Beth DuFault

About

Beth Leavenworth DuFault is a consumer behavior scholar with a PhD in Marketing/Management. She is an alumna of University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and University of Arizona, and comes to University of Portland via State University of New York at Albany and Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.

Dr. DuFault is a growing academic presence in the area of consumer‑centric health care marketing and management, due to her extensive clinical background in health care. Before academia, Dr. DuFault worked on patient care front lines as a respiratory therapist in emergency rooms, on transports, in rehab clinics, on code teams, and in adult, pediatric, and neonatal intensive care units. That lived frontline clinical experience and insight now fuels her research on how health systems can honor both market and care logics for better patient and family experience. She is currently publishing and working on projects for health care systems transitioning to a more consumer-centric market-oriented focus, and for improving the parent experience in the neonatal intensive care unit.

In addition to her project work and publishing in the context of health care, and more broadly, Dr. DuFault’s work is focused on the interplay between changing consumer identities and changing markets. Her two overarching academic areas of study are: 1) The marketization of institutions (e.g. health care, science, religion, hospitals, finance/credit, higher education); and 2) Consumer identity changes related to changing institutions (e.g. the rise of black-box algorithm-driven consumer quantification; consumers leaving identity-salient institutions).

Her research leads to intriguing questions about how people change as society changes, and how institutions change as consumers do. Under this research umbrella, Dr. DuFault has published about people leaving their religion, consumers learning how to understand black-box algorithmic scoring to improve their bad credit scores, alumni connecting with their universities as brand communities, and owners/employees/volunteers constructing their identities while working together at a social enterprise. 

Dr. DuFault is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at University of Portland, and teaches marketing and consumer behavior courses. In her teaching, she brings in real world examples from her health care background, her services marketing/consumer experience consulting background, and even her time as a VIP tour guide at Disneyland so that students can see how marketing principles and knowledge of consumer behavior can be used as powerful tools in business, and also in their own lives as consumers.

Dr. DuFault believes in educating the future business leaders of our world in ethical, honorable, socially responsible business practices. Toward this end, she shows students examples of the "bright side" of marketing, and the power of using the marketing toolkit for social good. She regularly presents her work nationally and internationally, consults with businesses on consumer experience, engages in academic/community partnerships, and discusses her work with the media.

• Ph.D. Department of Marketing, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (Marketing/Management/Economic Sociology) (2016)
• B.A. Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles (2012)

Awards

• State University of New York at Albany: John S. Levato Endowed Teaching Award for Excellence in Teaching
• School of Business Junior Faculty Research Excellence Award
• Two-time Torchlight Professor Nomination for University-Wide Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring
• Women’s Soccer Student Athlete Faculty Recognition
• Honors College Faculty Recognition

Projects

Alternative Representation of Data to Communicate Emotion and Protect Informant Identity:

DuFault, Beth Leavenworth (2019) “Home for Christmas: The Parent Experience in the NICU” Journal of Customer Behavior 18.4: 263-272 

DuFault, Beth Leavenworth, “What’s in a Name.” (2025/03/25). The Sociological Review Magazine.

Peer-reviewed National and International Conference Presentations:

Carpenter, Gregory, Beth Leavenworth DuFault, Lez Trujillo, and Ashlee Humphries (2018) “Turning the Titanic: Large Health Care Systems and the Transition to Consumer Centricity” North American Advances in Consumer Research

Beth Leavenworth DuFault, Hope Jensen Schau, Kushagra Bhatnagar, and John Schouten (2016) “The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit as an Assembled Servicescape: How Do Technological Actors Affect Parent/Staff Decision-Making?” in North American Advances in Consumer Research Volume 44, eds. Page Moreau and Stefano Puntoni, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 26-31

Beth DuFault, Hope Schau, and John Schouten (2014) “Changing the Script: Family Collectivity Formation in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit” in North American Advances in Consumer Research Volume 42, eds. June Cotte and Stacy Wood, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 177-183

Media Coverage

Academic Minute. “Improving the Parent Experience in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.” WAMC Public Radio.  January 8, 2020. https://academicminute.org/2020/01/beth-dufault-university-at-albany-improving-the-patient-experience-in-the-nicu/

Lederman, Doug. “The Patient Experience in the NICU.” January 8, 2020. Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/01/08/academic-minute-patient-experience-nicu

O’Carroll, Sarah. “Improving the Parental Experience in the NICU, with Beth DuFault.” University at Albany Podcast. September 12, 2019. https://ualbanynewspodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/improving-parents-experiences-in-the-nicu-with-beth-dufault