Researcher · Strategist · Storyteller

Sarah C.
Grace, PhD

Marketing Professor & Consumer Culture Researcher

Creatively illuminating insights to provoke conversation & change — because business, done with purpose, is one of the most powerful forces for good we have.

Researcher.
Practitioner. Storyteller.

I study consumer culture not from the outside, but from within it — as a former retail executive, a marketing professor, a community member, and a mother. That inside-outside perspective is what I bring to every classroom, every research question, and every conversation.

Before academia, I spent nine years inside three of America's most influential retail organizations — Walmart, Target, and Hallmark — leading brand equity research, competitive positioning, and consumer empathy initiatives. I left that world with deep conviction that the way we consume shapes who we become, and that business has a genuine role to play in bending that arc toward something better.

My research sits at the intersection of consumer well-being, temporal resistance, and sustainable consumption — examining how people push back against the relentless acceleration of modern life through their everyday choices. My teaching brings that research alive for students learning to lead with purpose in a complicated commercial world.

I believe the most powerful insights are the ones that connect disparate dots — showing how a global force manifests in a local moment, how a business decision ripples into a cultural one. That's the work I'm here to do.

Academic Position

Assistant Teaching Professor of Marketing

Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas

Education

PhD, Marketing

University of Arkansas, 2021

Industry Background

Nine years in retail strategy & consumer insights

Walmart · Target · Hallmark DaySpring

Research Published In

Journal of Macromarketing · Journal of Business Research · Marketing Education Review · AMS Review · Journal of the Association for Consumer Research