The American Marketing Association is pleased to announce the 2024 winners of the Valuing Diversity PhD Scholarship: Sydni Fomas Do, Gheremey D. Edwards and Megan Trillo.
In partnership with the PhD Project and the AMA Academic Council, the Valuing Diversity PhD Scholarship seeks to widen opportunities for underrepresented populations to attend marketing doctoral programs. Learn more about this scholarship and eligibility requirements here.
Sydni Fomas Do
Sydni Fomas Do is a fourth-year marketing doctoral student at the Eller College of Management, at the University of Arizona. With a research focus that spans consumer welfare, financial decision-making, and brand activism, Sydni’s work aims to provide impactful insights into contemporary marketing challenges.
Sydni has published in esteemed journals such as the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research and Current Opinion in Psychology, which offer significant insights into consumer-brand relationships and the role of humor in marketing. Sydni is also actively engaged in ongoing research projects targeting high-impact journals such as the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing. Her current studies explore critical topics including gender stereotypes and financial decision-making, financial trauma and its downstream consequences, and the application of AI in financial education.
Sydni’s excellence is recognized through numerous awards and research grants, including support from the Lundgren Retail Collaborative and the Graduate and Professional Student Council, as well as being named a 2024 Baruch Research Symposium Fellow. In addition to her research, Sydni is deeply committed to service within the academic community. She has contributed as a member of the Student Services Fee Advisory Board, and her leadership roles include serving as Vice President of the Black Graduate and Professional Student Association and as a representative on the Graduate and Professional Student Council.
Gheremey D. Edwards
Gheremey Edwards is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in behavioral marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross Business School. His research examines the influence of social environments and personal identities on consumer self-perception and interactions in service settings. He focuses on how social disparities affect marketing outcomes and the impression management strategies consumers deploy across different social contexts. His current work investigates the impacts of in-group critique and dissent when businesses use racial identity markers in their marketing.
Before his doctoral journey, Gheremey led seasonal marketing campaigns at Walmart. He holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Vanderbilt University, an M.Ed. in Teacher Leadership from Christian Brothers University, and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis, where he received the Milford Bohm Award in Marketing.
Gheremey’s research utilizes mixed methods to explore how identity-centric marketing can inadvertently activate stereotype threats and influence consumer behavior. His upcoming projects will delve into consumer interactions with brand identities. Committed to fostering an equitable marketplace, Gheremey aims to provide actionable insights that encourage inclusive practices among businesses and educators. He wants to ensure a marketplace where all consumers, particularly vulnerable groups, can succeed free from prejudice.
Megan Trillo
Megan Trillo is a rising fourth-year marketing PhD candidate at Duke University. Her research incorporates conceptual issues and contributes to advancing the field of marketing around diversity. She explore different ways brands can support, connect with, and target a diverse range of identities, with an emphasis on stigmatized and marginalized communities. This work includes her paper entitled “How Stigmatized Brand Purpose Affects Consumer Product Evaluations,” through which she examines the impact of dedicating an organization’s purpose to the support of stigmatized societal segments on consumers’ product evaluations. Her passion regarding diversity extends beyond the research she conducts. She is a dedicated member of the PhD Project. She is also a proud co-chair of the TRAP Lab, an inspiring organization dedicated to the exploration of how race and racism underlie the foundation of the marketplace and marketing research.