Dr. Ream Shoreibah, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Birmingham-Southern College, received the Omicron Delta Kappa Excellence in Teaching Award at this year’s Honors Day ceremony, We caught up with Dr. Shoreibah recently to find out what she thinks it takes to be an excellent educator.

Dr. Shoreibah, who has an M.B.A. from Indiana University and Ph.D. from The University of South Florida, has plenty of experience in the classroom and beyond. She’s taught marketing at The University of South Florida and management at Fort Hays State University. Dr. Shoreibah also has corporate, franchising, and non-profit field experience that she draws on to complement her academic work – both as an educator and a researcher. 

Her research interests focus on the intersection of marketing with social issues in two contexts: integrated marketing communication and personal selling teams. Her research has been published or presented at national and international avenues, including Industrial Marketing Management, the American Marketing Association Winter Educators’ Conference, the Academy of Marketing Science Annual Conference, and the Social Marketing in Public Health Conference.

Dr. Shoreibah is also a member of the Academy of Marketing Science and the Society for Marketing Advances.  

Here’s what Dr. Shoreibah had to say about mastering her content and connecting with her students. 

Who or what inspired you to teach?

It’s really about what inspires me every day to teach. It’s my students and having the privilege of watching them learn and develop and evolve and progress through their time at BSC, then go on to make achievements beyond BSC. 

Because of technology and social media, the marketing world is constantly changing. How do you stay on top of the best marketing practices?

This is so true in general. Just look at how artificial intelligence is changing everything, but especially in a field like marketing. It’s necessary in my field to constantly update my knowledge and skills. I do my best to attend one or two academic conferences a year, where I learn about the latest in marketing research from across the nation and globe. There are also certifications and courses in various areas that I complete. For example, for the past several months I’ve been working on a comprehensive digital marketing course held by the American Marketing Association. This is an area that changes daily because Google Analytics is always changing how it processes data, and social media platforms are always changing their algorithms, for example. I also make sure to incorporate current trends and current events into my course assignments, which encourages both my students and me to stay abreast of the best and latest practices. 

What do you feel are the most important skills and/or lessons to pass on to your students so that they can be effective marketing professionals?

I remind my students that many of the hard (technical, objective) skills they’re learning today will be obsolete in ten years. That’s why it’s most important for them to be lifelong learners and to have a growth mindset. They need to be comfortable with change, able to take inventory of their skills periodically, and able to assess and pursue the new skills they need. The problem-solving, analytical, and communication skills that they’re developing are the skills that help them be lifelong learners. That’s why a liberal arts education is so valuable. 

What do you think it takes to be an effective and impactful teacher, regardless of the subject matter?

There are so many aspects I could list. Here are a few: Being a constant learner, setting a classroom culture of 360-degree respect while holding students to very high standards, having a genuine passion for the material, embracing change and changes-of-plan, and making time for one-on-one opportunities— that’s why we’re at a special place like BSC.