Rate My Professor Gillian Oakenfull

Gillian W. Oakenfull, Ph.D., is Professor of Marketing in the Farmer School of Business at Miami University, a position she has held since 2013. She joined Miami University in 1998 as an Assistant Professor of Marketing, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2005, and currently also serves as the Founding Director of the Center for KickGlass Skills since 2021. Previously, she was Faculty Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Farmer School of Business from 2018 to 2021, Director of Corporate Partnerships from 2014 to 2018, and Director of Experiential Learning from 2009 to 2014. Her academic journey includes a Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Houston (1998), an MBA from Lamar University (1992), and a BBA in Management from Lamar University (1988). Earlier roles include Instructor and Research Assistant at the University of Houston and Instructor at Lamar University.

Oakenfull's research focuses on the LGBTQ+ marketplace, including consumer behavior, identity, and digitalization; diversity, equity, and inclusion in marketing scholarship; brand backlash, authenticity, and cultural intelligence; experiential learning in marketing; gender, sexuality, and consumer culture; sports marketing; and AI and human-LLM interaction in marketing. Notable publications include “From Progress to Click Bait: How Brands Turned LGBTQ+ Progress into a Backlash” in Advertising & Society Quarterly (2025), “Humanising Marketing: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Marketing Scholarship” in Australasian Marketing Journal (2024, with G. Northey et al.), “Genderation, Identity, and Authenticity in the LGBTQ Marketplace” in Australasian Marketing Journal (2024), “The LGBTQ Consumer Market” in The SAGE Encyclopedia of LGBTQ Studies, 2nd Edition (2023), and “Crossing Wires: Short-Circuiting (A)sexual Hierarchies of Knowledge in Marketing Theory” in Marketing Theory (2022, with multiple co-authors). She has earned prestigious awards such as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Ohio Professor of the Year (2012), nominee for U.S. Professor of the Year (2012), Academy of Marketing Science Outstanding Marketing Educator Award (2012), Marketing Management Association’s Hormel Meritorious Teaching Award (2012), Richard T. Farmer Teaching Excellence Award (2009), and numerous grants including a 2025 Student Technology Fee Grant ($19,500) and multiple Dolibois Professional Development Grants. Oakenfull has also served as a contributing writer for the CMO Network at Forbes.com since 2020 and is the Founder and CEO of ReThink Lab Consultancy.