This event occurs on Friday, August 24 at the 2026 AMA Summer Academic Conference.

Key Benefits for Doctoral Students

• Mentorship Opportunities: Intimate sessions led by experienced faculty covering challenges in both early and later stages of a PhD program.
• Networking & Peer Community: Dedicated time to connect with fellow doctoral students and established scholars in an informal, supportive atmosphere.
• Research Feedback from Published Faculty: Engage in interactive discussions about research ideas, learn strategies for publishing, and receive personalized feedback from mentors.

Faculty Ambassadors

DocSIG collaborates with faculty ambassadors Professors Prof. Kimberly Whitler and Prof. Martin Mende in making this event a success for doctoral students.

Kimberly Whitler

Kimberly A. Whitler is the Frank M. Sands Sr. Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, with nearly 20 years of executive experience in general management, strategy, and marketing across the CPG and retail industries. She held leadership roles at Procter & Gamble, Aurora Foods, David’s Bridal, and PetSmart before transitioning to academia. Whitler is the author of Positioning for Advantage and co-author of Athlete Brands, and a prolific contributor to outlets including Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and leading academic journals. Her research has earned multiple honors, including awards from the Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science Institute, and the Sheth Foundation. Recognized as a top influencer among CMOs and a favorite professor by MBA students, she is also a sought-after speaker and advisor who has been widely featured in major media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Bloomberg.

Martin Mende

Martin Mende is a professor of marketing and the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation Professor in Services Leadership at Arizona State University. His research has been published in leading journals including the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Service Research. He serves as associate editor for several top journals, including JMR, JM, JAMS, JCP, JSR, JPPM, and the Journal of Retailing, and contributes to the Journal of Consumer Research and Journal of Marketing in editorial roles. Mende also chairs the Transformative Consumer Research Advisory Committee for ACR and has received numerous honors, including the Weitz-Winer-O’Dell Award and Journal of Service Research Best Article Award, as well as recognition as a 2017 AMA Emerging Scholar in both MASSIG and SERVSIG, and multiple teaching awards during his time at Florida State University.

Doctoral Student Organizers – DocSIG Leadership

Reach out to us at docsig.ama@gmail.com.

Ishita Nagpal, PhD Student, Georgia State University

shita Nagpal is a PhD student in Marketing at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University. Her research is centered at the intersection of marketing strategy and the social impact of marketing, with a strong focus on how strategic marketing decisions can drive meaningful societal outcomes. At GSU, she teaches Social Media Marketing and Social Media Intelligence, bringing a blend of academic insight and real-world application to the classroom.

Deeply committed to uplifting the doctoral student community, Ishita has been actively involved with AMA DocSIG for over three years. Her leadership and dedication to service have been recognized with the Outstanding Service Award at Georgia State University.

Zahra Safa Karami, PhD Student, University of Wyoming

Zahra (Safa) Karami, born in Tehran, is a 3rd-year Marketing PhD student at the University of Wyoming. She earned her BBA in Business Administration and MBA in Marketing in Karachi. With 15+ years of international sales and marketing experience, she now focuses her research on sales and entrepreneurship. Safa serves as Chair-Elect (2026–27) of AMA DocSIG, dedicated to fostering community and supporting doctoral students in the US and beyond. She speaks English, Farsi, Hindi (Urdu), and some Arabic. Beyond academia, she enjoys cultural exchange, travel, and sharing Persian-inspired cooking and baking with friends.

The post DocSIG Pre-Conference at AMA Summer Academic Conference appeared first on American Marketing Association.

The Customer Engagement Magazine: Human or AI? is a new print magazine exploring one of the defining questions in modern marketing, across three lenses: data, personalization, and risk. 

Before Issue 1 ships in June, we’re hosting a live webinar with two guests who are living this conversation from very different angles: an ex-Forrester analyst who has spent over a decade advising enterprise brands on data strategy, and a senior marketing practitioner at a Fortune 500 brand who is navigating AI adoption from inside the firewall.

Specifically, we’ll explore

• Data – Why most personalization problems aren’t personalization problems at all, they’re data problems. And why the companies winning right now are the ones building an unstructured data strategy alongside the structured one they’ve had for years.
• Personalization – Where the line is between useful and uncomfortable, and how the best brands draw it. We’ll talk about zero-party and first-party data, what it means to make the customer the hero of the data exchange, and why your segmentation approach may be holding your AI capabilities back.
• Risk – What’s actually slowing AI adoption inside large organizations (hint: it’s not a lack of enthusiasm). We’ll talk about what risk management looks like in practice, why vendors often carry less risk than building in-house, and how teams can start small without stalling permanently.

What you’ll walk away with: This isn’t a panel of futurists. It’s a conversation between people doing the work, shaped by what the Human or AI? Magazine will explore in depth across its first three issues. You’ll leave with a clearer sense of where to start, what to stop debating, and how to bring your organization along.

Webinar airs at 12 PM CST and will be available on-demand for six months after airing.

