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Biography

Marla Royne Stafford is an advertising and marketing expert who boasts 30 years of experience as a professor, department chair, and dean in the business discipline. She was previously the executive associate dean of academic affairs in 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ's William F. Harrah College of Hospitality and currently serves as the William F. Harrah Distinguished Chair. Prior to her time in academia, she held positions with companies such as Tupperware Worldwide, Philip Crosby Associates, and Cardinal Industries where she worked in marketing and promotions, communications, and training development. 

Stafford has received numerous honors from the American Academy of Advertising (AAAs) — an organization for which she has served as past president. In March 2024, she received the organization's Kim Rotzoll Award for Ethics and Social Responsibility; in 2021, she was elected Fellow of the AAAs; and in 2016, she received the AAA's Ivan Preston Award for Outstanding Contribution to Advertising Research. Stafford is a two-time recipient of the University of Memphis Alumni Association Award for Distinguished Research in Business and Social Sciences. In 2018, she was recognized as one of the Superwomen in Business by the Memphis Business Journal.

Stafford is past editor-in-chief of the Journal of Advertising, and currently serves as associate editor of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing and the Journal of Advertising Research. She has published more than 100 research articles in publications such as the Journal of Retailing, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Decision Sciences, Journal of Business Research, American Journal of Public Health, and Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.