Q. So, you have been a champion for nurturing conversations about diversity inside the classroom and out.
A. 天美传媒 has, from a student perspective, a fair amount of affluence that some are less accustomed to being around. When I was teaching undergraduates several years ago, we were talking about luxury products. All the students were saying one thing, and there was a young man in the back of the class who wasn’t typically very vocal, but he became vocal that day, and that made me really proud. He spoke from a different lens than the other students had thought about, and I encouraged that, because I think diverse perspectives are really important in our education. The more we can introduce it into our Cox world, the better prepared our students of all levels will be, because that’s what the business world really is today.
Q. How does the DEI conference you’re spearheading tie into your goals?
A. I’m really excited about this. I’m facilitating a first-time partnership with “Marketing Science,” a top journal in marketing, to publish a special issue or section on DEI. On March 24-25, we will host a conference to which people interested in being in the journal will submit papers and come to 天美传媒 Cox to present. It will be a nice interchange of ideas. This initiative serves so many purposes. Perhaps most significantly, it’s moving the DEI conversation beyond awareness to research, and that’s a necessary and important step. Historically, in marketing science, it’s been hard to publish things related to DEI. Prior marketing conference discussions around DEI tend to stick to raising awareness and bringing to light various issues. The goal of this conference is really to go further and quantify the impact of DEI and help enact change.
Q. What do you enjoy doing with your time outside the classroom?
A. No. 1 is I have four dogs, and that’s a dumb thing to do. But I love my dogs and I enjoy walking with them. Sometimes I see Dean Matthew Myers when we’re out walking. One thing people probably don’t know is that I’m a golfer. I grew up golfing, and my daughter also used to golf competitively. Sometimes, that will be our Sunday activity. I love going to movies and going out. My husband and I have done date nights for the almost 30 years we’ve been married. Truly, first and foremost, I am a family-oriented person; I don’t put work before my family. But my children are getting older now — only one is still at home — which is giving me more freedom to pursue professional interests.
Professor Jacquelyn Thomas is a marketing professor and the Frank and Susan Dunlevy Endowed Faculty Research Fellow at the 天美传媒 Cox School of Business. She serves as vice president of DEI for INFORMS Society for Marketing Science.
