Strategic Communication Professor Named President of the American Academy of Advertising
Columbia, Mo. (Aug. 10, 2009) — Shelly Rodgers, associate professor of strategic communication at the Missouri School of Journalism, has been elected president of the American Academy of Advertising (AAA). An active AAA member for more than a decade, Rodgers is currently the AAA president-elect and has previously served as the AAA vice president (2008), secretary (2007) and AAA newsletter editor (2005-2008).
Rodgers is the first individual at the Missouri School of Journalism to serve as president of the Academy and only the sixth female president to be elected during the organization’s 51-year history. Her term as president will begin Jan. 1 and end on Dec. 31, 2010.
As part of the AAA mission, Rodgers plans to expand the international scope of AAA with the group’s first European conference to be held in Milan, Italy, in June 2010. Other goals include making the AAA more accessible to advertising professionals interested in improving advertising education while strengthening the foundation of faculty educators and graduate student members of the Academy.
“I am honored to serve as the president of the American Academy of Advertising,” said Rodgers. “This is an incredible opportunity to build on the momentum of earlier presidents by identifying the unique needs of our talented members with a focus on increasing the international impact of the Academy.”
The AAA membership is comprised of more than 600 of the world’s most elite advertising educators, professors and researchers. The Academy fosters research that is relevant to the field and provides a forum for the exchange of ideas among its academic and professional members. Through the Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Interactive Advertising and the annual conference Proceedings, the Academy disseminates research findings and scholarly contributions to advertising education and the profession.
Rodgers teaches in the areas of strategic communication and health communication with expertise on Internet health advertising, marketing and communication. Her research examines the effects of interactive communications on audience processing with emphasis on how to use the Internet to promote healthy behaviors. Rodgers’ research has appeared in numerous scholarly journals including the Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Interactive Advertising, the Journal of Communication, the Journal of Advertising Research, Marketing Research, Social Marketing Research and the Journal of Health Communication.
In a 2008 Journal of Advertising article, Rodgers was ranked nationally as the most productive Internet advertising researcher and one of the five most productive in Internet advertising, marketing and communication.
Rodgers has received nearly $8 million in grants to support her research in the areas of health communication. Her degrees include a doctorate in journalism from the University of Missouri, a master’s from the University of Arizona, a master’s from the University of California-Davis, and a bachelor of science from Union College in Lincoln, Neb.
Rodgers will preside at the 2010 annual conference of the American Academy of Advertising in Minneapolis next March.
Updated: May 4, 2020