Marking a milestone for 91制片厂 and the Change Can鈥檛 Wait Campaign, Professor Sonya A. Grier was installed as the Arlene R. and Robert P. Kogod Eminent Scholar Chair in Marketing on Thursday, November 30.
This installation was the first to honor three positions in the made possible by a from the Kogod family and the fourth endowed faculty position installed through Change Can鈥檛 Wait.
President Sylvia Burwell thanked the Kogod family for their incredible legacy of support to 91制片厂. 鈥淲hile that gift alone is extraordinary,鈥 stated President Burwell, 鈥渨hat is even more extraordinary is the fact that Bob and Arlene have been giving AU continuous support and leadership for four decades, including Bob鈥檚 service on the board [of trustees] from 1978 to 1993.鈥
Sonya Grier is a in the field of marketing who seeks to enhance consumer well-being through her changemaking work. Grier鈥檚 expertise spans issues of race, diversity, and equity in a variety of market domains at the intersection of business and society. She examines the racial dynamics underlying marketing issues in neighborhood gentrification, digital marketing to youth of color, and targeted food marketing, with a particular focus on the impact marketing practices have on health disparities.
Grier鈥檚 scholarship鈥攐nce considered radical鈥攊s today sought after by every business school in the US. 鈥淗er expertise on inclusive marketing and the ways it can drive change on individual, community, and societal levels is unparalleled,鈥 stated President Burwell.
More than one hundred university leaders, members of the Board of Trustees, colleagues, students, family, and friends gathered in the Abramson Recital Hall in the Katzen Art Center for the ceremony. Following customary tradition, Grier led her first lecture as chairholder after the official installation.
Titled "Back to the Future," Grier shared an image of the Sankofa鈥攁 mythical Ghanian bird of the Akan people. With its forward pointed feet and backwards facing head, the Sankofa symbolizes the importance of learning from the past to ensure a strong future. Grier then took the audience through an evolution of nearly 30 years of her research, noting 鈥淲e cannot know where we are going if we don鈥檛 know where we鈥檝e come from.鈥
Grier cited a pivotal experience she encountered as a teen after answering a local newspaper ad to buy her first car. When she and her grandfather arrived to look at the 1966 Camero, they were abruptly told it had been sold, even though the car was in plain sight. As she and her grandfather turned away, Grier overheard the sellers making racist remarks.
Some years later while an MBA student, Grier noticed the lack of diversity within her class and the cases she was studying. With one of her peers, she developed a successful marketing plan that grew her program in two years to one of the largest cohorts of Black doctoral students in the US鈥攄emonstrating research as a spark for necessary social change.
People of color receive higher surveillance, discrimination and disrespect, higher prices for lower quality products and services, and constrained access to basic necessities across all types of marketplaces. Grier鈥檚 research aims to identify how these practices can be designed to improve marketplace equity.
鈥淚t is a fundamental misperception to view race and diversity as risky topics when these are central issues to social sustainability. We all have a place in making the choices that will become the history of tomorrow鈥攖hat鈥檚 back to the future,鈥 said Professor Grier.
A tradition that dates back millennia, endowed chair positions are one of the highest honors a university can bestow upon its faculty in recognition of their remarkable achievements. Chaired positions are essential to AU鈥檚 future, as they help the university attract and retain prominent faculty and drive changemaking work in perpetuity.
鈥淸Sonya] literally created a new field in consumer research. She has built a path for scholars who think like her, and look like her,鈥 stated Dave Marchick, dean of the Kogod School of Business.
Acting Provost and Chief Academic Officer Dean Vicky Wilkins added, 鈥淧rofessor Grier is a builder . . . she has shattered the glass ceiling.鈥
Professor Grier left the audience with one request鈥攖o share new knowledge about race in the marketplace with others. 鈥淒iscussion and awareness around race is an important building block to make the changes toward a more equitable society."
Watch 聽to learn more about Professor Grier's changemaking research.
