After nearly three decades in marketing leadership—analyzing markets, launching campaigns, and guiding strategy from the conference room—I’m stepping into a brand-new space: the high school classroom.

This fall, I begin teaching marketing at a Career and Technical Education (CTE) program in Keene, New Hampshire. It’s an incredible opportunity for students: they gain real-world skills, earn college credit, and explore careers that may one day shape their futures. And, perhaps an even more incredible opportunity for me—as I make one of the biggest professional pivots of my life.

My goal is simple but meaningful: to help students not just learn about marketing, but to see themselves in it—as future strategists, creators, analysts, entrepreneurs, or even thoughtful consumers who understand how the world of business operates.

But here’s the truth: I’m not walking into this role with all the answers. I’m walking in as a lead learner—someone who brings experience but is committed to learning alongside my students, colleagues, and the wider community.

Part of what makes me a lead learner is that my formal training is in applied economics and international affairs—not marketing per se. While I’ve spent nearly 30 years in roles that span strategy, analytics, campaigns, and database marketing, there are whole areas of marketing—like graphic design, content creation, or social media branding—where I am very much a student. And marketing is always evolving. AI tools, platform shifts, and emerging channels are rewriting the go-to-market playbook in real time. My students and I will be exploring those trends together in the classroom.

I’ll also be reawakening my own creative side—something I haven’t tapped much in the past decade of my career. From visual merchandising to experiential marketing, I know there will be times when my students’ instincts outpace mine—and I welcome that. In fact, there are even certifications they’ll be earning—such as Google Analytics, HubSpot, and Adobe Illustrator—that I’ll be taking right alongside them. I’m also learning Google Classroom from scratch—just like many of my fellow first-year teachers.

I’ll be designing my curriculum using the Marketing Essentials textbook from McGraw Hill, which serves as our foundational resource. It’s a comprehensive guide that introduces key concepts—from the marketing mix to consumer behavior—and I’ll be adapting it to reflect both modern trends and student interests. You can explore the textbook here on McGraw Hill’s site.

That’s what this blog thread is about, after a decade of dormancy. Developing Future Marketers is a space where I’ll reflect on this career transition and the work of building a marketing curriculum from the ground up. I’ll share what I’m testing in the classroom, what I’m learning from my students, and what I’m still figuring out in real time.

My hope is that this becomes a space where others—especially marketers and educators—can share ideas, resources, and real-world examples that I can bring directly into the classroom. I’m looking for input, advice, and fresh thinking. I want to be a sponge right now, so I can better serve my students. Over time, maybe this blog can become a helpful resource for other new teachers too. But for now, I’m here to learn.

If you have classroom-tested activities, case studies, marketing stories, industry insights—or just ideas you think teens would find engaging—I’d love to hear from you. Your experience could help me reach a student in exactly the right way.

I hope you’ll reach out, leave a comment, or even just drop a resource you love—every suggestion helps me grow. Let’s build something meaningful together—for the next generation of marketers. And if you’d like to follow along, I’d be honored to have you subscribe to the blog.