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Millikin University. She earned graduate degrees in Communication (M.A. University of Illinois Springfield) and Mass Media (Ph.D. Michigan State University) and a graduate certificate in International Marketing (Boston University). She’s a grammando who keeps her class presentations full of contemporary examples and energy. At Millikin, Dr. Trimble also served as Director of the Center for International Education and teaches travel courses in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Viet Nam, China, Italy, and Walt Disney World because everybody ought to see the world.
Kenneth Heischmidt, Founding Board, Treasurer
Kenneth Heischmidt is a Professor in the Department of Marketing at Southeast Missouri State University. He served as Southeast’s MBA Program Director from 1995 to 2015 and as International Business Programs Director from 1994 to 1997. He has previous experience as a faculty member at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (1982-1984) and Buena Vista University (1984-1985). Dr. Heischmidt worked as a marketing representative for Caterpillar Tractor company from 1974-1976.
He has published over fifty articles in national journals and academic proceedings. His articles have appeared in such journals as the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Ethics, Teaching Business Ethics, Journal of Professional Services Marketing, Journal of Hospital Marketing, Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Journal of Education for Business, Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, Journal of Behavioral Studies in Business, Health Marketing Quarterly, International Journal of Public Administration and Journal of College Student Personnel. He has presented numerous papers and seminars related to leadership, marketing research, and international study. Dr. Heischmidt has taught an international study programs in Europe from 1992 to 2020 (Covid 19). He has extensive travel experience in Eastern and Western Europe, Middle East, Asia, South and North America. Dr, Heischmidt is a past President of the North American Management Society and past President of Business and Health Administration Association. He has also served on the Advisory Council of the Midwest Business Administration Association. He was a guest lecturer at Aichi University in Nagoya, Japan in the falls of 1998, 2014, and 2017. Dr. Heischmidt has two doctorates, DBA (Marketing) and PhD (Educational Psychology), both from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He also has an MS (counseling) from Illinois State University. From Eastern Illinois University, he has both MBA and BSBA (Accounting). Recent recreational activities now center on travel and seeing family throughout the USA. The love of his life is Cynthia his wife, Brooke his daughter, Brett and Kurt his sons, and his three grandchildren.
Linda Ferrell, Founding Board, Co-chair of the Spring 2022 ISM Conference
Linda Ferrell is the John Roth Family Faculty Fellow of Marketing and Business Ethics. She served on the faculty at Belmont University, University of New Mexico, University of Wyoming, University of Northern Colorado, Colorado State University, and University of Tampa. She co-managed two, $1.25 million grant for business ethics education through the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative at the University of New Mexico with her husband, O.C. Ferrell. She was also jointly responsible for securing over $5 million for the first Bill Daniels Distinguished Professor Chair of Business Ethics at the University of Wyoming.
Ferrell earned a doctorate from the University of Memphis. She holds an MBA and a bachelor’s in fashion merchandising from Illinois State University. Her research interests include marketing ethics, ethics training and effectiveness, the legalization of business ethics as well as corporate social responsibility and sustainability.
She has published in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, AMS Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Business Research, as well as others. She has co-authored numerous books including Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases (12th edition), Business and Society (4th edition), Management (3rd), and Introduction to Business (12th edition).
Professionally, Ferrell served as an account executive in advertising with McDonald’s and Pizza Hut’s advertising agencies in Houston, Indianapolis, and Philadelphia. She was recently honored as the Innovative Marketer of the Year for the Marketing Management Association. Ferrell is on the board of directors of Mannatech, Inc., a NASDAQ-listed health and wellness company. She serves on the Board of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy-Center for the Public Trust. She serves on the Executive Committee, Board, and Academic Advisory Committee of the Direct Selling Education Foundation. She is on the Cutco/Vector College Advisory Board. She is immediate past president of the Academy of Marketing Science and past president of the Marketing Management Association. Ferrell also serves as an expert witness in ethics and legal disputes.
O.C. Ferrell, Founding Member, Co-chair of the Spring 2022 ISM Conference
O.C. Ferrell is the James T. Pursell, Sr. Eminent Scholar in Ethics and Director of the Center for Ethical Organizational Cultures at Auburn University. He has served on the faculty at Belmont University, the University of New Mexico, University of Wyoming, Colorado State University, University of Memphis, Texas A&M University, University of Michigan, Illinois State University, and Southern Illinois University.
Ferrell holds a doctorate from Louisiana State University in marketing, an MBA in marketing as well as a bachelor’s in sociology from Florida State University. Ferrell is president-elect of the Academy of Marketing Science. He was formerly vice president of Publications for the Academy of Marketing Science and was past president of the Academic Council of the American Marketing Association. He serves on the board of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy’s Center for the Public Trust and is also an advisory board member of Savant Learning. He serves on the Academic Advisory Committee for the Direct Selling Education Foundation. He received the AMS Cutco/Vector Distinguished Educator Award for contributions to the marketing discipline. Additional recognition includes being the first recipient of the Marketing Education Innovation Award for the Marketing Management Association, Lifetime Achievement Award from the Macromarketing Society, and special award for service to doctoral students from the Southeast Doctoral Consortium. He has chaired 13 dissertations with his former students currently serving as Deans, Associate Provost, CIBER Directors, journal editors, among others. Ferrell is co-author of several leading textbooks including Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases (12th edition), Marketing (19th edition), Marketing Strategy (6th edition), Business and Society (4th edition), Management (3rd edition), and Introduction to Business (12th edition). He has published in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, AMS Review, Journal of Business Research, as well as others. He writes weekly business ethics summaries and reviews for the Wall Street Journal with a subscriber list of over 6000. Ferrell has served as an expert witness is some high profile ethics, legal, and marketing cases.
