Board Nominations
REMINDER
2027 ACR Board - Call for Nominations
Deadline July 15, 2026
- 2027 President-Elect: The President-elect of the Association shall perform the duties prescribed and approved by the Board of Directors, all of the duties of the President in his/her absence, and in the event a vacancy occurs in the position of President, shall automatically assume such position. The President-elect shall also appoint the chair(s) of the North American Conference for the year of his/her presidency. The President-Elect serves a three-year term on the Board, assuming the duties of President-Elect on January 1, 2027, President on January 1, 2028, and Past-President on January 1, 2029.
- Academic-Non-Profit-Government Director: The Academic-Non-Profit-Government Director participates in and votes on all matters put to the ACR Board of Directors and attends the annual Board of Directors Meeting held at the Fall ACR conference. The Academic-Non-Profit-Government Director is responsible for representing connections between academic, non-profit, and government perspectives on the Board. Responsibilities include voting, budgets, recommendations to the Board, and evaluating grants and donations. The Academic-Non-Profit-Government Director shall be elected for a three-year term on the Board of Directors and shall assume the duties on January 1, 2027.
- Director-at-Large: The Director-at-Large is responsible for representing the overall membership perspective on the Board. The Director-at-Large will participate in and vote on all matters put to the ACR Board of Directors and attend the annual Board of Directors meeting held at the Fall Aconference. Responsibilities include voting, budgets, recommendations to the Board, and evaluating grants and donations. The Director-at-Large shall be elected for a two-year term on the Board of Directors and shall assume the duties on January 1, 2027.
- Treasurer-in-Training: The Treasurer-in-Training serves a three year term. On January 1st of the first year following election, the duties of the Treasurer-in-Training are to work closely with the Treasurer to prepare to serve as ACR’s Treasurer in the following year. During the first year, the Treasurer-in-Training is not officially a member of the Board. On January 1st of the second year following election, the Treasurer-in-Training becomes the ACR Treasurer and serves in that position on the Board for a two-year term. The ACR Treasurer participates in and votes on all matters put to the ACR Board of Directors and attends the annual Board of Directors Meeting held at the Fall ACR conference. Treasurer responsibilities include providing financial oversight of the Association, budgets, and review of ACR financial activities and annual audit.
Board Elections
ACR Board Elections are open!
ACR Board Elections are now closed
Candidates
- 2027 President-Elect: The President-Elect of the Association performs the duties prescribed and approved by the Board of Directors. The President-Elect leads ACR as President the second year following election and serves as Past President the following year.
- Academic-Non-Profit-Government Director: The Academic-Non-Profit-Government Director helps the Association connect academic, non-profit, and government perspectives.
- Director-at-Large: The Director-at-Large represents the overall membership perspective on the Board.
- Treasurer-in-Training: The first year following election, the Treasurer-in-Training works closely with the Treasurer to prepare to serve as ACR’s Treasurer in the following year. Treasurer provides financial oversight of the Association, budgets, and review of ACR financial activities and annual audit.
Elections Process
ACR uses an approval voting method, which allows members to select as many candidates as they wish to endorse for a position, or for none at all.
The candidate for each position with the highest number of votes will be elected to the 2027 ACR Board of Directors. In case of a tie, the winner will be determined by a runoff election between the tied candidates.
Elections will close at 11:59 PM Central Time on September 2, 2026.
Elections Calendar
Elections open: July 29, 2026
Elections close: September 2, 2026
How to Vote
When the elections open, ACR members will receive an invitation to vote and link to the ballot. If you have any questions, contact acr@acrwebsite.org.
Elections Calendar
Elections open: July 29, 2026
Elections close: September 2, 2026
Candidates for 2027 President-Elect
Rebecca W. Hamilton
Georgetown University
Candidacy statement
Since I attended my first ACR Conference in Denver in 1997, ACR has been an important part of my life. During my first conference, I met fellow doctoral students who are now longtime coauthors and friends. Since then, I have presented work nearly every year at the conference, and look forward to the social activities as much as the intellectual discussions. I love the rich set of traditions we have developed to honor longstanding members (applause for each decade of conference attendance) and welcome new members (Keith Hunt breakfast, ACR Doctoral Consortium).
