Dr. Karen E. James is a Professor of Marketing and Chair of the Department of Management and Marketing at Louisiana State University – Shreveport, and is the recipient of the Joe and Abby Averett Professorship. Dr. James earned both her D.B.A. (1994) and M.B.A. (1987) degrees from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale (SIUC). Dr. James received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Purdue University in Mass Communication after completing a double major in Public Relations and Radio and Television Production.
Prior to joining the faculty at LSUS, Dr. James was employed in a full-time capacity as a marketing coordinator, a position she continued to hold while taking doctoral classes. She then taught for two years at the University of New Orleans while finishing her dissertation. Dr. James’ consulting experience includes forays into health care marketing and focus group moderation.
Dr. James is a former recipient of the LSUS “Outstanding Faculty Performance Award in Teaching,” the College of Business Administrations’ Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching, and the 1998 recipient of the “SGA Outstanding Faculty Award”. She currently serves as a member of the College of Business Technology committee and the University Athletic Council. She is a member of various academic and professional associations, and has served as a reviewer for the Journal of Advertising as well as numerous national and regional conferences. Dr. James is currently a member of the International Journal of Mobile Communications, Journal for the Advancement of Marketing Education, and M.E.R.L.O.T editorial boards.
Dr. James’ research interests include visual advertising strategies, negative advertising, viral marketing and technology in education. She is the co-author of the Volume III and IVa versions of the Marketing Scales Handbook, A Compilation of Multi-Item Measures, with Dr. Gordon C. Bruner, of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and Dr. Hensel of the University of New Orleans. Dr. James’ has published several articles, which have appeared in a variety of publications, including the Business Communication Quarterly, Services Marketing Quarterly, Marketing Management Journal and Journal of Business Education (forthcoming).
Teaching interests include Promotional Strategy and Integrated Marketing Communications, Sales, Marketing Research and Creative Small Business Advertising. Dr. James’ teaching philosophy stresses learning by doing, thus all courses taught provide opportunities for one or role plays, applied projects (IMC campaign, questionnaire development, data analysis, strategy development, sales role plays, ad creation), as well as applied learning exercises and case discussions.