Suzanne Altobello, Founding Board, Marketing Communications and Webmaster
Suzanne Altobello, Ph.D. is the William H. Belk Distinguished Chair of Business Administration and Professor of Marketing at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Her research interests are in the areas of consumer behavior, digital marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, innovation and technology acceptance, international pricing, small business strategy, and services marketing. Dr. Altobello has 25+ publications in top, refereed academic journals, such as the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Business Research, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Through independent consulting work and projects with students, Dr. Altobello has collaborated with national and regional companies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations on statistical programming, data analytics, survey research, experimental research, mobile marketing, social media strategies, promotional planning, and decision complexity in services. Dr. Altobello also owns her own consulting & real estate businesses in North Carolina. She serves on several startup boards and mentor groups, specializing in digital marketing and social analytics. Current and past AACSB-accredited faculty roles include Aalto University in Finland (visiting faculty & thesis methodology consultant), Southern Illinois University (Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Programs), University of Notre Dame and Grenoble (France) Graduate School of Business (adjunct faculty).
Peter Gordon, Founding Board, Chair of the Fall Conference
Peter Gordon recently retired from Southeast Missouri State University after more than 40 years of service. He was a professor and served for over 30 years arranging student programs in Europe, Asia, Mexico, Cuba and Brazil. He earned his doctorate from Southern Illinois University. Gordon was the founding President of what is now the North American Management Society., served as President of the Marketing Management Association and what is now the Association of Collegiate Marketing Educators and was Co-Editor of AMA summer and winter proceedings for 20 years. He also founded the MMA Fall Educators’ Conference and acted as Conference Chair on 10 occasions. He is a MMA Fellow and also recipient of the MMA Innovative Marketing Award.
John Cherry, Founding Board, Co-Chair of Fall Conference
John Cherry (D.B.A., Southern Illinois University, 1996) is Emeritus Professor of Marketing at Southeast Missouri State University, having joined the faculty at Southeast in Fall 2000. His professional experience is in banking, secondary marketing, real estate and consumer lending, and other service sector areas. John earned his undergraduate degree – Bachelor of Fine Arts – at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he majored in arts and humanities. He earned the MBA degree at Eastern Illinois University in 1990. Since completing his doctoral studies at Southern Illinois, he has pursued research in ethical decision-making in marketing, as well as the broad area of not-for-profits in marketing, with special emphasis on the issues facing arts organizations. His research has been published in Journal of Business Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Marketing Management Journal, Marketing Education Review, Journal for the Advancement of Marketing Education*, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, as well as numerous regional, national, and international proceedings. In 2003, and again in 2007, John Cherry earned the Harrison College of Business Copper Dome award for research at Southeast, and in 2004-2005, Dr. Cherry earned the “Students’ Choice” award for teaching excellence. In 2010, Dr. Cherry was awarded the R. Ferrell Ervin Award for Excellence in Teaching by the Student Government of Southeast Missouri State University. In March 2012, Dr. Cherry was named “Fellow” of the Marketing Management Association. In May 2014, Dr, Cherry was recognized as Outstanding M.B.A. Faculty in Southeast’s Harrison College of Business for 2013-2014.
Stacey Hills, Founding Board, Program Chair 2024 Spring Conference
Stacey Hills, Ph.D. received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Marketing and a Master of Business Administration degree in New Product Development and Economics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and International Studies from Russell Sage College. Professor Hills was a marketing faculty member and Clinical Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Huntsman Scholars Program at Utah State University, then served Associate Professor of Marketing in The McCormick Division of Business at Southern Vermont College. She has published a marketing textbook titled The Marketing Fundamentals Field Guide, meant to be written in by its users. Professor Hills, originally from South Glens Falls, NY, spent 10 years living in Logan, Utah with her husband, Doug Hills, a skillful digital comic book artist. Together, they have a daughter, Brady.
Lou Pelton, Founding Board
Lou Pelton (Ph.D., University of Mississippi) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing and Logistics at the University of North Texas. Dr. Pelton’s principal research interests include marketing channels, relationship marketing and international marketing. Dr. Pelton is senior author of multiple editions of Marketing Channels: A Relationship Management Approach (McGraw-Hill) and Marketing Channels: Managing Supply Chain Relationships. He is also co-author of Business Ethics: Perspectives on Corporate Responsibility and Rights, Responsibilities and Relationships: Ethics and Social Impact Management. Dr. Pelton has published more than 100 research articles in prominent journals and inter/national conference proceedings. His articles appear in Advances in Marketing, Business Horizons, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Healthcare Marketing, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Services Marketing, Research in Marketing, among others. Dr. Pelton has delivered educational programs and keynote addresses for governments, organizations and tertiary institutions in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America and the U.S. He represented the U.S. as APEC Delegation Leader at the 2009 APEC CEO Summit in Singapore, and he was a APEC/ABAC Student Delegation Leader in the “Voices for the Future” program at the APEC Leadership Summit 2008 in Lima, Peru.
