Glenna Read named Russell Award recipient

Congratulations to Glenna Read, associate professor of advertising and director of the Brain, Body, and Media (BBAM) Lab, on receiving the Richard B. Russell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the university’s highest early career teaching honor.

Read joins Harrison P. Frye of the School of Public and International Affairs, and Alexander T. Strauss from the Odum School of Ecology, in receiving this award.

Read teaches a core advertising class that is challenging for students and instructors alike. The course on media strategy and activation emphasizes strategic thinking and mathematical concepts as students work through the process of creating a media plan. She has also taught Insights and Analytics, and Advertising and Society, as well as several graduate level courses, including courses in  Consumer Neuroscience and Media Psychophysiology, both which she developed.

To engage students and achieve the rigorous course objectives, Read has incorporated a variety of innovative teaching practices. Based on feedback from students, Read gamified the course’s section on ratings math, so students compete to solve problems using key formulas. She redevelops the course each semester and incorporates additional active learning approaches to engage students in critical thinking. Read also emphasizes how the course content aligns with her students’ career goals.

Read’s research focuses on the use of biometric tools in advertising, which help companies understand how consumers react to their ads. She incorporates discussion of these tools in her courses and exposes students to an evolving technology before they enter the job market.

“My teaching philosophy means that my work is never done,” she said. “I will constantly strive to innovate and work to improve the educational outcomes for undergraduate students.”

In 2024, Ryan Langer, an advertising student, said that Read had inspired him because of her desire to see all her students succeed.

“I cannot thank Dr. Read enough for equipping her students with real-world takeaways to drive our own careers of interest,” Langer said.

Read received the Mary Alice Shaver Promising Professor Award for junior faculty excellence at the American Academy of Advertising in 2022. She was named Advertising Teacher of the Year in 2020-2021.

Authors: Mike Wooten, mwooten@uga.edu; Sarah Freeman, freemans@uga.edu