As a member of the ACR community for 29 years, I have served the organization in several leadership roles. I served as Treasurer from 2012-2015 and participated in exciting board meeting discussions about launching ACR’s new journal, JACR, and hosting our first international conference in Berlin. In 2015, I served as ACR Conference Forum Co-Chair, planning workshop-style sessions such as “Tips for Using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to Conduct Consumer Research,” and “How to Write a Great Review.” I was delighted to serve as ACR Conference Co-Chair in 2022 with Giana Eckhardt and Allan Chen. It was our first in-person conference after two years of meeting virtually, requiring substantial contingency planning, but we welcomed 1,163 registered attendees and executed a profitable conference. Our conference theme was “Together,” representing both connections across different consumer research methodologies and connections among our global members. Highlights included two Plenary Panels, Methods Workshops, a Networking Lunch and the Saturday evening gala at Pindustry, an informal venue with a view of the Rocky Mountains.
In addition to my work with ACR, I have served in leadership roles at the American Marketing Association (AMA), the Journal of Marketing Research and Georgetown University. I co-chaired the 2014 AMA Summer Conference and served on the AMA’s Academic Council (2015-2018). Following a term as Coeditor, I recently completed three years as Editor in Chief of the Journal of Marketing Research, handling about 1200 submissions per year with my four Coeditors, 52 Associate Editors, 160 Editorial Board Members, and over 600 ad hoc reviewers. I have also served in several leadership roles within Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, including Senior Associate Dean and Vice Dean of Faculty. These leadership roles have developed my skills in managing staff and motivating faculty and other volunteers to work towards shared goals.
I would be delighted to rejoin the ACR Board in the position of President-Elect. I believe my long-term engagement with ACR and the skills I have practiced in my prior leadership roles will allow me to contribute to ACR’s strength as an organization, and I cannot think of a better way to celebrate my thirtieth year as part of the ACR community.
Rob Kozinets
University of Southern California
Candidacy statement
ACR has been an extremely important part of my life. It was the first conference I attended, thirty years ago this year, in 1996 as a third year PhD student. I made my first presentation then, demonstrating a new approach that combined ethnography with data gathering among online communities. An ACR reviewer helped me come up with a name for the approach: netnography. After the session, two of my academic heroes told me to keep working on the method because they liked they work—my heart soared! At the gala event, when we were gazing at the planets on a peak in Tuscon, I met two more of my heroes, both of whom were to become future colleagues. At the next year’s ACR, I presented netnography’s first methodological paper. And little did I know that, a few years later, at ACR in Chicago, I would meet the amazing woman who would become my future wife on the dance floor at the House of Blues—while the ACR house band Brand Inequity was rocking the place. In this profession, for many of us, our work combines with our life, perhaps because we genuinely love what we do. Our colleagues become our lifelong friends, sometimes more than friends. So it’s true to say that ACR has not just been a big part of my work life, it’s been a big part of my life, a place where I have been able to meet and befriend all kinds of consumer scholars from around the world. And as I have moved around, it has been the most important way I have kept in touch with people I genuinely adore. ACR has been a place to reflect as a community, to gather hope and courage as the world changed around us, not always for the better. We gathered less than a month after 9/11, our hearts open and broken. During COVID, the loss of the physical experience of ACR was palpable and devastating to many of us. But we recovered, and we kept growing. On the professional side, I’ve been happy to contribute to make ACR happen through the years, as an elected Perspectives Director, a co-chair for Dallas 2018, co-chair of the Doctoral Symposium, policy board member, chair, and co-editor of JACR, co-founder and decade-long co-chair of the ACR film festival, and program committee member and AE for the conference. I’ve missed only one ACR since my first one (when my son was born). And in 2024, I was deeply honored to receive ACR’s Fellow Award. I would certainly be thrilled to serve as ACR’s president and do my best to keep the organization strong and its members happy and unified.