The post Magazine Sneak Peek: What “Human or AI?” Looks Like in Practice appeared first on American Marketing Association.

This event occurs on Friday, August 24 at the 2026 AMA Summer Academic Conference.

Pre-Conference Chair

Kay Peters, Deutsche Post-endowed Chair
Professor of Marketing

University of Hamburg and UC Davis

Yakov Bart
Professor of Marketing

Northeastern University

Prasad Naik, Robert W. Glock Endowed Chair
Professor of Marketing

UC Davis

Koen Pauwels
Distinguished Professor of Marketing

Northeastern University

The post 2026 AMA IJRM Special Issue Pre-Conference: The Transformative Role of Artificial Intelligence in Marketing Theory and Practice appeared first on American Marketing Association.

Training Backed By Research

AMA training is unique because of its data-backed approach. The AMA Competency Model Framework identifies the most impactful skills marketers need to advance their careers. It’s based on our research with more than 1,000 marketing professionals and academic leaders.

Learn More

Are you an AMA Professional Certified Marketer®️? This training is worth 3 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to maintain your PCM®️ certification.

AMA Event Policies

The post How to Write a Winning Brand Positioning Statement appeared first on American Marketing Association.

Training Backed By Research

AMA training is unique because of its data-backed approach. The AMA Competency Model Framework identifies the most impactful skills marketers need to advance their careers. It’s based on our research with more than 1,000 marketing professionals and academic leaders.

Learn More

Are you an AMA Professional Certified Marketer®️? This training is worth 2 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to maintain your PCM®️ certification.

AMA Event Policies

The post Marketing Across Generations: Connecting with Gen X & Baby Boomers appeared first on American Marketing Association.

AMA Members Get the Best Pricing

Not only do members get discounts on training like this, but they also receive exclusive content, downloadable tools, unlimited access to AMA Journals, membership in networking communities and more.

Join & SAVE

Are you an AMA Professional Certified Marketer®️? This training is worth 4 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to maintain your PCM®️ certification.

Training Backed By Research

AMA training is unique because of its data-backed approach. The AMA Competency Model Framework identifies the most impactful skills marketers need to advance their careers. It’s based on our research with more than 1,000 marketing professionals and academic leaders.

Learn More

The post Building a Scalable Content Strategy appeared first on American Marketing Association.

If sales is ignoring your account lists and your campaign ROI is hard to defend, the problem is not your strategy. It is the data underneath it. We will show you exactly how buyer intent signals transform ABM from a targeting exercise into a revenue engine, covering everything from account selection to activation timing to messaging that meets buyers where they are. 

Walk away with:

• A framework for replacing static firmographic lists with intent-backed account selection 
• Clear triggers for knowing when to activate campaigns, escalate to sales, or pull back spend
• Messaging strategies built around the specific topics your target accounts are consuming right now 
• A data foundation that makes ABM pipeline attribution defensible in any budget review 
• A concrete approach to rebuilding sales confidence in marketing-sourced account lists

This webinar airs at 12 PM and will be available on-demand for six months after airing.

The post AI-Powered ABM That Targets Accounts Ready to Buy appeared first on American Marketing Association.

This session offers a practical framework for the AI competencies that matter most in marketing today—drawn from both academic and industry perspectives—and three concrete approaches for building them into your courses next semester. The session includes a live demo of an AI marketing simulation.

Key Takeaways:

• A clear framework for the AI marketing skills employers now screen for 
• Why traditional assignments and assessments fail to develop these competencies
• Three practical approaches for embedding AI skill-building into your courses next semester — without starting from scratch
• A live walkthrough of a Novela AI marketing simulation designed to build these skills in the classroom

This webinar airs at 12 PM CT and will be available for on-demand for six months.

The post How Should We Teach AI Marketing? appeared first on American Marketing Association.

Attend “Digital Engagement Benchmarks for 2026” to learn how new innovations and strategies are re-imagining the way we engage audiences and drive revenue, including:

• New ways to personalize digital experiences
• Live vs. on-demand audience trends
• Webinar and digital event metrics
• AI-generated content creation statistics

2026 can be a year of opportunity if you let the data lead you to success. Register now to learn more.

This webinar airs at 1 PM CT and will be available on-demand for six months after airing.

The post Digital Engagement Benchmarks for 2026 appeared first on American Marketing Association.

Are you an AMA Professional Certified Marketer®️? This training is worth 2 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to maintain your PCM®️ certification.

AMA Members Get the Best Pricing

Not only do members get discounts on training like this, but they also receive exclusive content, downloadable tools, unlimited access to AMA Journals, membership in networking communities and more.

Join & SAVE

Training Backed By Research

AMA training is unique because of its data-backed approach. The AMA Competency Model Framework identifies the most impactful skills marketers need to advance their careers. It’s based on our research with more than 1,000 marketing professionals and academic leaders.

Learn More

AMA Event Policies

The post The Marketer’s Quick Start Guide to Claude appeared first on American Marketing Association.