Marketing Professor Honored With Committee Invitation From the Institute of Medicine

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Elizabeth Howlett, professor, Walton College department of marketing and logistics

Elizabeth Howlett, a professor of marketing in the Sam M. Walton College of Business, has been invited to serve as a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Examination of Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols.

The committee will consider the potential benefits of a single, standardized front-label food guidance system regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. This includes assessment of which icons are most effective with consumer audiences, and development of conclusions about the systems/icons that best promote health and how to maximize their use.

As front-of-package labeling multiplies, it is becoming easy for consumers to become confused about critical information. This has prompted Congress to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to undertake a series of studies with the Institute of Medicine. A small number of scholars from a variety of fields have been invited to work together to discover creative solutions.

The Institute of Medicine is an independent, nonprofit organization that works outside of government to provide unbiased and authoritative advice to decision makers and the public. It is the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, which was chartered under President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. In the last 150 years, the National Academies have expanded and now provide expert advice to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine.

Howlett served as an instructor between 1986 and 1988 and as an assistant professor of Marketing from 1988 to 1993 at the Stern School of Business, New York University. From 1993 to 1995, she was an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Iowa. In 1995, Howlett joined the Walton College department of marketing and logistics of the University of Arkansas. Recipient of numerous research grants at New York University, the University of Iowa, and the University of  Arkansas, her work has been published in a number of academic journals including the Journal of Consumer Research, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Journal of Retailing, and others. In addition, Howlett’s research has been highlighted numerous times in the popular press in such publications as Reader’s Digest, Self, Allure, Women’s’ Health, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. She is a member of the editorial review board of the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing and serves as a reviewer for a number of other journals.