Dr Cassandra France has a PhD in brand strategy and is a Lecturer at UQ in the Marketing Discipline.
After gaining industry experience working in brand strategy, advertising and marketing, Cassandra's research approach bridges theory and practice to better understand how contemporary branding phenomenon can be executed by brand managers.
Cassandra is interested in customer-brand relationships and has an increasing interest in the role of brands in contributing to society. Upcoming work is focused on brand purpose and non-profit brand vulnerability.
Her leading research explores how customer perceptions of value can be influenced by their own active behaviour. Specifically, how the act of co-creating the brand (by development, feedback, advocacy and helping) may impact the co-creators perceptions of value for the brand. Evidence of the value for the firm is clear, but consideration of how contributions may shift value perceptions for the co-creator is less well considered, although vital for long term engagement. Her work appears in the Journal of Brand Management, Journal of Marketing Management, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, among others.
Cassandra is also a dedicated educator, previously Program Leading the Master of Business at University of Queensland and receiving numerous awards for excellence in teaching, including the 2023 UQ Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, the 2022 BEL Award for Excellence in Student Learning and the 2021 UQ Business School Excellence Award for Student Engagement.
Cassandra has completed training in Supervising Doctoral Studies, Contemporary Expectations in HDR Supervision, Supervising Indigenous HDR candidates, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Core Cultural Learning and Mental Health First Aid.
Dr Heather Stewart has been a journalist for 20 years, including almost a decade with the ABC in news and current affairs and covering content for ABC Radio National. She is a Walkley award winner and two times nominee and her work received a Gold and Bronze Medal in the New York Festival world's best radio documentary and for social equity coverage.
As a media, marketing and communication contractor and consultant in the mining, oil and gas, education, and the not for profile and public sectors in Queensland and Federal government departments she has honed her digital skills preparing integrated marketing communication plans and advertising campaigns and mentored executives in business digital transformation.
in 2016, she received a peer nomination for teaching innovation at TAFE Queensland where she ran two iterations of the Advanced Accelerated Diploma of Marketing positioning mature age student teams with small and medium businesses to create business plans and integrated marketing campaigns.
She completed her PhD at the University of Queensland in 2018 conducting a longitudinal study into the impact of technological change on ABC journalists and journalism while teaching students in media and communication at UQ and QUT.
Joining UQ as a teaching and learning academic in 2006, she has coordinated courses and received a UQ Teaching and Learning Excellence Award. She was the joint winner of the UQ Vice Chancellor's Award, a high commendation in the UQ Trailblazer award for her teaching model empowering students to tell First Nation stories in an informed way. She co-led the United Nations World Press Freedom Day Indigenous Voice Communication for Social Change Forum at UQ in 2010.
She currently is a Post Doc Researcher at The University of Queensland,with Associate Professor Sarah Jane Kelly and Associate Professor Remi Ayoko.
As Chief Investigator she is leading the Digital First Business Transformation Project and the Rapid Transition to Online Learning study with partners in eight regions. She is the leader of a team in a bilateral Australia Indonesia Centre SRR PAIR grant investigating the impact of COVID-19 on Indonesia's Small and Medium Enterprises.
Heather is a Visiting Professor at Universitas Indonesia.
Heather specialises in digital media, marketing and communication change management, journalism work practice research, digital transformation in the media, work-integrated learning, and change management, and best practice for coverage of mental health and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories.
In 2020, she supported the Service Learning Online Internship Program at Griffith University as a research assistant and cofacilitator with a focus on mental health and well-being, digital inclusivity, environmental sustainability, and all abilities inclusivity. The pilot project is the subject of a book chapter and series of research publications.
Dr Stewart is a UQ Mental Health Champion and First Responder supporting students and staff. If you are in need of support please email heather.stewart@uq.edu.au
