“Gail Atchley Jackman, ’77 Individual and Family Studies/Consumer Studies, earned a master of science degree in consumer economics and marketing from Cornell University and then undertook a succession of market research management roles at Cornell University, Market Facts/Synovate, Marriott Corporation, and Shugoll Research before opening her own company. Gail founded and heads Reach Research, a marketing research consulting firm specializing in using statistical and economic analysis of quantitative survey data to guide business decision-making. Her policy interests focus on consumer information processing and empirical research to ensure that government regulations have their desired outcomes.

Gail and her husband, Dennis, serve on the Rock Ethics Institute (REI) Board of Visitors and the College of the Liberal Arts Development Council. They have been mentors to Liberal Arts students. She and Dennis also have established a professorship in public policy with a McCourtney match, a dean’s fund in the College of the Liberal Arts, a graduate endowment in honor of former dean Susan Welch, a trustee scholarship in honor of their fathers to support undergraduates with acute financial needs, and an undergraduate research grant fund in the Rock Ethics Institute. In 2020, the Jackmans were named Penn State’s Fundraising Volunteers of the Year.”