Margaret Mi

Margaret A. Mi, professor in the College of Business’ Department of Management and Marketing, has received the O’Hara Leadership Award from the Direct Marketing Association of Washington’s (DMAW) Education Foundation. She was chosen for the recognition from a field of marketing faculty from Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. The award was presented at the association’s annual gala in December at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. The organization is the largest regional direct marketing association in the United States, according to its website. Its members include end-users, vendors, suppliers, agencies and educators in the Washington and Baltimore metropolitan areas and central Virginia.

The award states that Mi has actively participated in the DMAW Educational Foundation’s Professors’ institute for more than twelve years. Mi created an e-commerce course, funded by a grant she received from the foundation, that was the first advertising-related course offered at UMW. She developed a prototype course for adoption by other colleges. For years, Mi drove a van of students to the foundation’s University Day.  Due to her encouragement, one of her students sought and received a scholarship from the foundation, which helped the student earn a master’s in marketing communications, leading the student to a job in direct marketing and to a Ph.D. program in order to teach direct marketing.

In addition, Mi presented a workshop on sports marketing at the American Institute of Higher Education’s fifth international conference recently in Orlando, Fla. Mi was one of two submissions selected to present workshops.  The workshop was an application exercise for educators interested in teaching a sports marketing course. Participants emulated a sports team, completing project components required of Mi’s UMW marketing students.  These components included developing and implementing marketing strategy and plan for a new team.  Teams used research data for Nashville, Tenn., which has no major league baseball team. Data included city demographics, transportation infrastructure, per capita income, venue (new or current), and parking possibilities.  Teams selected players and coaches and listed their salaries.  In addition, teams created team names, logos, colors, mascots, licensed and branded merchandise, ticket and merchandise pricing, special promotions with charities, sponsorships, venue-naming rights, public relations, and electronic media use.