Our Team

Gillian Oakenfull, Ph.D. [she/her]

"I am on the outside breaking in - an immigrant, a non-heterosexual, a feminist, an accidental academic, a same-sex wife and mother, a “had potential” pro tennis player, a runner with worn knees - and I am not naturally empathetic.
I am an educational innovator who is driven to see around corners and pursue bold solutions. I am energized by connections between disparate things - empathy and technology, cultural intelligence and data-driven everything, stereotypes and dialogues, diversity and technical work skills, white pants and winter. I'm driven to better equip employees to harness the performance power of diversity, better enable marketers to capture the intricacies of an increasingly diverse marketplace, and better empower students to succeed in the world ahead of them ."

Gillian is a contributing writer to Forbes.com with a column on Cultural Leadership in a VUCA World. She recently created the Center for Kickglass Change (@KickglassM) at the Farmer School of Business, Miami University to create social change through Awareness, Agency, and Advancement in education. She led the curricular design of the Farmer School’s innovative integrated curriculum for first-year students. Based on her BQ model of Future Work Skills, the integrated curriculum provides students with technical and softs skills required to succeed in a complex business environment driven by globalization, diversity, and technology. She also led the development of Department of Marketing’s new skills-based curriculum which focuses on providing students with skills such as analytical reasoning, insight development, strategic thinking and cultural intelligence over traditional marketing content and its new Digital Marketing major.

Her research focuses on three areas of expertise (i) social identity and marketing to underrepresented consumers, (ii) measuring brand meaning and brand management, and (iii) work skill development in an organizational setting. Her research has been published in top quality academic journals in both business and the social sciences. These include the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Advertising Research, the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Psychology and Marketing, and Business and Society Review. Dr. Oakenfull has won numerous national and international teaching and service awards including being named a national finalist in the 2012 US Professor of the Year award program sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and being named Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Ohio Professor of the Year. She is a citizen of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. She's a former NCAA Division I student-athlete in three sports [tennis, cross-country, and indoor track] and flirted with the pro tennis circuit.

She is a HBDI® Certified Practitioner, a CQ® Certified Facilitator and Trainer, a Belbin® Team Role Accredited Practitioner, an ICAgile® Certified Professional, and is certified in the Kepner-Tregoe Decision-making and Problem-solving method.

Cindy Oakenfull [she/her]

Cindy Oakenfull is a lecturer at the Farmer School of Business, Miami University. She joined academia after decades in senior management in the corporate world. Right out of college, she joined the management team at Paramount Kings Island where a bunch of bright, go-getter kids led the park to record revenues. Cindy led the introduction of new pay-per-attractions within the park and created new revenue streams. She moved on to Fifth Third Bank where she managed the small business credit card processing platform, leading the sales team and establishing and managing a new client retention division. She managed the group through mergers and acquisitions as the bank expanded its scale within the mid-west region. She was named an "Officer of the Bank" in 2003. After Fifth Third, she took her knowledge of the financial industry to GE Capital and served as a Regional Sales Manager, assisting retail clients in the development and marketing their private label credit cards programs.

Throughout her corporate tenure, she was most passionate about developing, mentoring, and advancing the careers of her employees and found it to be the most rewarding part of each role. It was during this time, she began teaching marketing as an adjunct professor for Miami University and loved the connection with students in the classroom, even after a long day at her "day job." She earned her MBA in 2007 and began to contemplate how best to leverage her corporate experience in the college classroom. She decided to make the leap to full-time academia in 2013 and has been committed to their development of future business professionals.

At Miami, she led the development and constant improvement of an innovative skills-based course for first-year business students. The course focuses on critical thinking, collaboration, and cultural intelligence and strikes a fine balance between transitioning students to college and establishing the high standards of the Farmer School of Business. She grew up in locations all over the world as a military kid and experienced firsthand the power of in-group/ out-group dynamics across and within cultures. She played team sports from a young age to college soccer and was honored to have been a ball girl in the 1984 Olympic Games. She is a HBDI® Certified Practitioner, a CQ® Certified Facilitator and Trainer, and is certified in the Kepner-Tregoe Decision-making and Problem-solving method.