UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As a young doctoral student, Karen Winterich recalls how impressed she was while reading research conducted by past presidents of the American Marketing Association Academic Council.
“There are so many past presidents of AMA Academic Council that are leaders in the field that I respect and look up to,” she said. “I remember reading their research as a Ph.D. student and viewing them with a celebrity or rock star status.”
Winterich’s own ascendance in the marketing field has once again been affirmed. She has been named the president-elect of the AMA Academic Council. As that honor sinks in, Winterich, the Gerald I. Susman Professor in Sustainability, is slowly coming to the realization that she may be inhabiting the same stratosphere as those past presidents whose research once wowed her.
“I was honored to be asked and am beginning to realize that I may be one of those people,” she said.
Meg Meloy, the David H. McKinley Professor of Business Administration and chair of the Department of Marketing, is also a leader in the discipline. She appreciates the significance of Winterich’s honor.
“Having Dr. Winterich named as president-elect is not only an incredible honor for her, but an honor for the department. It shines a light on the cutting-edge research going on in the department and provides evidence that Penn State has the best and brightest thought leadership in marketing in the department, training the next generation of marketing scholars and conveying that knowledge in the classroom,” Meloy said.
“Dr. Winterich was one of the earliest scholars to embrace and fully immerse herself in research on sustainability in marketing and it is a topic that is vitally important to the field, as well as to the larger business community. To be recognized for that is a wonderful accomplishment.”
Winterich was nominated to and served on the Academic Council for a few years. She was then identified and asked if she would continue to serve as a member of the executive committee, which was confirmed by a formal vote. She will serve as president-elect until her term as president commences in 2023. After that, she will spend a year as past president.
“I primarily work with the AMA Leadership and Academic Council to improve the value AMA provides to marketing faculty and doctoral students,” she said. “This role includes AMA’s twice annual academic conferences as well as five AMA journals, which includes two of the four premier journals in our field — Journal of Marketing Research and Journal of Marketing — as well as improving the value of AMA membership and experience for faculty and students.”
Winterich said she is still developing a set of goals she hopes to achieve during her term, but she has a general idea of what they will focus on.
“The wonderful part of this role is that I am supported by an amazing AMA staff that work diligently to implement the goals of the Academic Council,” she said.
“I will present my goals to the AMA Board in the spring, so I’m still refining them, but they’ll most likely focus on building and strengthening the community the AMA provides, particularly to doctoral students and assistant professors, which I think is particularly important given pandemic impacts. And of course, they’ll also likely be some goals pertaining to — surprise — sustainability!”
While Winterich is believed to be the first Smeal faculty member to serve in this capacity, others have made “enormous contributions to the American Marketing Association in their day,” Meloy said.
Gary Lilien, distinguished research professor of management science, was the 2008 recipient of the AMA Irwin/McGraw-Hill Distinguished Marketing Educator Award, the highest honor a marketing educator can receive, and named as one of the inaugural AMA Fellows in 2015.
Wayne DeSarbo, the former Mary Jean and Frank P. Smeal Distinguished Professor of Marketing, was named an AMA Fellow in 2018.
David T. Wilson served on the advisory board to the vice-president of the Education Division and as vice-president of the Business Marketing Division of the AMA.
“We look forward to supporting Dr. Winterich during this time as she takes over the reins of the AMA,” Meloy said. “It is a huge undertaking during a time of incredible change for the marketing field. We know the AMA is in good hands.”