Pioneering the Future of Marketing While on a Tenure Track: Melissa Dennis ’20DBA
Melissa Dennis was working at Disney in 2017, focusing on customer experience marketing when she realized she wanted to start researching and pioneering the future of marketing. She was accustomed to putting the customer first, finding ways to build relationships with them and developing a long-term focus, but she also wanted to foster a way to collaborate with consumers and drive this change in thought. She interviewed at Crummer and was highly interested in the engaged scholarship model that focuses on theory as it relates to current business challenges that we use. “It was a natural integration of what I wanted to be as a learner and eventually also as a faculty member.”
Melissa’s dissertation focused on utilizing personalized video as a response to marketing’s transformational era. She began collaborating with businesses to make the research meaningful and impactful. “I got to connect what I was doing in industry with what I was learning in the classroom as well as collaborate with an expert in the field. I want my research to have a lot of applicability to those in industry and those in marketing.” Melissa has always been passionate about marketing, citing how it’s a wonderful bridge between creativity, science, and analytics. As a biology undergrad, she always enjoyed research analytics and data, and has taken that enthusiasm and applied it to understanding who the consumer is, what they value, where they are in their journey, and crafting and speaking to them in the most relevant way.
At Gwynedd Mercy University in Pennsylvania, Melissa is an assistant professor of marketing on a tenure track. She emphasizes the importance of finding an institution that matches your personal values. Gwynedd is very student focused, just like Disney is customer focused, so the transition to academia from business was smooth for her. “I’m really trying to shape future leaders and marketers,” she said. “There’s no greater satisfaction than seeing the impact of my instruction on students both to marketing and to business as well.” She leverages her expertise in social media, digital marketing, and consumer behavior to offer courses that integrate industry technology and practices that ready students for their roles after graduation. She doesn’t just teach at the university, she is also involved in a variety of initiatives there: serving on the 75th anniversary committee, working on the women in leadership panel, chairing the learning and resources committee, and leading a marketing club for students.
The overall framework of Crummer’s EDBA program and the idea of the engaged scholar has stayed with Melissa, and she emulates those styles in her teaching today. When she isn’t teaching or researching, you can find Melissa playing golf, frequenting Pennsylvania’s beautiful hiking trails, riding her bike, or going to the beach with a good book. We are so thrilled to be part of Melissa’s EDBA journey and are proud of her accomplishments.
