Donna Sears

Donna Sears holds a PhD in Management (Consumer Behaviour) from McGill University and an MBA from the University of New Brunswick. Her research focus on hedonic consumption experiences led naturally to research in wine business and wine tourism when she took a position in the ‘heart of Nova Scotia wine country’ at Acadia University in Wolfville, NS. She is an Associate Professor in the F.C. Manning School of Business and was Founding Director of the Atlantic Wine Institute. Dr. Sears has presented her work at various National and International Marketing and Wine Business Conferences such as Advances in Consumer Research, Academy of Wine Business Research (Sonoma, California and Stellenbosch, South Africa), Wine & Culinary Tourism Futures Conference (Kelowna, BC), Society for Marketing Advances, and International Wine Tourism Conference (Perugia, Italy). Her research on wine business and tourism has been published in several edited collections, numerous trade publications, and in the International Journal of Wine Business Research. Dr. Sears is also actively involved in promoting Nova Scotia as a tourist destination, as a former member of the Board of Directors for the Province’s Crown Corporation responsible for tourism, Tourism Nova Scotia.