Our Faculty
Learn from experienced marketers, communicators, academic scholars and thought leaders
Northwestern University Medill Integrated Marketing Communications faculty members reflect a mix of both industry professionals and academic scholars. They produce cutting-edge research, lead top marketing communications companies and develop innovative solutions to complex challenges. They consistently push the envelope in the field of marketing communications to find the most effectives strategies for engaging consumers—now and in the future.
All of our IMC classes, including classes in the IMC Professional program, are taught by the same faculty. Not only will you learn from these experienced thought leaders in your classes, but they will also become your mentors and supporters. In addition, you join their networks of marketing communications professionals who work all over the world.
Danielle Robinson Bell
Associate Professor and Director of IMC Professional Program
Bell’s area of expertise is in strategic communications and its impact on business outcomes for organizations, brands, and executives. She specializes in work that advances efforts related to culture, equity, inclusion, women and BIPOC in the workplace. Bell spent more than 15 years on the agency side of advertising and branding for some of the world’s most recognized brands.
Chris Cahill
Senior Lecturer
Cahill, founder of Pierian Analytics, is an accomplished database marketer with extensive experience in marketing management, strategic analytics and consulting. He led the analytics and modeling practice at Inforte Corp., where he served media, telecommunications, consumer products, and financial services companies. At Kestnbaum Consulting and Young & Rubicam he worked with online and direct marketers to solve issues of data exploration, survey projection, segmentation analysis, customer valuation and predictive modeling.
Anya Cheng
Adjunct Lecturer
Cheng's experience includes product management and marketing leadership positions at Facebook, eBay, Target and McDonald's tech headquarters in Silicon Valley. Her expertise includes leading teams of website and app product managers, UX/UI designers, software and data engineers, marketers, growth managers, analysts/data scientists and monetization/ad tech managers to build and grow eCommerce, social media and retail websites and apps. She is currently the Founder and CEO of Taelor, an artificial intelligence-powered clothing rental startup in Silicon Valley, and the Mentor of 500 Startups, which is a top accelerator in the world.
Gerry Chiaro
Associate Professor
Gerry learned and mastered marketing skills while contributing to outstanding growth for major CPG food and beverage and restaurant brands: Frito Lay, Pepsi Bottling Group, Gatorade, Pizza Hut and McDonald's. He served in senior executive marketing and strategic development leadership roles in three venture capital-backed internet marketing technology start-ups working in fast-paced environments with talented entrepreneurs and visionaries. Chiaro started his consulting business in 2003 and developed a blue-chip client base and a service delivery team. Key clients include: TGI Fridays, Pick Up Stix, Travelocity, Anheuser-Busch, United Airlines, Coke, Organic Valley, and others.
Jonathan Copulsky
Senior Lecturer
Copulsky is an innovative marketing leader, growth strategist and thought leader with over 35 years of experience working at the intersection of brand, marketing strategy, content marketing and marketing technology. As a CMO, consultant and board member, Copulsky brings the ability to anticipate customer needs, reposition brands, architect fresh "go-market-solutions," creatively apply new technologies, streamline customer-facing operations, build strong teams and engage diverse stakeholders to deliver measurable and impactful results.
Frank Dudley
Lecturer
Dudley is a digital marketing and management pioneer, practitioner, analyst and thought leader. He is a prolific speaker and author of research studies on marketing management, marketing accountability, brand building, integrated marketing communications and digital marketing and media. Dudley has developed and authored numerous research studies in collaboration with the ANA, the BAA, Northwestern University and many Fortune 500 firms.
Randy Hlavac
Lecturer
Hlavac is the CEO of Marketing Synergy, Inc., a consulting company dedicated to helping organizations improve their strategic and tactical marketing programs using the advanced analytics necessary to market in today’s real-time engagement world. He is also the author of “Social IMC: Social Strategies with Bottom-Line ROI,” a book recently published that provides CEOs and CMOs with strategies and development methodologies to manage social investment with business metrics.
Candy Lee
Professor
Lee’s experience ranges from vice president of marketing at The Washington Post to president of ULS Loyalty Services, the sister company of United Airlines, and more. At Medill, Lee is a professor teaching journalism and integrated marketing communications. She also teaches graduate students in the Masters of Product Design and Development Management Program at the Segal Design Institute.
Dyani Marvel
Adjunct Lecturer
Marvel is a performance-driven strategic marketing leader with over 20 years of experience leading teams and directing omnichannel campaigns across various industries. She has worked with numerous Fortune 500 brands. Marvel is currently the vice president of Marketing Strategy and Operations for Wondr Nation, an iGaming startup, where she leads marketing vision for all corporate efforts.
Tony Poidomani
Lecturer
Poidomani has held various leadership positions in business, such as the finance/operations manager at McMaster Carr and the customer financial services manager at Quaker Oats. He has also taught executive MBA accounting courses at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management for over 20 years. At Medill, Poidomani teaches Financial Accounting.
Ryan Reis
Lecturer
Reis has helped to build and reinvigorate some of the world’s most recognizable brands. As vice president of marketing at MillerCoors, he led turn-arounds on the company’s two largest brands, Miller Lite and Coors Light. Prior to MillerCoors, Reis worked in brand management and insights for Unilever on some of their largest U.S. brands, such as Suave and Axe.
Preeti Shroff-Mehta
Professor and Director of IMC Executive Programs
Schroff-Mehta has more than 25 years of experience in international projects and academic management with global institutions, including the World Bank, USAID, UN and more. She worked as the Dean, MICA - School of Ideas - specializing in management, marketing, digital transformation, communication, and creativity. Her passion is to promote sustainable enterprises and brand innovations across countries.
Vijay Viswanathan
Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications and Associate Dean of IMC
Viswanathan studies customer experience and marketing effectiveness in B2C and B2B using surveys, text analytics and machine learning. His current work is on online communities, virtual influencers, loyalty programs and governance. He has given numerous talks to industry on customer centricity, embedding AI in analytics and enabling a data culture.
Roy Wollen
Lecturer
Wollen is president of Hansa Marketing Services, a Marketing Communications agency. The work is a blend of insights and engagement, where analysis and research are the foundation of how brands reach customers through campaigns. He has led some of the top marketers in industries such as travel, financial services, B2B and multi-channel retail. Noteworthy clients include Keurig, Wyndham, Estee Lauder, Staples, Bridgestone, Coca-Cola and others over a 25-year career.