The American Marketing Association (AMA) and the American Marketing Association Foundation (AMAF) are thrilled to announce David W. Stewart as the winner of the 2025 William L. Wilkie “Marketing for a Better World” Award.
Dr. David Stewart is President’s Professor Emeritus, Department of Marketing and Business Law at Loyola Marymount University, and is the current chair of the Marketing Accountability Standards Board. He is a Fellow of the American Marketing Association, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science. Dr. Stewart has published 20 books and over 350 papers and book chapters on a wide range of topics in marketing, including law and public policy. His scholarship has been cited over 35,000 times, honored with numerous impressive awards from academic, civic, and international associations, including the American Marketing Association’s MASSIG Award for Lifetime Contributions to Marketing and Society.
Beyond his sterling research, Stewart has provided notable service to the development of this field. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous academic journals, and has served as Editor for three of the leading scholarly publications in the field: Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Public Policy and Marketing. When leading these publications he showed sensitivity to pursuing significant questions confronting the world.
Professor Stewart has also brought his insights into international venues, offering executive education courses on marketing topics in more than 20 nations on five continents. He has consulted for a wide array of companies, government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations, and he has provided expert testimony before Federal and District Courts, the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Better Business Bureau, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Federal Trade Commission, and the International Trade Commission.
He has served in several significant roles for the American Marketing Association, is a past president of the Society for Consumer Psychology, a past chair of the Section on Statistics in Marketing of the American Statistical Association, and also served as Chairman of the United States Census Bureau’s Advisory Committee of Joint Professional Associations. Dr. Stewart has served as Dean of the School of Business Administration at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), as Robert E. Brooker Professor of Marketing and Chairman of the Department of Marketing at the University of Southern California. (USC), where he also served as deputy dean for five years, as senior associate dean for academic affairs at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, and as a research manager for Needham Harper and Steers Advertising (now DDB). Dr. Stewart holds three academic degrees in psychology: a BA from the University of Louisiana at Monroe, an MA in experimental psychology from Baylor University, and a PhD in personality psychology from Baylor University.
In commenting on the award, William (Bill) Willkie stated:
“I’m extremely pleased that the committee selected Dr. David Stewart as the 2025 winner of this award. I have followed his career with interest for many years. He has not only published highly impactful societal research in marketing but has been a most impressive scholarly leader in the journals and conferences that serve to advance our knowledge and help us to make the world a better place. Congratulations to this fine marketing scholar. I’m really looking forward to his speech at the upcoming AMA Winter Conference.”
Dave Stewart responded to the announcement with the following quote:
“The discipline of marketing arose in response to society’s need for institutions and processes to meet its evolving needs in response to rapidly increasing urbanization and the expression of individual differences facilitated by increasing affluence. The success of these institutions and processes has helped improved the general quality of life and lift billions of people out of poverty. Bill Wilkie has been an extraordinary spokesman for these important societal contributions of the field. I am pleased that I have been a small contributor to these achievements of the filed and am honored to receive the award that bears Bill Wilke’s name and legacy.”
About the Wilkie Award
The William L. Wilkie “Marketing for a Better World” Award honors thinkers who have significantly contributed to our understanding and appreciation for marketing’s potential to improve our world and from whose work notable advances have ensued – in the mold of Bill Wilkie of the University of Notre Dame. For more information about the William L. Wilkie “Marketing for a Better World” Award, visit ama.marketing/WilkieAward.
About the American Marketing Association (AMA)
As the leading global professional marketing association, the AMA is the essential community for marketers. From students and practitioners to executives and academics, we aim to elevate the profession, deepen knowledge, and make a lasting impact. The AMA is home to five premier scholarly journals including: Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Journal of International Marketing, and Journal of Interactive Marketing. Our industry-leading training events and conferences define future forward practices, while our professional development and PCM® professional certification advance knowledge. With 70 chapters and a presence on 350 college campuses across North America, the AMA fosters a vibrant community of marketers. The association’s philanthropic arm, the AMA’s Foundation, is inspiring a more diverse industry and ensuring marketing research impacts public good.
AMA views marketing as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. You can learn more about AMA’s learning programs and certifications, conferences and events, and scholarly journals at AMA.org.