Heidi Bailey

Heidi Bailey joined the Marketing faculty in 2018 to lead the Honors Marketing Thesis course and teach Consumer Behavior. She has an MBA from Western New England University, and a BBA from UMass Amherst and continues to mentor students at UMass, including via the Women of Isenberg Conference. She received the University of Connecticut Student Evaluation of Teaching Excellence Award in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Heidi has more than 25 years of private sector experience at the LEGO Group in various managerial roles, including as a global leader for the LEGO Club and Brand Manager for the LEGO Disney Princess line. She built strategy and growth of the LEGO Club from 20,000 members in the US to 5 million members in 17 countries driving mutual value creation for children and the LEGO Group across print, digital and in-person experiences. She also co-created innovative new products, content and experiences with colleagues, consumers and partners including Lucasfilm, Disney, Warner Brothers, Merlin Entertainment, TT Games and more. Her professional strengths include global team leadership, brand management, digital marketing and consumer relationship management.

In her current role, Heidi is active in teaching undergraduates at the Storrs and regional campuses. She is currently teaching Marketing Management, Consumer Behavior, and Business Solutions to Societal Challenges, and has taught the Honors Marketing Thesis course and Career Planning for business majors.

Most recently, in Spring 2021, Heidi developed and is teaching an updated curriculum for an interdisciplinary course — BLAW/HRTS 3254 Business Solutions to Societal Challenges. Students taking this course will be able to:

• Define societal challenges from a human rights perspective.
• Identify the challenges faced by a business in generating positive social impact.
• Understand the evolving field of social entrepreneurship and social innovation, and demonstrate how this understanding can be used to engage communities and businesses in problem solving.
• Explain how to challenge existing theories and concepts of what business can look like in the 21st century through academically rigorous, creative, critical analysis and applied experience.
• Identify the UN SDG’s, recognize the role business can play in solving these societal challenges, and how companies can use the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact to guide and support them.
• Demonstrate collaborative teamwork, specifically how to communicate clearly and convincingly.
• Know themselves as a social change agents: Hone their sense of purpose as they think creatively about innovative strategies to solve societal challenges, ensuring a better life for future generations.

In 2019, Heidi advised Honors Marketing Thesis students who acted as marketing consultants to UConn Extension to revitalize Connecticut Environmental Action Day (CEAD). CEAD is sponsored by UConn Extension’s 4-H program and brings middle school students to the UConn Storrs campus where they work with UConn faculty, staff and students to learn about environmental issues. The Honors students conducted marketing research and created a marketing plan to recruit UConn student volunteers for CEAD. They also planned and implemented a Social Media campaign to encourage UConn students to take the #ClimateChangeChallenge and then post their actions using #ExtendtheChange to encourage friends and families to do the same. In 2020, Honors Marketing students at the Storrs and Hartford campuses researched ways to sustain CEAD as an annual event and increase student volunteer engagement with CEAD and the #ClimateChangeChallenge.