Dr. Pelton’s research and practitioner insights have been presented at the National Pharmacy Forum, the Asia-Pacific Millennium Conference, U.S.-Vietnam Forum on Sustainability, multiple World Marketing Congresses, and many national and regional academic conferences. Dr. Pelton is recipient of national research grants from the U.S. Department of Education and international research grants from The Cheung Foundation. Dr. Pelton has served as vice president (programs) of the Academy of Marketing Science. He has also served as president of the Federation of Business Disciplines, president of the Association of Collegiate Marketing Educators, director of the American Marketing Associations ethics and co-director of relationship marketing special interest groups. He has also served in a number of roles in the World Marketing Congress and has been a frequent expert witness in federal and state litigation. Dr. Pelton was selected as the 2004 UNT Summer Commencement speaker. He has also served the university in a multitude of leadership roles, including chair of the UNT Faculty Senate, Senate Budget Committee, Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate, Faculty Participation in Governance Committee, Greek Scholarship Task Force, Search Committee for the Career Center Director, as well as dozens of College of Business and departmental committees. Lou E. Pelton is the founder and faculty sponsor of the University of North Texas chapter of Mu Kappa Tau, the national marketing honor society. Dr. Pelton’s passion is international education and global outreach. He has co-directed the CoB’s first study abroad programs in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Morocco, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. He is frequently consulted by tertiary education leaders in Asia for insights on academic programming, as well. He currently serves as chairman of Global Education Marketing Development.
Raj Devasagayam, Founding Board
Raj Devasagayam, Ph.D., who is known on campus as Dean Raj, began his tenure at the Leon Hess Business School at Monmouth University on July 1, 2021. He previously served as dean of the School of Business at SUNY Old Westbury on Long Island, New York. At SUNY Old Westbury, Devasagayam also served as a professor of marketing and oversaw the school’s AACSB accreditation process; provided administrative and curriculum direction; and helped launch a master’s degree program in forensic accounting that is now regarded as one of the nation’s best. Prior to Old Westbury, Devasagayam served as the director of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity at Siena College in Albany, New York, where he also served as the inaugural chair of the Marketing Department and held the Douglas T. Hickey Chair in Business from 2012-2014. He has been honored with several teaching and research excellence awards by peers and students. At Siena College, Devasagayam received the School of Business Excellence in Research award in 2016, and the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2007. He was honored with The Hormel Meritorious Teaching Award at the Marketing Management Association 2008 annual meeting in Chicago and was recognized with an Excellence in Teaching Award from St. Norbert College, De Pere, Wisconsin, in 2003. Devasagayam is proud of his publications co-authored with his students that have been published in journals such as Marketing Management Journal, Journal of Brand Management, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Journal of Financial Services Marketing, and Sport Marketing Quarterly. He served as the vice president of publications at the Marketing Management Association from 2010 to 2012. Devasagayam graduated from the Institute for Management and Leadership in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He earned his doctorate in marketing from Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida; his MBA from Mumbai University, Maharashtra, India; and his bachelor’s degree in economics from Vikram University, Ujjain, India.
Judy Wiles, Founding Board
Dr. Judy Wiles is Professor Emerita of Marketing, Southeast Missouri State University. Dr. Wiles served as President and on the board of directors for international academic organizations, including MBAA International and the Marketing Management Association. She served as chair of the Marketing Committee for Optimist International in 2010-11. She co-founded and served as President and on the board for the area chapter of the American Advertising Federation. Her leadership roles for Southeast Missouri State University have included serving as a department chair for the Harrison College of Business for fifteen years, serving as interim dean of the college for a year, serving as Director of the Douglas C. Greene Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Catapult Creative House for three years, and Moderator of the Chairpersons’ Forum for two years. She received the MMA Fellow Award for long-time contributions to the Marketing Management Association in 2009. She received the Silver Medal Award in 2008 by the area chapter of the American Advertising Federation. She has organized many academic and professional conferences for regional and national organizations. She has published and presented articles in the areas of business ethics, advertising, and marketing communications. Dr. Wiles retired in the summer of 2021 after serving Southeast for 37 years
Jeff Clark/MBAA International, Founding Member
[SA4] W. Jeff Clark is a Professor of Information Systems and Analytics at Middle Tennessee State University. He was voted Outstanding Professor in the College of Business and earned multiple favorite professor awards over his professional career. Dr. Clark is probably most well-known for being the long-serving Executive Director of MBAA International, a multidisciplinary business organization famous for its annual Spring conference in Chicago. The MBAA International organization is a founding contributor to the creation of the International Society for Marketing. Dr. Clark earned his Ph.D. from Northwestern University, MBA from Northern Illinois University, and MA and BA from Scarritt College.