Walton College Faculty Member Wins Master Teacher Award

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Molly Rapert is the recipient of the 2010 Hormel Master Marketing Teacher Award.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Marketing Management Association has selected Molly Rapert, an associate professor of marketing in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, as the 2010 Hormel Master Marketing Teacher. The award, which includes $500, was made at the association’s annual meeting in Chicago on March 25.

Rapert was previously selected as one of 10 professors for the 2010 Hormel Meritorious Teaching award and was included among three professors for the 2010 Hormel Teaching Excellence Award. These three finalists presented to a blue ribbon panel of judges at the annual meeting.

The award is sponsored by Hormel Foods Corp., a multinational manufacturer based in Austin, Minn., and marketer of high-quality, brand-name food and meat products for consumers throughout the world.

The Marketing Management Association is a world-wide organization of both business people and academics who are interested in cutting-edge marketing thought.

Tom Jensen, chair of the Walton College marketing and logistics department, said, “We are extremely pleased about Dr. Rapert winning this award. Coincidently, another of the three Hormel Teaching Excellence recipients was Judith Folse, a Walton College doctoral graduate.” Folse is now the V. Price LeBlanc Developing Scholar Professor in Marketing at the E. J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University.”

Rapert holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in marketing and business from the Walton College. She received a Doctor of Philosophy in marketing from Memphis State University. She teaches marketing management, marketing research, global consumers and doctoral studies in marketing strategy. She served as director for the Walton College new undergraduate core curriculum for four years.

Rapert is passionate about teaching. In her marketing management class, she developed an advisory board of business people from 20 corporations, such as Verizon, Tyson Foods and Kimberly-Clark, to help ensure that the course was relevant to the students. She designed the course according to what they thought were the key marketing issues and incorporated outside readings, provided by the executives, rather than textbooks.

Rapert is the recipient of the Beta Gamma Sigma Outstanding Teaching Award (2007), Arkansas Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award (2002), Walton College Excellence in Teaching Award (2001, 1998), Walton College Excellence in Service Award (2006, 1993), and the Excellence in Advising Award (1996). Her research work has been published in Journal of Business Research, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Professional Services Marketing, Journal of Hospital Marketing, Journal of Health Care Marketing, Health Marketing Quarterly, and Journal of Managerial Issues. She is the director of the Walton College Center for Teaching Effectiveness and serves as a member of the board of directors for the Walton College Alumni Society. She also teaches in the CIMBA study-abroad program in Paderno del Grappa, Italy.