Our Lady of the Lake University

Faculty Member, School of Business & Leadership, Marketing

Assistant Professor of Marketing & Management (Lead Marketing Prof)

OLLU, San Antonio

About

I recently completed an experiment where I taught an MBA course SOLELY on Facebook to develop a new cutting edge pedagogy! Now all of my marketing and business courses are hybrids taught in the field, and on Facebook with a few hours in a brick & mortar setting. Look for an auto-ethnographic paper on that experience later this year. It's wonderful to post live links to breaking news and to watch the world change with students (as they watch on their mobile phones anywhere in the world and comment)! Imagine conducting class in a waiting room while my car is being fixed...I've done this and more!
 
My research has been primarily about marketing, innovation, class/race/ethnicity (including emerging markets), and opportunity.  Specifically, I am interested in:


--The use of ethnographic methods to understand segmented cultures of any consumer market and to spur innovation and new product development.

--The intersection between emerging global markets, new product development, innovation, marketing, and changing 21st century business models. I am writing a book on this topic (it's more of a wake up call kind of book) and will finish it this Spring!

--Effects of emerging global consumer markets targeted by Western MNCs.

--How stereotypical images of ethnic groups lead to automatic responses (implicit associations) by the powerful and lack of opportunity for the less powerful/powerless.

--Trends in ethnic target marketing because of distinctiveness and how being identified as a viable market leads to opportunity.

--African American and Latino consumer marketing, distinctiveness, and/or feelings of competitiveness as the U.S. and world populations change.

Finally, I am opening a revolutionary new experimental program that uses experiential teaching methods for at risk high school students in danger of dropping out. I'm finding teens know how to think and do a whole lot more than we give them credit for! Educators just need to tap into THEIR culture and provide globally marketable skills using THEIR technology. I had a EUREKA moment to create this program when my undergrads raised over $11,000 to build a school for rescued child slaves in India. The school was started by Dr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and we hosted him and 300 guests during a special event at OLLU.