Betsy Holloway serves as Vice President for Advancement and Marketing for Samford University. She provides leadership for the university’s philanthropic initiatives, including fundraising, corporate partnerships, charitable foundations, annual giving and capital development. Holloway also serves as the university’s chief marketing officer and provides strategic leadership for marketing and branding initiatives across the university’s operations. Under her leadership, the university has experienced unprecedented gains in national reputation, awareness and recognition.
Before serving in the university’s administration, Holloway served as the Dwight Moody Beeson Chair of Business, Hackney Family Research Fellow, and professor of marketing in Samford’s Brock School of Business. In addition to teaching in both undergraduate and graduate programs, she was the founding academic director of the Brock Scholars Program, the undergraduate honors program in the school. Dr. Holloway earned her B.A. from Vanderbilt University, an M.B.A. from Samford University and her Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Alabama.
Prior to her academic career, Dr. Holloway was employed by a global pharmaceutical firm, Scandipharm Inc. (now part of Allergan). She served as the company's director of international business development and managed global offices in Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. She has lived and traveled abroad extensively.
Dr. Holloway's research interests include services marketing, consumer behavior and reputation management. Since entering higher education she has published more than 65 peer-reviewed articles, and she regularly presents her research and lectures in the U.S. and abroad. She served previously as a Visiting Professor at Kiev Business School, University of Jordan, and Beijing Institute of Technology. She is a longtime member of the American Marketing Association, the Academy of Marketing Science, and the Society for Marketing Advances, and her scholarship has been honored by the Emerald Literati Network. Holloway serves on the editorial review boards of two academic journals, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice and Services Marketing Quarterly.
Dr. Holloway has served in a number of leadership roles in higher education. She represented her graduating class as a member of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trustees from 1992-1996. She served as national president for Omicron Delta Kappa national leadership honor society, which operates on more than 300 college and university campuses. Holloway currently serves as a commissioner for the national Council for Christian Colleges & Universities and as an advisor for East African Christian College in Kigali, Rwanda. She was recognized as a 2011 Aspen Institute Ideas Festival Scholar and is a graduate of the American Academic Leadership Institute’s Executive Leadership Academy.
Dr. Holloway has a long record of community and civic service to a number of statewide organizations. She is a past president of the Rotary Club of Birmingham, which is the largest of the 32,000 Rotary clubs in the world today. She previously served as president and board chair for the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA), Scholarships for Kids, and the IPC Foundation. Her previous community board service includes Alabama Symphony Orchestra Endowment, the Alabama Ballet, American Red Cross, YWCA, and the Birmingham Sister City Commission. Holloway is a graduate of Leadership Birmingham, Momentum, and Leadership Alabama. She is actively involved in the corporate community and serves on the board of directors for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Alabama and the advisory board for Founders Advisors.
Dr. Holloway is an ordained elder and lifelong active member of Independent Presbyterian Church. She is married to Jimmy Holloway and the proud mother of two daughters.