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Topic: Consumer Behavior

Samuel Jay

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Samuel Jay, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

He joined MSU Denver in 2011 as an adjunct professor and went full-time in 2014. Jay opened his own consulting company in 2015 called Jay Communication Solutions helping individuals and small businesses market themselves. He has developed and implemented content marketing campaigns, handled social media accounts of NCAA Division I sports teams and coached and managed projects for varied clients. Jay also produces and co-hosts a weekly sports podcast and radio show, called Sports Nerds, where he examines how sports influence our perception of things like race, class, gender and power. He also co-hosts a weekly podcast, called Unfiltered, where leaders in the craft beverage industry are featured, providing a behind-the-scenes look at what they do.

His research focus areas include how digital communication technologies and their users generate and circulate emotional energy and how that energy adds rhetoric effectiveness to disparate discourses, including politics, sports, and economics.

Jay received his doctorate in communication studies with a focus on rhetoric and a minor in emergent digital practices from University of Denver in 2014, a master’s in radio-television-film from University of North Texas in 2009 and a bachelor’s in cinema and comparative literature from University of Iowa in 2006.

Kelly Evans

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Kelly Evans, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Performance and Sport at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She teaches a variety of courses, including sport promotion/marketing, sport enterprise/finance and intro to sport management.

As a practitioner, Evans was an integral member of a summer collegiate baseball team in the Coastal Plain League in South Carolina. She worked her way to become the league’s first female general manager within seven years. Evans also worked closely with MiLB, MLB, NFL and NBA teams in the areas of marketing, operations, sales, event management and finance. Her other work included helping plan local festivals, charity events and concerts in South Carolina.

Her research interests include sport and entertainment marketing, sport sponsorships and consumer behavior. Evans has presented her research at national and international conferences where she won research grants to continue her work in sport sponsorships.

Evans earned her doctorate, master’s and bachelor’s degrees in sport management and sport marketing from University of South Carolina in 2019, 2014 and 2010 respectfully.

Darrin Duber-Smith

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Darrin C. Duber-Smith, M.S., MBA, is a senior lecturer at Metropolitan State University of Denver’s College of Business, where he teaches Sports Marketing, Green Marketing, Seminar in Marketing Management and Advertising Management courses.

Duber-Smith has more than 30 years of specialized expertise in the marketing and management profession, including decades of work with natural, organic and green/sustainable goods and services.

As president of Green Marketing, Inc. from 2000-16, Duber-Smith was a co-founder of the Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability market/industry model and was leader of the first U.S. industry task force that helped frame the Natural Products Association’s definition of natural in 2005.

He has co-authored several academic papers, including “State of the Economy and Attitudes Toward Sales Careers,” “Student Disposition Towards Sales as a Career,” “The Evolution of an Award-Winning Assessment Plan” and “Gender Bias in Consumer Perceptions of Salespeople.” He has published over 90 marketing-related articles and book chapters in various business publications, and he has been an invited speaker at over 50 executive-level events.

Duber-Smith has been the most frequently-interviewed marketing expert in Colorado media since 2005, and he authored Cengage Learning’s “KnowNow! Marketing” blog from 2011-2019.

Duber-Smith received The Wall Street Journal’s In-Education Distinguished Professor Award in 2009 and WSJ’s Top 125 Professor Award in 2014.

Steve Beaty

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Steve Beaty, Ph.D., has an extensive background in both the theoretic and pragmatic aspects of computers and networks. He wrote compilers at Cray Computer, managed a large group of developers and was a software test architect at Hewlett-Packard. He was also the security team lead at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.

At Metropolitan State University of Denver, Beaty is currently a professor of Computer Science and has served as chair of the Mathematical and Computer Sciences Department and interim vice-president for Information Technology. He works on a number of open-source projects, consults with a variety of businesses and interviews regularly with the media.