Candidates for Academic-Non-Profit-Government Director
Ayelet Gneezy
UC San Diego
Candidacy statement
Throughout my career, I have worked at the seams between academic research, nonprofit practice, corporate partnership, and public policy. I found these experiences, without exception, very rewarding. If elected, I would work to facilitate the exchange of ideas and collaboration between ACR members and practitioners.
At Rady School of Management, UC San Diego, I hold the Carol Lazier and Family Endowed Chair in Social Innovation and Impact and am Founder and Academic Director of the Initiative for Social Innovation and Impact (ISII), which I built specifically to connect scholars, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations around rigorous, field-based research. That mission extends abroad: as Visiting Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, I collaborate with clinicians and public health researchers on behavioral interventions, and I currently serve as Nonprofit Rating Expert for Charity Navigator, applying behavioral science to how donors evaluate and trust charitable organizations. My field research also runs directly through industry: a field experiment conducted with Disney Research, published as “Commitment and Behavior Change: Evidence from the Field” (Journal of Consumer Research, 2013), reflects a career-long commitment to running studies inside real organizations rather than only studying them from a distance. I’ve also participated in policy discussions with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, giving me direct experience with government and institutional stakeholders as well.
I co-chaired the 2017 ACR Conference (with V. Griskevicius and P. Williams) and have served multiple years on the ACR Program Committee in various capacities. I also co-organized the Field Experiment Conferences in 2013 and 2014, which brought external practitioners and academics together around field methodology in exactly the spirit this role calls for. Beyond Enriching Bilateral Dialogue: Mobilizing a network of academic experts to collectively provide useful guidance to government and non-profit leaders, helping them apply behavioral insights to design effective interventions and conduct precise behavioral diagnoses to enhance consumer welfare.
I look forward to serving the ACR community and elevating the societal impact of our research.
Eric Johnson
Columbia Business School
Candidacy statement
A few things seem relevant to this seat, which is meant to connect academic and government perspectives on the Board.
On the government side, I served as an Academic Advisory Council member for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from 2020 to 2023, and earlier as a Senior Visiting Scholar at the Bureau (2014–2017). Both gave me a close look at how a federal agency thinks about consumer protection and disclosure.
I have also been PI on several federal and foundation grants, and served as President of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making and of the Society for Neuroeconomics, so I have some experience with the budget and governance side of running a scholarly organization.
On the academic side, I have been at Columbia Business School since 1999 (and at Wharton before that), and have served on several school and University committees, including the CBS Executive Committee and the Promotion and Tenure Committee.
I would serve with enthusiasm, and thanks for your consideration.
Jennifer Savary
University of Arizona
Candidacy statement
I am honored to be nominated for the role of Academic-Non-Profit-Government Director on the ACR Board of Directors. As the Terry J. and Tina Lundgren Endowed Chair for Marketing and Retail and an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona, my career has been defined by a commitment to rigorous academic inquiry and translating those insights to benefit the public and non-profit sectors.
My diverse background uniquely positions me to represent these interconnected perspectives while executing the Board’s fiduciary and evaluative duties: Scholarly Contribution & Academic Leadership: My standing as a productive researcher is highlighted by publications in our field’s premier journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, and Journal of Consumer Psychology, as well as my selection as an MSI Young Scholar. I have actively served the field in my roles as an Associate Editor for JMR, an editorial board member for JCR and JCP, and as a university IRB Chair managing institutional compliance. A dedicated member of the ACR community, I have also contributed as a Conference AE, a Doctoral Symposium Faculty Expert, and a frequent presenter.
Non-Profit & Fiduciary Insight: A core pillar of my behavioral research focuses on altruism and charitable giving. This work gives me deep insight into the unique operational and behavioral challenges non-profits face. Furthermore, my extensive consulting background and role as director of the Lundgren Retail Collaborative provide the financial acumen required for effective management of the Board budget.
Government, Policy & AI Leadership: My early professional experiences in public service at the White House, the U.S. House, and the Brookings Institution instilled in me a profound appreciation for the importance of public policy grounded in solid academic insights. Today, I continue to bring together academics and public service by teaching in Eller’s Government Leadership Excellence program. I also drive forward-looking leadership in emerging technologies, having recently co-led the university’s Roadmapping Task Force on AI in Teaching & Learning and authored a foundational white paper on generative AI strategy.
