Featured Members

My career has been driven by a deep curiosity about human behavior—both in consumer decision-making and in student success. Before entering academia, I spent over a decade in the oil and gas and air transportation industries, analyzing how marketing communications influenced consumer choices. These experiences shaped my research, which explores the situational and trait-based factors affecting consumer confidence. My findings have been published in leading journals such as Journal of Retailing and Psychology & Marketing, as well as in media outlets like The New York Times and MarketWatch.

At Kelley School of Business Indianapolis, I merge my research expertise with pedagogy, developing innovative teaching methods that enhance student engagement. My work in experiential learning, inter-class collaborations, and strategic mentoring has empowered over 5,000 students to build confidence in their academic and professional choices. I have been wonderfully honored to receive three Indiana University Trustees' Teaching Awards and three Kelley School of Business Schuyler Otteson Teaching Awards. Moreover, I have been privileged to work with wonderful colleagues and students at Indiana University Indianapolis, Indiana University Northwest, Florida State University, and the University of Houston.

It's been about 20 years since I decided to move into academia from industry and I am still interested in helping people to make confident, success-building decisions. Looking ahead, I remain committed to advancing consumer research while equipping students with the tools and confidence to navigate a changing marketplace. Through collaboration with colleagues across academia and industry, I will continue to prepare college students for success in an evolving business landscape.

My generation was supposed to learn science and beat the Russians.  Well, we did and we did.  Then we went for world peace.  We didn’t do quite as well at that and went our separate ways, searching.

I served in the Navy from 1963 – 1967, called WAVES long after World War II.  The Navy was committed to tradition, but simultaneously committed to state-of-the-art technical training in electronics and control systems.  Thus, I acquired the basis for a pretty good living.

After discharge, I meandered through the following: delivered a correspondence course for National Radio Institute; got married and had a son; wrote poetry; marched in the Vietnam Anti-War Movement; tended bar; and came to the Calumet Region where I first got a job in a steel mill, then went to work for Amoco Chemical Company.

When BP bought Amoco, they got the bling parachutes down to my level.  I retired and returned to school for the master’s in history.  After that, I taught philosophy at Purdue Hammond while commuting to West Lafayette for the history PhD.  Teaching philosophy taught me how to teach.

I now teach survey courses in American and Indiana history at Indiana University Northwest.  I love watching young people grasp an idea and complete a project.  I hate the shrinking vocabularies and the increasing tendency to jumble events and concepts into a sort of concert tour.  The Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences and the Indiana Association of Historians are vitally important to keeping me in touch with colleagues across disciplines.

I now live in a three-generation household and grow tomatoes in the backyard.  But the Russians are back, so I’m still searching.

In 2022, I was looking for a local, accessible conference for my research students and found IASS. It seemed like a great opportunity for students to complete their first conference presentation at a smaller-sized, geographically accessible conference. I had two students present research work in 2022 as posters. In anticipation of their presentations, the students were anxious and intimidated. After presenting, they both expressed how it turned out to be a great experience! They felt that everyone at the conference was “so nice”, and they were put at ease. They also expressed that by having to explain their research to others, they became better at explaining their research. One of those students went on to present two research projects at APA.

Due to the positive experience in 2022, I encouraged students to submit to the 2023 IASS conference. In 2023 we had another two students from Taylor University presenting research, and again, they expressed that it was a growth experience for them, and they were glad to have attended and presented. Both years, all attendees from Taylor found sessions where they learned about topics of personal and/or career interest. I hope to regularly have students submit to present at the IASS conference as it has turned out to be a consistently beneficial and accessible experience for them.

James Thomas, who retired from Indiana University Northwest, now spends his time doing philanthropic work. Jim contributes his time to the local food bank as well as international home construction work with Food for the Poor.