Shanita B. Akintonde
Shanita B. Akintonde, MBA is a full-time faculty member in the marketing communication department where she also serves as the department’s first-year student liaison and faculty Advisor to The Columbia College Marketing Association. Ms. Akintonde teaches across the curriculum including several courses that she developed including Advertising to Women and Hip Hop Cultural Trends in Advertising.
Prior to joining Columbia, Ms. Akintonde created strategic advertising and public relations campaigns for numerous agencies including Burrell Communications Group, Porter Novelli, BBDO and DDB for clients such as McDonald's, Sprite, and Procter & Gamble. She is also creator and faculty producer of one of the nation's premier career advice, leadership and networking conferences for Media arts majors known as ADSTOCK.
She earned a BA degree in advertising from Columbia College Chicago, an MBA in marketing and organizational development from Illinois Institute of Technology, and is a current doctoral student in higher education at Loyola University Chicago. In addition, she has obtained certification in The Art of Leadership from The Lake Forest College of Management, Advanced Advertising Studies from University of Illinois - Champaign-Urbana and Media Planning from McDonald Corporation’s Hamburger University.
In June 2006, Ms. Akintonde was named as a scholar with the Carnegie of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning where she presented her ongoing research work, Does Higher Education Truly C.A.R.E. about Diversity Initiatives? She has also published several articles on the topics of leadership, personal success and diversity and was a contributing author of the book, “Unleash the Leader Within You: How to Achieve the Success that You Deserve.
Ms. Akintonde is a member of The American Marketing Association (Collegiate Council), The American Educational Research Association, Toastmasters International, The Public Relations Society of America, The Saint Sabina Academy School Board, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Ms. Akintonde has received numerous awards and honors in recognition of her business, scholarly, civic, and community activities.