Kathleen J Kennedy

Biography

Kathleen Kennedy’s career in marketing, customer engagement and research successfully spans both the business and academic worlds. Her focus is on retailing and strategic marketing education and research.

Kathleen has worked extensively in several inter-related research areas including her current efforts to use consumer behavior and loyalty frameworks to theorize the role and effect of self-learning, intermediary systems in shopper-retailer relationships:

• Human relationships within intelligent retail environments.
  
  
• Emerging consumer marketing research methods including consumer neuroscience, biological response measurement, passive behavioral tracking, and Implicit Association Test (IAT).
  
  
• Customer Experience (CX/UX) management in physical and digital shopping environments.
  
  
• Quantitative analysis of decision making in online marketplaces.
  
  
• Branding and patient relationship management in the health care sector.

Prior to her appointment as an Associate Professor of Practice in the Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Arizona, Kathleen was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Practice and Scholarly Practitioner on the Marketing faculty at The University of Akron (2011-2017). At The University of Akron, Kathleen concurrently served as Executive Director of the Taylor Institute for Direct Marketing and Research Director of the Suarez Applied Marketing Research Laboratories at the university, leading an initiative to apply consumer neuroscience methods in brand response, UX research and advertising testing.

Kathleen is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Manchester (UK) Alliance School of Business in the Doctor of Business Adminstration Program. 

Kathleen’s business experience includes over 20 years as a senior marketing and e-commerce executive at Office Depot, Federated Department Stores (Macy’s) and other major retailers and financial services organizations. She also held executive positions with brand agencies including serving as Managing Partner/Group Director and Director of the Customer Centre for Loyalty Excellence at OgilvyOne Worldwide.

Kathleen is also a successful entrepreneur and co-founded four businesses. She most recently founded and led Mindnav LLC, an applied consumer neuroscience marketing research firm.

Degrees

• M.B.A. Management
• The University of Miami (Florida), Coral Gables, Florida, United States
• B.A.A.S. Art/Advertising Design
• University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, United States
• D.B.A. Business Management and Marketing
• University of Manchester (UK), Manchester, N/A, United Kingdom
• How consumers shop now: Impact of intelligent agentson retailer-shopper relationships

Awards

• ACRA Best Individual Faculty Paper Award
• American Collegiate Retailing Association (ACRA), Spring 2019