Our Digital Marketing Research Faculty and Leadership

​MARK BENDER
​Assistant Professor
Mark Bender is an assistant professor in the School of Marketing and Innovation. He teaches basic marketing, digital marketing and marketing management problems at the Muma College of Business.
His research focuses on the intersection of competitive strategy and digital marketing. His specific research interests relate to digital platforms such as daily-deal websites (e.g., Groupon), crowdfunding (e.g., Kickstarter), streaming (e.g., Spotify), and browsers (e.g., Google Chrome). Bender's research has been published in the European Journal of Operational Research and Journal of Interactive Marketing. He has presented his research at numerous conferences including Marketing Science, Frank M. Bass Frontiers of Research in Marketing Science and the Platform Strategy Research Symposium. He is the recipient of several teaching awards throughout his career.
Bender earned a PhD in marketing and a master's degree in economics from the University of Pittsburgh.
KELLY COWART
Associate Professor
Kelly O. Cowart is an associate professor of marketing in the School of Marketing and Innovation in Sarasota-Manatee. Prior to joining the USF faculty, she was an associate professor at Grand Valley State University. She is a member of the American Marketing Association, the Academy of Marketing Science, the Association for Consumer Research and the National Black MBA Association.
Cowart’s research interests revolve around mobile commerce, social media and the role of stereotypes in marketing. Her work has been published in top tier journals including the Journal of Retailing, Psychology & Marketing and Marketing Letters. Her awards include an ACR Best Working Paper Award, Trio Professor of the Year Award, BΓƩ Favorite Professor Recognition and Ewald Award for Academic Excellence & Human Service. Her professional resume includes executive positions with JC Penney, American Airlines and the U.S. Postal Service.
Coward earned a PhD in marketing from Florida State University, an MBA from Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Florida.
LORAN JARRETT
Instructor
Loran Jarrett is an instructor in the School of Marketing and Innovation, joining the faculty in August 2019. She previously served as vice president of marketing strategy and public relations at Synapse, overseeing marketing and public relations for the 2019 Synapse Summit, which was attended by more than 5,000 people and featured 80 breakout sessions, 320 speakers and 300 exhibitors. She was an adjunct professor at the University of Tampa for four years, ending in 2018.
Jarrett was selected as the president of the Leadership Tampa Bay Class of 2016 and continues to be a board member of the organization and serves as the marketing chair. She is on the board of the USF Digital Marketing Certificate program and in 2013 she was chosen the No. 1 Favorite Local PR/Marketing Professional in a Tampa Bay Business Journal Readers’ Choice Award.
Jarrett earned a Doctor of Business Administration from USF and a master’s degree in marketing from the University of Tampa. She received a bachelor’s degree in marketing and real estate from Florida State University. Her research in the DBA program, “Glazer Children’s Museum, Dream It. Be It,” was presented to the North American Case Research Association in 2017.
CARTER MORGAN
Assistant Professor
Carter Morgan is an assistant professor of marketing at the Muma College of Business. He teaches a graduate-level and undergraduate-level course in social media marketing as well as an undergraduate-level course in digital marketing.
Morgan primarily focuses his research on consumer bevahior. He is particularly interested in consumer responses to visual symbols in marketing, consumer identity-motivated behavior, and the downstream consequences of choice architecture interventions. He has published his reseach in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and the Journal of Business Research.
He serves as the academic director for the Center for Marketing and Sales Innovation Lab, a multi-disciplinary research and training facility located within the Muma College of Business. He primarily coordinates and administers the collection of traditional and biometic [e.g., eye-tracking or galvanic skin response (GSR)] data for Muma College of Business researchers.
He earned a Phd in marketing from the Miami Herbert Business School at the University of Miami.
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