Melissa Archpru Akaka is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver. She is a Co-Director of the Consumer Insights and Business Innovation Center and the Faculty Advisor for Entrepreneurship @ DU. She teaches courses that focus on marketing research, qualitative research methods, and leveraging consumer insights to support innovation. Dr. Akaka’s research investigates how consumption experiences, journeys and collectives create value for both firms and consumers and explores the social drivers and consequences of innovation. Her scholarly work has been published in a variety of academic journals, including the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and the Journal of Service Research, and has been recognized for being “highly cited” (in the top 1%) by Thompson and Reuters.