If elected, my goal is to ensure ACR remains a vital collaborative hub where academic insights drive public and non-profit progress, while managing our resources with absolute transparency and strategic impact. I look forward to helping ACR thoughtfully navigate various challenges facing our field today, such as the evolving role of AI, and will leverage my experience to guide our organization in balancing these technological opportunities with our core institutional integrity.
Claire Tsai Jan
University of Toronto
Candidacy statement
I am honored to run for the Academic-Non-Profit-Government Director position on the ACR Board of Directors.
Throughout my nearly 20-year career in consumer psychology and behavioral science, one of my missions has been to bridge the gap between academic theory and real-world policy. My experience spans independent, cross-disciplinary projects across North America. In the US, I have collaborated with MDRC and the National Domestic Violence Hotline to improve crisis call management and worked with the Vermont State Government to increase TANF participation. In Canada, I served as a Behavioral Economist with the Competition Bureau Canada on data portability (“Your Data, Your Control”, 2026) and broadband competition (2019). My public sector work also includes collaborations with Ontario’s Behavioral Insights Unit on digital service adoption and organ donor registration, as well as healthcare initiatives with Salus Global and the University of Toronto to improve patient safety.
These experiences have taught me how to align academic rigor with organizational realities. If elected to the Board, I will champion initiatives built around three key themes to strengthen the connection between the ACR community and the public sector and NPOs:
Navigating Policy Partnerships: Building a collaborative knowledge-sharing forum where scholars can share their experiences, strategies, and lessons learned on establishing successful partnerships and navigating field testing with governments and non-profits.
Practical Research Translation: Moving beyond generic “managerial implications” to help researchers translate their findings into highly actionable, impactful guidance.
Enriching Bilateral Dialogue: Mobilizing a network of academic experts to collectively provide useful guidance to government and non-profit leaders, helping them apply behavioral insights to design effective interventions and conduct precise behavioral diagnoses to enhance consumer welfare.
I look forward to serving the ACR community and elevating the societal impact of our research.
Candidates for Director-at-Large
Xiaoyan Deng
The Ohio State University
Candidacy statement
I am an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business, with a PhD in Marketing from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
My research focuses on Visual Marketing, Aesthetics, Design, Customer Experience, and Social Inference, and has appeared in leading journals such as JCR, JM, JMR, and JCP. It has been cited more than 4,200 times on Google Scholar and covered by outlets including BBC News, Forbes, the New York Times, PBS, Harvard Business Review, and Knowledge@Wharton. In 2017, I was named an MSI Young Scholar.
ACR has been my intellectual home since the beginning of my career, and I have been an active member of this community for more than two decades. I have presented my research at the conference and served as a reviewer, program committee member, and associate editor. Beyond the conference, I co-edited the 2023 JACR special issue on the pandemic’s impact on consumer behavior and co-hosted a JACR webinar to share its insights with the broader marketing community.
I currently serve as an Associate Editor for IJRM and have served or currently serve on the Editorial Review Boards of JCR, JM, JMR, and JCP. I received an Outstanding Reviewer Award from JCR. My review service also extends to competitions and funding decisions, including the MSI Alden G. Clayton Dissertation Competition, the SCP Dissertation Competition, and the Israel Science Foundation. This experience bears directly on the Director-at-Large’s responsibilities for budgets and the evaluation of grants and donations.
Over the years, I have co-authored with more than 20 researchers, including senior colleagues, peers, and doctoral students. This breadth reflects the diversity of the ACR membership I would represent. If elected, I will bring to the Board a member-centered perspective, informed by extensive experience across the association’s conference, journal, and reviewing community, along with a commitment to careful stewardship of its resources. Thank you for your consideration.
Pamela Dunaway
Marketing Science Advisors
Candidacy statement
I have spent more than three decades at the intersection of consumer psychology and marketing, actively engaging with both academic research and its real-world application. I regularly attend leading conferences such as the Association for Consumer Research (ACR), where I am often one of the few practitioners in the room, bringing an applied perspective to scholarly discussions.
