Our Faculty

Title:
Professional/Scholar in Residence Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, USA and The Centre for Strategic Communication Excellence, Melbourne, Australia

Specialty Areas:
Business – Finance and Marketing; Strategic Communication – Change and Leadership

Mary Hills, MA, IABC Fellow, ABC, Six Sigma, serves as a Professional/Scholar in Residence in Loyola University Chicago’s MS Global Strategic Communication program and as Professional and Organizational Management Faculty for the Centre for Strategic Communication Excellence.

Mary’s professional career includes serving large corporations such as First Wisconsin National Bank – Milwaukee, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Whiteco Advertising, NiSource, Northern Trust, Unilever and Zebra Technologies. As a member of senior management, her work included research, risk analysis and strategic planning for product launches, market expansion, and change and crisis management. In 2009, she co-founded HeimannHills Marketing Group, Chicago and Phoenix, serving as business principal until 2021.

A believer in life-long learning blended with practical experience, Mary serves academia and organizations in her professional/scholar career. She holds teaching certifications in MBA coursework including marketing management, research, advertising, consumer behavior, new product development, distribution channels, sustainability marketing and sales management. She served on the graduate capstone panel.

In global strategic communication, her subject areas include campaign development, corporate communication, foundations of global strategic communication, global multinational audiences and stakeholders, organizational leadership and change management, strategic communication ethics and law and graduate capstone. She holds certifications in blended learning, experiential learning and Ignatian pedagogy.

Utilizing her expertise in business management and communication, she published, in 2020, the Business of Business for Communication Professionals on-demand, interactive course to upskill communication professionals as they pursue communication management positions.

Degrees:
BS/Marketing-Finance, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
MA Communication – Organizational Communication & Structure, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana USA

Recognized Research:

• Career Assessment Tool, 2021
• The 2020 Communicating AI: Using Communication Tools
• Communicating Artificial Intelligence Survey: Building the Playbook 2019
• 2018 Communicating Artificial Intelligence (AI) Global Report
• The Global Standard of the Communication Profession
• Value of Accreditation Study
• Graduate Thesis: Women Leaders in Financial Institutions: Towards the Identification of a Gender – Based Leadership Style, Purdue University, W. Lafayette, Indiana, USA.

Professional & Community Affiliations:

• American Association of University Women
• Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs
• Harvard Business Publishing - Educator
• International Association of Business Communicators
• JDRF
• Quality Matters

Awards/Recognition:

IABC Southern Region Hall of Fame (2022)

Gifted Professional & Communicator (2022)

Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce - Fellow (2018)

IABC Fellow (2016)

Karen Utterback Award (2015)

IABC Chairman's Award (2012)