Rural retailing scholar to lecture Sept. 23

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

Laura Dunn Jolly, a nationally known scholar in the fields of retailing and merchandising and dean of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia, will lecture on the K-State campus Tuesday, Sept. 23.

The 2008 K-State ADVANCE Distinguished Lecturer will discuss “Exploring the Boundaries: Scholarship, Leadership and Learning” from 8:05 to 9:20 a.m. in Justin 247.

Jolly has been a professor in the Department of Retail, Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Tennessee. At the University of Kentucky, she was chair of interior design, merchandising and textiles.

She was a faculty member in the Department of Design, Housing and Merchandising at Oklahoma State University, where she earned her Ph.D. and master’s degrees and served as director of the Center for Apparel Marketing and Merchandising.

She has been active in the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences and is an associate editor of “Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal” and both a fellow and past president of the International Textiles and Apparel Association.

Jolly is an authority on retailing in rural areas and its effect on economic growth in rural communities. She has conducted extensive research on consumer attitudes and purchasing strategies related to electronic commerce, and on theoretical models of merchandising. She has written and spoken widely on trends in family and consumer sciences education and on technology developments in textiles and apparel.

The ADVANCE Institutional Transformation program is a coordinated campus effort to achieve institutional transformation by increasing the participation and advancement of women faculty in the science, mathematics and engineering disciplines. A $3.5 million, five-year National Science Foundation award supports the program. Kansas State University is the only university in the state of Kansas to receive this award.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 and is filed under Dean's Blog.