Mary Lou Roberts is a freelance author, educator, and consultant. She retired from full-time teaching as a professor of marketing at University of Massachusetts, Boston in 2007. She received her PhD in marketing from the University of Michigan. Her academic publications include three books and more than 50 chapters, journal articles, conference publications, and technical reports. Roberts is a frequent presenter on programs of both professional and academic marketing organizations, and has consulted and provided planning services and management training programs for a wide variety of corporations and nonprofit organizations. She has been an active member of many professional organizations and has served on a number of their boards including the American Marketing Association, the Bureau of the Census, and Mass Audubon.