Community, Economy and COVID-19

Don R. Rahtz is a marketing /marketing communications researcher (Ph.D., Virginia Tech) and is the J.S. Mack Professor of Marketing at William and Mary School of Business. His expertise is in integrated marketing communication programs, international competitive intelligence, cultural intelligence, marketing research, survey methodology, analysis, situational awareness, and market assessment. He has had a particular interest in Quality of Life (QoL), environmental issues, economic sustainable development, transitional economies, business/community interface evaluation, and health systems. He has served as the Editor of The Marketing Educator and on the Editorial Review Boards of The Journal of Health Care Marketing and The Journal of Business Psychology. Presently, he serves on the Editorial Review Boards of the Journal of Macromarketing and The Journal of Applied Research in Quality of Life. He is a regular reviewer for many of the international conferences and journals in the marketing (e.g., Academy of Marketing Science) and quality of life areas (e.g. Social Indicators Research). He has traveled and worked extensively in the developing and transitional world and acted as a consultant to businesses in both the public and private sectors concerning the above topics. Professor Rahtz has a number of publications on these topics in books, academic journals, and the popular press. His work has appeared in The Journal of Advertising, Journal of Health Care Marketing, Journal of Macromarketing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Psychology and Marketing, Journal of Business Research, The Journalof Applied Research in Quality of Life and Social Indicators Research. He has been active in promoting the Quality of Life (QOL) field of study in a variety of disciplines and is a founding member of the International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS) where he has served on the Executive Board in a number of positions and had served as the Vice-President of Programs for over a decade. In 2010 he received the Distinguished Service Award from ISQOLS for his dedicated service to the organization and field. He has served continuously as a Board Member of the Macromarketing Society of nearly two decades and served as the Vice-President of Programs for the society for a decade. He has a long relationship with the International Society of Markets and Development (ISMD) and currently serves on their board.

M. Joseph (Joe) Sirgy is a management psychologist (Ph.D., UMass) and the Virginia Tech Real Estate Professor of Marketing at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He has published extensively in the area of marketing, business ethics, and quality of life (QOL). He co-founded the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) in 1995, served as its Executive Director/Treasurer from 1995 to 2011, and as Development Co-Director (2011-present). In 1998, he received the Distinguished Fellow Award from ISQOLS. In 2003, ISQOLS honored him as the Distinguished QOL Researcher for research excellence and a record of lifetime achievement in QOL research. He also served as President of the Academy of Marketing Science (2002-04) from which he received the Distinguished Fellow Award in the early 1990s and the Harold Berkman Service Award in 2007 (lifetime achievement award for serving the marketing professoriate). In the early 2000s, he helped co-found the Macromarketing Society and the Community Indicators Consortium and has served as a board member of these two professional associations. He co-founded the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, the official journal of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, in 2005, and has served as co-founding editor (1995-present). He also served editor of the QOL section in the Journal of Macromarketing (1995-2016). He received the Virginia Tech’s Pamplin Teaching Excellence Award/Holtzman Outstanding Educator Award and University Certificate of Teaching Excellence in 2008. In 2010, ISQOLS honored him for excellence and lifetime service to the society. In 2010 he won the Best Paper Award in the Journal of Happiness Studies for his theory of the balanced life; in 2011, he won the Best Paper Award in the Journal of Travel Research for his goal theory of leisure travel satisfaction. In 2012 he was awarded the EuroMed Management Research Award for outstanding achievements and groundbreaking contributions to well-being and quality-of-life research. In 2019 the Macromarketing Society honored him with the Robert W. Nason Award for extraordinary and sustained contributions to the field of Macromarketing. He is currently serving as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Macromarketing (2020-present). He also was the editor of ISQOLS/Springer book series on International Handbooks in QOL (2008-15), Community QOL Indicators: Best Cases (2004-15), Applied Research in QOL: Best Practices (2008-12). He is currently the co-editor of Springer book series on Human Well-Being and Policy Making (2015-present).