Dr Padmali Rodrigo is Head of Postgraduate Education of the Newcastle Business School. She is an Associate Professor in Marketing. Padmali is a Fellow in HEA and a teaching specialist (APA) awarded by the Institute for Apprenticeship and Technical Education. She is a Chartered Marketer, a mentor, and a member (MCIM) of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), American Academy of Advertising (AAA) and holds a professional diploma in marketing from the CIM.  She also acts as a teaching & learning and research mentor.

Before joining Northumbria, she was a post-doctoral research fellow in marketing and sales (2015-2020) at the University of Portsmouth UK. Padmali is an alumina of Northumbria University and She holds a Ph.D. in Marketing (2010-2014), MSc (distinction) (2009-2010), and a BA(Hons) with a First Class (2008-2009), all from Northumbria University U.K. As a Practice Academic, Padmali brings her professional expertise in marketing into teaching to deliver research-led, practice-informed experiential teaching and learning experiences in a way that enhances student satisfaction.

She was an associate editor in Heliyon Journal and a member of the editorial advisory board for consumer behavior in tourism and hospitality journals and also acts as an active reviewer in many academic journals in marketing and tourism subject areas. She is also passionate about matters related to promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion within academia and marketing practices and serves as a member of the ad-hoc diversity and inclusion committee of the American Academy of Advertising (AAA), USA.

Her current research focuses on how knowledge exchange activities are perceived and conducted in higher education institutions. She also researches digital mindfulness,  social media, mis and disinformation, social media influencers, and social change. Her pedagogical research focuses on the experience of doctoral students and student engagement using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). She has published her work in journals such as Information Systems Frontiers (ABS-3) Journal of Sustainable Tourism (ABS-3), Personality & Individual Differences (ABS-3) and Psychology & Marketing (ABS-3).

She also contributes to knowledge transfer partnerships and currently acts as the project lead for the advanced manufacturing forum survey. She has successfully secured external grants from national bodies such as the Chartered ABS (as the Principal Investigator). She leads exploratory research into knowledge exchange activities within UK business schools, funded by Chartered ABS (CABS). This study attracted national exposure leading to two policy roundtable sessions held in Newcastle and in the House of Commons. Padmali was also featured as one of the 15 global women leading global innovation by KEVRI.

Padmali is always keen and aspires to contribute to enhancing the doctoral student experience and she welcomes applications from potential doctoral students in areas such as country of origin effects, fake news, social media and- digital mindfulness, travel, tourism, and hospitality, with a specific emphasis into religious values, consumption values, and sustainability.

My current main research interests are in areas such as  mis/disinformation in social media, sustainable consumption and influencer marketing. I am competent in both qualitative and quantitative research and utilise techniques such as structural equation modeling, mean-end-chain based laddering interviews in my research.