Dr Padmali Rodrigo 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. 

Padmali served as Head of Postgraduate Education for Newcastle Business School (2024-2025). During her term as a senior lecturer, she acted as the Program leader for BA, Marketing, BA Marketing Management (top-up), BA Business with Law & BA Marketing Management and business (top-up) programmes. Padmali is a Member of the Northumbria University Strategy Advisory Group and plays an active role in shaping the education, research, and knowledge exchange priorities of Northumbria.

She currently serves as an external examiner for Huddersfield University. 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 alumna of Northumbria University and 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.

Padmal has secured and collaborated on several internal and externally funded research projects and secured grants from the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) as a Principal Investigator, British Academy of Management and Marketing Trust (As a co-Investigator).   She is a member of the editorial advisory board for the Consumer Behavior in Tourism and Hospitality Journal, and she is an editorial review board member for the International Journal of Consumer Studies. She also acts as an active reviewer in many academic journals in the marketing and tourism, and Information Systems 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. In recognition of her achievements, Padmali was also featured as one of the 15 global women leading global innovation by KEVRI.

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).

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, sustainable consumer behavior, religious travel and tourism, social media influencers, fake news and mis informaiton.

My primary research interests are currently focused on areas such as Country of Origin effects, religious travel and tourism, visitor experience, misinformation and disinformation in social media, sustainable consumption, and influencer marketing. I am competent in both qualitative and quantitative research methods.