The GENMAC Council includes elected members who oversee the activities of the committee and provide guidance and input for all GENMAC-related decisions.
Lauren Gurrieri
President
Lauren Gurrieri is an Associate Professor of Marketing and the Director of the Centre for Organisations and Social Change at RMIT University. She is a consumer culture scholar whose research examines gender, consumption, and the marketplace. A core focus of her research is understanding how advertising ecosystems, social media platforms, and contemporary marketing practices reproduce gendered inequalities and harms, with particular emphasis on gendered representations, beauty ideals, body norms, and violence against women. Her scholarship also identifies pathways to more gender equitable and inclusive media and consumption landscapes. She has authored over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, case studies, and commissioned reports. She has been awarded over $1.2 million in external research funding, including from the Australian Research Council. Her research frequently informs public debate, industry reform, and policy initiatives aimed at addressing gender inequality in advertising and digital culture.
Helen Thompson-Whiteside
Vice Chair
Shikha Upadhyaya
Communications Chair
Shikha Upadhyaya, Ph.D. (she/her), is an Associate Professor of Marketing and Director of Community Engagement at California State University, Los Angeles. Her research program lies at the intersection of consumer research, social justice, public policy, and institutional change. Her scholarship examines how marketplace and institutional structures shape the experiences and well-being of communities confronting poverty, gender inequality, discrimination, and other systemic barriers. Dr. Upadhyaya’s research addresses consumer vulnerability, intersectionality, women’s marketplace experiences, intergenerational poverty, and the implementation of policies and programs intended to support historically underserved communities. A central feature of her scholarship is its community-engaged and interdisciplinary orientation. She has collaborated with UN Women Asia and the Pacific, Ascend at the Aspen Institute, the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, and numerous nonprofit and community organizations. These partnerships connect scholarly inquiry with community knowledge and generate theoretically meaningful and practically relevant insights. Across her research, teaching, and institutional leadership, she brings students, scholars, practitioners, and community partners together to co-develop research and social impact initiatives.
Kathrynn Pounders
Secretary
Rafaela Davide
Graduate Student Representative
Rafaela Canova Davide is a fifth-year Ph.D. Candidate in Marketing at the Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas. She is a consumer culture researcher whose work examines how marginalized consumers navigate markets through everyday practices that attempt to reshape markets and cultural meanings, with a particular focus on gender issues. During her Ph.D., Rafaela has taught Consumer Behavior and Introduction to Marketing. She is passionate about engaging with other student communities and, beyond GENMAC, is also an active member of student organizations such as AMA DocSIG and the CCT PhD Network.