Prof. Donna Hill takes a look back

Marketing professor Donna Hill will retire at the end of this semester after 26 years of teaching at Bradley.

Hill graduated with a bachelor’s in political science from Indiana University, moving on to Ball State University (BSU), where she received her master’s in marketing. She was then asked back to BSU as a professor.

“That’s where I fell in love with teaching,” Hill said. “I thought it would be a great career, and I thought it fit me.”

Hill attended Indiana University to receive her Ph.D. and was offered jobs to teach at five different universities, including Bradley.

“Bradley was my first choice,” Hill said. “It was what I was looking for because it had a balance between teaching and research, and it has allowed me to be successful at both.”

Hill has been involved with University Senate, the gender equity for athletics committee and the dean’s selection committee for the economics Liberal Arts and Sciences program. She has also won the Outstanding Reviewer Award for the Journal of the Academy Marketing Science a few times.

“When you come here, it really is a culture that is supportive of both students and faculty,” Hill said. “I think my initial assessment that Bradley was a good fit ended up being true for me.”

Hill said one of her favorite classes was a marketing research course offered to graduate students.
“A lot of those students have gone on to get jobs using the skills directly that they learned in that class,” Hill said. “In fact, I got an email just the other day from a student who said that that class allowed him to get a promotion into research.”

Hill said she enjoyed teaching the undergraduate version of the course as well.

“The [Smith] Career Center called one time and talked to my chair and said, ‘Why is it that we’ve got all of these students wanting to go into marketing research?'” Hill said. “I really enjoyed hearing that because it’s kind of a confirmation that I was probably doing something right.”

According to Hill, she will miss being around Bradley students the most.

“I really do believe we are blessed at Bradley with the kinds of students that we get,” Hill said. “The kind of students that are attracted to go here are bright students, and we don’t have huge disciplinary problems, which wouldn’t be true at a lot of schools.”

Hill said she thought twice about leaving Bradley the day she turned in her resignation letter.
“I ran into a student that I had taken to London and he was like, ‘Hi, Dr. Hill,’ and then I went over to the Student Center and one of the students working there had been in my class and she was like ‘I liked your class,’ and it was just one thing after another that I kept running into that made me say, ‘Do I really want to leave?'” she said.

Hill’s husband will also be retiring in the near future.

“I’ve got three grandchildren now, so we are wanting to spend more time with the family,” Hill said. “A year of self-assessment would be good. We’ve also thought about getting involved in politics and reading clubs.”

Hill said she once read an article about retirement that made her understand the opportunities to come.
“[The article] said that the happiest times in peoples lives is when they’re in college at the undergraduate level and the years right after they retire because they are both full of self-exploration and have fewer time boundaries on them,” Hill said. “I liked reading that. [That stage of life] was a great time, so I am looking forward to it again.”