UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Penn State faculty member represents U.S. higher education on the inaugural advisory board for the New Marketing Institute (NMI), the educational arm of MediaMath.
Lee Ahern, an associate professor of advertising/public relations in the College of Communications, was named to the 13-member advisory board that will serve as global ambassadors who will continue to educate, engage and empower the next generation of digital marketers. Board members will serve as a resource through which to explore new ideas and solutions with a common goal of supporting four core focus areas of NMI: thought leadership as a trusted adviser; content creation; strategic partnerships; and growth and expansion.
MediaMath is a global technology company that’s leading the movement to revolutionize traditional marketing and drive transformative results for marketers through its trademarked operating system. As the educational arm of MediaMath, NMI provides customized training solutions to educate, engage and empower clients, partners and internal employees so they can use the company’s technology to run their marketing campaigns.
Ahern is the coordinator for Penn State’s digital media trends and analytics (DMTA) minor, which is cross-listed at both the College of Communications and the College of Information Sciences and Technology. The goal of the minor, which has attracted a good deal of student interest, is to familiarize and prepare students for the fast-changing media and advertising landscape. The minor emphasizes hands-on use of analytics and advertising platforms through collaborations with industry partners.
Along with his appointment in the Department of Advertising/Public Relations, Ahern is a senior research fellow at the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication and director of the college’s Science Communication Program. He is past chair of the International Environmental Communication Association and past head of the Communication Science, Health, Environment and Risk Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. He joined the faculty at Penn State in 2008 as an assistant professor.
Ahern studies the science of science communication, a field of growing recognition and importance. Ahern has collaborated on grants with the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Penn State Institute for Energy and the Environment, the William Penn Foundation, and the Penn State Sustainability Institute.
Ahern’s area of expertise, and primary contribution to grant-funded research, includes evaluation, measurement, analysis and interpretation of science communications campaigns. His work has been published in Social Science Quarterly, Public Understanding of Science, Science Communication, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly and Health Communication.
Ahern has almost 20 years of industry experience to complement his teaching and research. Most recently he was marketing manager for an international custom publishing company, where he also oversaw development and implementation of all new media products. After beginning his career as a financial writer in New York, he worked in various communications capacities on Wall Street for over a decade. For several years thereafter, Ahern and his wife, Colleen Connolly-Ahern, ran their own marketing communications company serving clients in financial services and advertising.
Ahern teaches introduction to advertising, research methods and media planning, as well as graduate seminars on strategic communications measurement and the science of science communication.