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Dr. James Mead

  • Position: Chair and Professor
  • Department: Commerce
  • Office Location: Building 53, Room 123
  • jmead@uwf.edu
  • Campus: 850.474.2652

Biography

Dr. James A. Mead is the Chair of the Department of Commerce and a Professor of Marketing in the Lewis Bear Jr. College of Business. His research examines consumer psychology, with particular attention to how emotion, memory, and perception shape marketplace decisions. Mead joined UWF in 2017.

Mead has published peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, among others. His work has examined how subtle visual cues such as fonts and colors influence perceptions of price, advertising, and product healthfulness; how emotions and motivations, from the fear of missing out to evolutionary drives, shape customer relationships and purchasing habits; and how interpersonal dynamics influence consumer and leisure choices. A parallel stream addresses consumer well-being, including food choice, consumption enjoyment, and safety. 

Mead has presented his work at numerous regional, national, and international conferences, including the Society for Marketing Advances, Association for Consumer Research, Summer American Marketing Association, Association for Consumer Research Asia-Pacific, and the Society for Consumer Psychology. His conference work has earned a Best Paper in Track award and first place in the Cengage Pride-Ferrell Innovations in Teaching Competition, and he has co-authored many conference presentations with undergraduate student researchers.

In the classroom, Mead enjoys building courses around real clients and real data, allowing students to apply marketing concepts to meaningful, actionable projects. He has also led community marketing research projects through UWF's Haas Center.

Mead earned his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky in 2015. He also holds an MBA from Rollins College and a BSBA from the University of Central Florida. Before returning to school to complete his Ph.D., Mead spent four years in corporate marketing research. In this role, he served as the senior research analyst for branding, new product development, television programming, advertising analytics, B2B, and customer experience, providing data-driven strategic recommendations to top management.