Lisa Spiller – outstanding marketing educator

As a professor of marketing, Dr. Lisa Spiller instructs her students to always strive to exceed customers’ expectations. And she follows her own advice.

“Students first – we really do practice that, embrace it, and exceed their expectations,” Spiller said. “We give them more.“

“I feel like I adopt my students for four years, and I’m sad to see them go,” she said. “I don’t just have them in the classroom; I build a relationship with them and keep in touch with them.”

Recent CNU grad William “Blake” Burnette credits Spiller’s encouragement for leading to his success in the classroom and marketing competitions – and as president of the CNU Direct Marketing Association. And that led to his current job as a commercial loan officer with Old Point National Bank.

“If you ever need anything, she’s always there. She’s always motivating students and getting them new opportunities,” Burnette said. “She loves helping students succeed – that’s the bottom line.”

Students also get the advantage of Spiller’s more than 20 years of experience in the classroom and her connections in the industry, which she began developing in the 1980s while teaching alongside industry gurus in the first direct marketing program in the nation. That means her students work with real businesses in hands-on projects, not just case studies taken from a textbook.

“They come out with experience, not just courses,” Spiller said. “The students learn by doing. Our classes are on the cutting edge.”

Creating the undergraduate program in direct/interactive marketing at CNU, one of the few such programs in the nation, and leading the formation of the student Direct Marketing Association at CNU helped earn Spiller the national title of 2005 Outstanding Direct Marketing Educator from the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation’s Board of Trustees.

She’s also co-authored “Contemporary Direct Marketing,” a textbook that has been adopted at 56 colleges and universities in 27 states.

“I do research and publish,” Spiller said. “But educating and serving my students is the most important."