My foundation in consumer behavior began early, when I had the opportunity as an undergraduate to contribute to a four-year, NSF-funded research project on jury decision-making behavior. Since then, I have continuously studied the field, reading extensively across consumer behavior journals and building lasting relationships within the academic community.
Throughout my career, I have translated these insights into meaningful business outcomes. I have developed and implemented improved testing methodologies in direct response marketing and created scoring algorithms that significantly altered company revenue trajectories, always with a strong commitment to ethical data use.
I am also very committed to bridging the gap between academia and practice. I co-presented at ACR alongside Keith Wilcox and Maarten Bos on advancing collaboration between researchers and practitioners. In addition, I have spoken extensively within the magazine industry, including during my time on the board of the Magazine Publishers of America, where I shared my work on scoring methodologies.
Earlier in my career, I served on the board of the CMO Club and was a featured speaker during its formative years, interviewing leading academics about actionable research in front of senior marketing executives from some of the nation’s most prominent companies.
I am currently consulting after leaving a global consumer research firm last year. I continue to contribute to the field through education, regularly guest lecturing at George Washington University, with a focus on marketing ethics and responsible data practices.
I would love to work on opportunities to bring academic research to practitioners to create better consumer experiences. The marketing industry is at an inflection point right now and could use help in navigating a solid, ethical path forward.
Sandra Laporte
Toulouse Capitole University
Candidacy statement
I attended my first ACR conference in San Francisco in 2008 as a PhD student. Since then, ACR has been the constant thread throughout my academic journey, from my doctoral studies at HEC Paris, to my years as an assistant and associate professor at HEC Montreal, and now as a professor at Toulouse School of Management, Toulouse Capitole University (France).
Through its conferences, workshops, and informal exchanges, ACR has continually inspired my research, broadened my perspective, and led to collaborations and friendships that have shaped my career. Having grown up in a family of winemakers, I have always believed that some of the best conversations happen around a shared meal and a good glass of wine, and many of my favorite ACR memories have been made there, or on the dance floor after the conference dinner.
I currently lead the Marketing PhD track and the Marketing research group at Toulouse School of Management and hold a research chair on Consumers and Technology. My research examines the responsible use of AI, particularly its potential to mitigate misinformation, improve decision making, and strengthen epistemic democracy.
Over the years, I have had the privilege of giving back to the ACR community by serving on conference program committees and as a mentor in the Doctoral Colloquium. I also look forward to serving as a mentor in this year’s Early Career Workshop. These experiences have reinforced my appreciation for ACR’s culture of openness, collegiality, and support across career stages.
Collaborating with colleagues across Europe, North America, and Asia has shown me that, while we all share the goal of conducting rigorous and meaningful consumer research, we often work in very different institutional, cultural, and funding environments. I believe these diverse perspectives are one of ACR’s greatest strengths and should be reflected in its governance.
It would be an honor to serve as Director-at-Large and represent the broad interests of the ACR membership. I would approach this role with a commitment to listening to members across regions and career stages, contributing to Board discussions, and supporting decisions that help ACR remain a welcoming home for consumer researchers from around the world, a place where ideas are exchanged openly, collaborations are formed, and our field continues to grow. In this same spirit, I was recently appointed as the French representative to EMAC, another opportunity to foster dialogue and collaboration across our research community.
Hristina Nikolova
Northeastern University
Candidacy statement
I have been an active member of ACR for more than a decade and most recently served as Treasurer of ACR (2024–2026). Through this role, I have gained firsthand experience with the organization’s governance, financial stewardship, and strategic priorities. This experience has given me a strong understanding of the responsibilities of Board service and the importance of representing the interests of ACR’s diverse membership.
My involvement with ACR spans multiple dimensions of the organization. I have served as Associate Editor for the ACR Conference, Program Committee member, competitive paper reviewer, symposium chair, roundtable presenter, panel participant, and frequent conference presenter. Over the course of my career, I have presented research at ACR conferences for more than a decade and have organized symposia that foster collaboration and intellectual exchange across consumer research domains.
