Laurel Johnston
Department:
Marketing
Biography
Laurel Johnston entered the Ph.D. program in Department of Marketing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business in 2023. Her research interests center on marketing strategies, particularly for protecting customer data privacy, reacquiring lost customers and effective service recovery. Her premier dissertation essay was the first runner-up for the 2025 Southeast Marketing Symposium William O. Bearden Doctoral Student Research Award. Another investigation, focused on customer relationship recovery, recently received the American Marketing Association 2025 Strategy SIG Doctoral Student Research Award. Furthermore, Johnston’s combined efforts drove her selection as the UT Graduate Student Senate winner for Best Doctoral Research in 2025. Her research has been published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing and the Journal of Services Marketing. Prior to academia, Johnston worked in public communications for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, where she collaborated with global reserve bank leaders on projects related to international currency design and exchange. Her experience also includes social media, digital marketing and nonprofit marketing.