Best 40-Under-40 Professor Kelly Goldsmith

Kelly Goldsmith

Assistant Professor of Marketing

Age: 34

Institution: Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management

Before current institution: Yale School of Management

Hometown: San Diego, CA

Marital status: Married

Children: 0

Education: 

Yale School of Management, Ph.D. (Marketing)

Yale School of Management, M. Phil (Marketing)

Yale School of Management, M.A. (Marketing)

Duke University, B.A. (Sociology)

Courses currently teaching: Marketing Research

Fun fact:

I was a contestant on the television show, “Survivor: Africa,” in 2001. For a woman with no athletic abilities, I did remarkably well (which is to say, I made it out alive!).

Professor I most admire:

There are several professors whom I deeply admire for different reasons. At the Kellogg School, I admire Professors Brian Sternthal and Angela Lee for their contributions to the fields of marketing and psychology and for their invaluable guidance and mentorship. I will always look up to my academic advisor, Professor Ravi Dhar (Yale), for his wisdom, creativity, and relentless work ethic. Finally, I admire Professor Marshall Goldsmith (my father) who inspires thousands of people every year as the world’s foremost authority on leadership (plus he’s an all-around great dad!).

Most memorable moment as a professor:

My most memorable moment as a professor so far came when I was one of five professors nominated for Kellogg’s 2013 Outstanding Professor of the Year Award. The nominations are determined by a student vote, and I was truly honored to receive so much support from my students.

“If I weren’t a B-school professor…”

Prior to getting my Ph.D. in marketing, many of my jobs involved doing hands-on data collection and/or live observation of consumers making real purchase decisions in the field (read: the mall). Nowadays, I deal more with datasets than people–and I miss the unique insights that can come from actually observing the way people behave on their own. I suppose if I weren’t a B-school professor, I might be doing something like that: sitting in a mall with a clipboard, spying on people, and trying to make sense of how they behave.