Dr. Jennifer Harris is Director of Marketing Initiatives at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the University of Connecticut.
Dr. Harris’ research focuses on marketing and public health, with an emphasis on unconscious effects of food marketing on behaviors, attitudes and motivation in children and adults. She has written on the psychological effects of food marketing to children and teens and the need to reduce unhealthy food marketing through public policy and advocacy.
Prior to her academic career, Harris worked for eighteen years as a business executive, including working as Vice President in marketing at American Express. Dr. Harris holds a BA in Political Science from Northwestern University and an MBA in Marketing from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a PhD in Social Psychology from Yale University, where she worked with Dr. John Bargh. Her dissertation research demonstrates the automatic effects of food advertising on snack food consumption and food preferences among elementary school children and young adults.