Melanie Richards, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
- richardsmb@mail.etsu.edu
- 423-439-5575
- Ashe St School/CBAT Office
Dr. Melanie B. Richards is the Director of the School of Marketing & Media at East Tennessee State University and an Associate Professor of Marketing. In these roles, she brings more than two decades of combined industry and academic experience in marketing research, analytics, and strategic planning. Prior to joining ETSU, she held senior leadership roles in several large national and international organizations (e.g. Delta Air Lines, American Cancer Society, Teach For America), where she led teams focused on customer and market insights, analytics, and strategic brand planning.
She is deeply involved in professional service, including leadership roles with both the Society for Marketing Advances and the Academy of Marketing Science. As a teacher-scholar, her research explores the evolving intersection of artificial intelligence, consumer insights, and marketing education and has been featured in academic journals, conferences, and invited symposia. She has also co-developed and published and published two applied learning models while at ETSU (the Applied Marketing and Media Education Norm with Dr. Stephen Marshall and the Artificial Intelligence in Service Learning and the Experiential Education Model with Dr. Chelsie Dubay). She also established the creation of the BucHouse Student Agency, an interdisciplinary student-powered agency providing students with real-world marketing and media experience. She is committed to preparing students for a rapidly shifting marketing landscape through innovative pedagogy, hands-on industry partnerships, and a strong focus on professional skill development.