Sonya Grier

Sonya A. Grier is Department Chair and Professor of Marketing at the American University Kogod School of Business. She is an interdisciplinary researcher, a filmmaker, and a community-oriented academic with diverse experience in the private, government, and non-profit sectors. Dr. Grier conducts research on topics related to race in the marketplace, with a focus on the social impact of targeted marketing activities (both commercial and social) on consumer health and well-being. She has published her research in leading marketing, psychology, public health, and policy journals, has won four “best paper” awards and created two award winning research-based documentary films. In 2016, she co-founded the Race in the Marketplace (RIM) Research Network and hosted the inaugural research forum at American University and the second forum in Paris, France. Previously, she was a member of the first cohort of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar program at the University of Pennsylvania and an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Sonya also spent two years at the Federal Trade Commission as part of a presidential mandated team examining the target marketing of violent entertainment to American youth. Dr. Grier speaks to academic, corporate, government and non-profit audiences on topics related to race in the marketplace, diversity initiatives, health equity, and the practice of inter-disciplinary research. She loves learning and strives to always contribute what she can to make the world a better place. She received her Ph.D. in Marketing, with a minor in Social Psychology from Northwestern University. She also has an MBA with an emphasis on marketing, non-profit management, and international business from Northwestern University.