Biography

Christy Ashley (Ph.D., University of Rhode Island, MBA University of Miami) is a Professor of Marketing. She is an active researcher and an award-winning marketing educator with a deep interest in the power of creativity and emotions to transform thinking and action.

Ashley teaches at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels, and is an advocate for engaged scholarship and research dissemination. As she returns to faculty after serving as Associate Dean of URI’s College of Business for three years, her research focus is how emotions associated with consumer experiences relate to sustainable practices that impact the blue economy (uri.edu/BlueMBA). She will continue to engage with the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative of the UN Global Compact by collaborating around the Impactful 5 (i5) framework and is excited to be a part of the Global Alliance for Transforming Business Education.

Ashley teaches at the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels, and uses innovative methods to help students gain hands-on experience with real-world marketing challenges. In 2018, Ashley earned Pearson Prentice Hall’s Solomon-Marshall-Stuart Award for Innovative Excellence in Marketing Education. She was previously an Associate Professor of Marketing and Research Fellow at East Carolina University, where she was recognized as a leading Scholar-Teacher and as the top Alumni Teaching Award recipient at the University level. Prior to that, she was an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Fairfield University. She brings industry experience in digital marketing and retail and service management to the classroom, and is committed to experimentation and learning effective teaching practices from others to support learning and impact. 

Ashley adopted Narragansett, Rhode Island as “home.” She resides there with her husband Jay Oliver (who also earned his Ph.D. at the University of Rhode Island), their three children, a free-spirited Irish Setter-Golden Retriever mix and an English Setter.