Beyond my service to ACR, I served as Treasurer of Designing a Career in the Marketing Academy (DCMA) from 2023–2025, where I helped support initiatives focused on professional development and community building within the marketing discipline. I also serve on the Editorial Review Boards of the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, and Journal of Consumer Psychology, and regularly review for many of the field’s leading journals and conferences. Through these roles, I have had the opportunity to engage with scholars across institutions, disciplines, methodological traditions, and career stages. These experiences have given me a broad perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing our field and the diverse needs of ACR’s membership.
The Director-at-Large role is, at its core, about representing the interests of the membership while helping ensure the long-term vitality, inclusiveness, and relevance of the organization. Throughout my career, I have been committed to mentoring junior scholars, fostering equitable and collaborative research communities, and creating opportunities for meaningful professional engagement. I believe these experiences, combined with my past service as ACR Treasurer, have prepared me to contribute thoughtfully to Board discussions and decisions regarding governance, strategic priorities, and the future direction of the organization. I would be honored to continue serving ACR and its members in the role of Director-at-Large.
Robin Soster
The Ohio State University
Candidacy statement
Robin Soster, PhD (University of South Carolina, 2011), is Clinical Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. Her deep understanding of consumer behavior, expertise in multiple methodological approaches, and experience in research, teaching, and administration are complemented by sustained, wide-ranging service to the field. Together, these experiences uniquely position her to represent the diverse perspectives of the association’s membership as a member of the Board.
Robin has been a member of the Association for Consumer Research for 19 years. During that time, she has made substantive contributions to the consumer research community. In addition to presenting her work, she has served as a panelist, roundtable discussant, reviewer, and session chair at conferences including ACR, European ACR, Transformative Consumer Research, American Marketing Association, Marketing and Public Policy, and Consumer Culture Theory. Robin was also honored to have participated in the inaugural (2015) Designing a Career in the Marketing Academy (DCMA) conference. Her service to the broader consumer research community also includes twice chairing the Consumer Behavior Track at the American Marketing Association Summer Educator’s Conference, serving as Social Program Chair for the Society for Consumer Psychology Conference, and chairing the Best Practices for CCT Research session at the AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium.
Robin’s strong commitment to advancing the field of consumer research can be seen in her scholarship, where she applies multiple methodological approaches to explore mental accounting and consumer satisfaction and well-being. Her research is published in Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Journal of Marketing Behavior, and Business Case Journal. She has also published in Chickasaw Craft Threnody and the AMA Doctoral Student SIG’s Transitions Guide.
Robin’s teaching career spans more than two decades and includes positions at research, teaching, and balanced institutions, as well as international teaching appointments. She also has significant administrative leadership experience. Prior to joining the faculty at Ohio StateUniversity, she served as Associate Dean and Graduate Programs Director at Drury University, and, beginning in Autumn 2026, she will be Fisher’s Academic Director for the Integrated Business and Engineering Honors Program at Ohio State.
Robin’s academic journey has reinforced her appreciation that ACR members build meaningful careers along varied paths, each shaped by distinct opportunities and challenges. As an At-Large Director, she would bring a thoughtful, balanced perspective to Board discussions while serving as an advocate for members across institutional types, methodological traditions, and career stages. She is committed to supporting initiatives that advance ACR’s mission while reflecting the varied interests, needs, and goals of its membership.
Chun Zhang
University of Dayton
Candidacy statement
Serving as the current ACR Membership Executive Manager, I have been involved in membership activities and initiatives since 2020, and have been a member of the Membership Committee since 2021.
Besides the major initiative on methodology webinars, I launched several other initiatives and changes. One key initiative focused on student membership. Working with the ACR social media manager, my committee established and promoted a new official student membership group account and planned activities designed to foster engagement and support the development of student members, with the goal of sustaining future regular membership. My committee also worked to enhance professional membership by developing strategies to strengthen connections and collaboration between ACR and industry partners.
