There’s always more to learn about the consumer.

Cait Lamberton is the Alberto I. Duran President’s Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Vice Dean and Director of the Undergraduate Division at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research addresses a wide range of consumption-related phenomena and spans topics related to retail environments, responses to taxation, emotions, and the role of dignity and respect in marketplace experiences. Dr. Lamberton has been named one of the 25 most productive marketing scholars in the world, a Marketing Science Institute Scholar, and a Marketing Science Institute academic fellow; she is also a winner of the Erin Anderson Award for the field’s top female mentor, the Lazaridis Prize for contributions to work on technology and marketing, the Kinnear Prize for work related to public policy and marketing, and the AMA’s Hunt/Maynard Award for conceptual contributions. She is co-founder of the Center for Empirical Philosophy and Behavioral Insights and a past Chair of the American Heart Association’s Healthcare x Food Behavioral Science Advisory Board.  

Keith Wilcox is the Ford Endowed Chair in Consumerism/E-Business/E-Commerce in the marketing department at the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. He holds an undergraduate degree in Finance from the City University of New York, Baruch College, an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from the City University of New York, Baruch College.  

His research focuses on consumer behavior and decision-making with emphases on self-control, the influence of emotions on judgment, and how consumers process information. His research has been published in several leading academic journals, including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Dr. Wilcox’s research has been widely recognized, earning the Citations of Excellence Award from Emerald Publishing for its impact in business, marketing, and related fields.  

Dr. Alix Barasch is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She was previously a professor at INSEAD’s global business school and at the Stern School of Business, New York University. She holds a Ph.D. in marketing from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Duke University.  

Dr. Barasch’s research focuses on how new technologies fundamentally reshape consumer behavior and well-being. She has numerous publications in both scholarly and managerial journals, has served as an associate editor or on the editorial board of several leading marketing and psychology journals, and has received many field-level distinctions including the Early Career Award from the Association for Consumer Research.  

Carolyn Yoon is the Wilbur K. Pierpont Collegiate Professor of Management at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. She is also a Professor of Marketing at Ross and a Faculty Associate at the Institute for Social Research. Dr. Yoon’s research focuses on understanding the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying judgment and decision processes across the lifespan in consumer domains and socio-cultural contexts. Her research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, Psychology and Aging, and Journal of Neuroscience. She is an Associate Editor at the Journal of Marketing Research and serves on the editorial review boards of numerous journals.  She served as the President of the Policy Board of the Journal of Consumer Research and is a recipient of the Journal of Consumer Research Best Paper Award. She is also a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. 

Michael Lewis is a Professor of Marketing at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. His research interests lie at the intersection of sports analytics and marketing. He has published in top academic journals on topics such as customer valuation, political marketing, and cigarette counter marketing. Beyond academia, he has written on subjects like revenue sharing in baseball, NIL’s impact on college sports, and the Washington football team in the New York Times and FanSided. Dr. Lewis’ current passion is analyzing and predicting the future of fandom across various categories. He is the author of the 2024 book “Fandom Analytics” and can be found online at fanalytics.substack.com.     

Manoj Thomas is Sabanci Professor of Management & Marketing at Cornell University. A behavioral scientist, Thomas studies how the interaction between human psychology and marketing actions shapes perceived economic value. His work shows value is psychologically constructed: a trailing 9, switching “12 ounces” to “12 snack bags,” or seamless cashless payment can all shift what a product seems worth. More recently, Thomas has been studying the role of moral intuitions in consumer behavior, investigating how sociomoral values, ideologies, and political identities influence consumer decisions—from everyday purchases to broader social trends. His current research projects explore behavioral pricing, numerical cognition, moral foundations theory, and fair‑market ideology. Thomas has received the Apple Award and the Stephen Russell Family Teaching Award for excellence in teaching. He is the co-author of the book Why People (Don’t) Buy: GO and STOP Signals.

Abigail Sussman, professor of marketing at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, researches how individuals form judgments and make decisions. She investigates questions at the intersection of psychology, economics, and finance, with the aim of improving financial well-being. Her central research examines psychological biases that can lead consumers to commit errors in budgeting, spending, borrowing, and investing. Her work has been featured in top academic journals across academic fields including the Journal of Consumer Research, Psychological Science, and the Journal of Finance, as well as in popular media outlets including National Public Radio, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Sussman is past president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making and served as an associate editor at the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Her prior experience includes work at Goldman Sachs in its equity research division. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Brown University in cognitive science and economics, and a joint Ph.D. from the psychology department and the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

M.B.A. International Business — Xavier University
B.S.B.A. Marketing — Xavier University
B.A. Public Relations — Xavier University

Kari’s work lives at the intersection of research, strategy, branding, and design. She’s worked for clients such as the NCAA, Crest, Oral-B, Tabasco, Cummins, Trane, Gainbridge, and OneAmerica on brand positioning, consumer segmentation, visual identity, and communication strategies across a variety of business challenges.

As the leader of Y&L’s brand strategy and analytics practices, Kari understands the critical business equation of establishing meaningful audience insights, building sound strategies around those audiences, and measuring the business impact of those strategies. She’s a firm believer in uncovering the subconscious, often-unspoken influences that drive consumer decision-making—and, at the same time, measuring the changes marketing makes to reach and connect with audiences more effectively.

When she’s not conducting deep consumer interviews or delving into data, Kari tries to tap into her competitive nature as a former Division I swimmer by spinning, swimming, and being active outside. Just don’t ask her to run—Kari played for the Y&L Kickball Club only to “sacrifice” her ACL for the team.

Tom Denari is the President & Chief Strategy Officer of Young & Laramore, an independent, creatively-driven advertising agency based in Indianapolis. Tom has spent his career studying what makes people buy, exploring non-rational motivations to uncover why consumers do what they do. And, as a hands-on strategist, he continues to engage with consumers on a regular basis, leading Y&L’s consumer immersion and brand strategy processes.

Across his thirty-year career, Tom has led the brand strategy development for a wide variety of brands, including: Brizo: Delta Faucet's premium faucet brand, KraftMaid Cabinetry, Farm Bureau Insurance, Angie's List, Goodwill Retail Stores, Stanley Steemer and Steak n Shake restaurants, to name a few.

Continually questioning the conventional wisdom of traditional communications practices, Tom studies how non-rational influences affect consumers’ buying decisions. His writings on consumer behavior and brand strategy have been regularly featured in Advertising Age, AdWeek, Forbes and Inc.

Tom has an MBA in Marketing from the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University-Bloomington, and a B.A. in Economics from Wabash College.