By pursuing the role of Director-at-Large, I hope to maintain this momentum and continue serving our members effectively. I also hope to advance the implementation of the initiatives currently underway and contribute to the continued growth and improvement of our membership community.
Candidates for Treasurer-in-Training
Shelly Rathee
Villanova University
Candidacy statement
When I think about the parts of academia that have been the most meaningful to me, they all have one thing in common: building communities that help other people do great research.
Throughout my career, ACR has been my intellectual home. It is where I have presented ideas, received thoughtful feedback, met collaborators, and found mentors who have shaped my growth as a researcher. As I recently reached the milestone of tenure, I found myself thinking about how I wanted the next stage of my career to look. For me, the answer wasn’t just producing more research, it was finding more ways to contribute to the community that has contributed so much to me.
My interest in building research communities started long before I became a faculty member. As a doctoral student, I coordinated the behavioral research laboratory at the University of Utah, and during a visiting appointment at Stanford Graduate School of Business, I had the opportunity to observe different models of supporting collaborative research. Those experiences shaped the way I think about academic leadership. Strong scholarly communities don’t simply happen, they are built by people who invest their time, energy, and care into creating opportunities for others. Today, as Faculty Director of the LAIR Behavioral Research Lab at Villanova School of Business, I have the privilege of continuing that work by supporting faculty and students, developing research infrastructure, and helping create an environment where great ideas can flourish. Beyond my university, I have sought to give back through editorial service, conference leadership, and as a member of the AMA Marketing and Society Special Interest Group (MASSIG) Board.
If elected Treasurer-in-Training, I would bring that same philosophy to ACR. I believe the strength of our field depends not only on the quality of our scholarship but also on the strength of the community that supports it. I would be honored to learn from ACR’s leadership, contribute wherever I can, and help ensure that ACR continues to be the welcoming and intellectually vibrant community that it has always been for me.
Thank you for your consideration. I would be grateful for the opportunity to serve the ACR community.
Martin Reimann
University of Arizona
Candidacy statement
I have been an active ACR member for nearly two decades, presenting and reviewing at our conferences, serving as conference associate editor and editor of JACR, and organizing pre-conferences, roundtables, knowledge forums, and social mixers. ACR has long been my intellectual home, and I would be honored to serve it as Treasurer-in-Training.
My preparation for Treasurer-in-Training combines formal training in business administration with experience managing funded projects and providing institutional oversight. I have served as principal investigator on major grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Google & WPP Marketing Research Fund and have secured financial support from federal, industry, association, and university sources. I serve on Eller College of Management’s Executive Education faculty oversight committee and have contributed as a college grant reviewer, center director, elected faculty senator, committee chair, and conference organizer. These responsibilities have required planning, responsible stewardship of financial resources, and accountability to multiple stakeholders.
As Treasurer-in-Training, I would work closely with the Treasurer to learn ACR’s financial systems, obligations, and priorities and to ensure a smooth transition. My goal would be to help protect ACR’s financial health while helping the Board invest in our conferences, publications, developmental programs, and international outreach that make ACR valuable to its members.
Matt Thomson
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Candidacy statement
Matt Thomson is the Berthiaume Family Endowed Professor at the Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst. A Canadian originally from Edmonton, he earned his BA in political science and international relations from McGill University before completing an MBA at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and a PhD at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California.
With over 10,000 citations, Thomson’s research includes work on attachments, experiences and various branding topics. In 2025, his co-authored paper “The Ties that Bind: Measuring the Strength of Consumers’ Emotional Attachments to Brands” (with Debbie MacInnis and C.W. Park) received the Journal of Consumer Psychology’s inaugural Long-Term Contribution Award.
In 2021, his co-authored paper “How Well Do Consumer-Brand Relationships Drive Customer Brand Loyalty? Generalizations from a Meta-Analysis of Brand Relationship Elasticities” (with Mansur Khamitov and Xin Wang) in the Journal of Consumer Research won an AMA CBSIG Consumer Research in Practice Award.
He is an Associate Editor at the Journal of Consumer Psychology, a Chancellor’s Leadership Fellow at UMass Amherst and a past co-chair of the Association for Consumer Research’s annual conference.
