Dr. Bennett is an Associate Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of Community Engagement at Villanova University’s School of Business. Her research focuses on marketplace access for vulnerable consumers, brand image, political marketing, and corporate social responsibility. Most recently, her work on access has examined the experiences of marginalized consumers, including immigrants, recipients of social services and members of minority groups, in the marketplace. Her work has been published in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, the Journal of Service Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and the International Marketing Review. She serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing and the Journal of Consumer Affairs. Dr. Bennett offers courses on market research and consumer behavior. She received her BS and MBA from Florida A&M University, and her Ph.D. from New York University.
Dr. Milfeld is the Michelle and Sean Traynor ’91 Assistant Professor of Marketing at Villanova University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, a dual MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and a B.A. from Northwestern University. Tyler specializes in brand communication, corporate social responsibility, message framing, and linguistics. His research has been published in the field’s leading journals such as the Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, and Journal of Business Research. He is a two-time winner of the Best Article of the Year Award and is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Advertising Research. Prior to academia, Tyler held marketing and sales roles at The Hershey Company, Colgate-Palmolive, PepsiCo, and Johnson & Johnson.
Chris Brandt is the President, Chief Brand Officer for Chipotle Mexican Grill. Since joining the company in 2018, Mr. Brandt has focused on transforming Chipotle into a purpose driven lifestyle brand, making it more visible and culturally relevant with consumers. Mr. Brandt is responsible for all aspects of Marketing—including creative, media, culinary innovation, social, loyalty and analytics—as well as new restaurant development. Building brand engagement and affinity, Mr. Brandt has created award-winning marketing campaigns for Chipotle and was named Ad Age A-List Awards’ Best Brand CMO (2023), an Adweek Marketing Vanguard Awards (2024) winner, and featured on Variety 10: Entertainment Advertising Leaders (2024), Campaign US’s CMO 50 (2024), Forbes’s World’s Most Influential CMOs (2024), and Business Insider’s Most Innovative CMOs (2025) lists.
Prior to joining Chipotle, Mr. Brandt was Executive Vice President and Chief Brand Officer of Bloomin’ Brands, Inc., where he was responsible for all marketing activities across Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s, Bonefish Grill and Fleming’s. Mr. Brandt also served as the Chief Brand Officer for Taco Bell, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., where he launched Live Más, Doritos Locos Tacos, breakfast and the mobile app.
Mr. Brandt serves on the Board of Directors for The Hershey Company. He has an undergraduate degree in economics from The University of California, San Diego and a Master of Business Administration from the Anderson School at The University of California, Los Angeles.
Tyler Benson is the Senior Manager of External Communications at Chipotle, overseeing thought leadership for the company’s executive team and the brand’s global PR efforts for marketing campaigns, social media programs, restaurant innovation and sports activations. Since joining Chipotle in January 2020, Tyler has leveraged his robust PR acumen to position Chipotle as a purpose-driven lifestyle brand, making it more visible and culturally relevant amongst stakeholders, including employees, media and consumers. His leadership plays a critical role in Chipotle’s corporate reputation, working closely with the company’s five-person in-house team and agency partners to ensure alignment with Chipotle’s 130,000+ employees and 3,900+ restaurants. Tyler was named to The Drum’s Future 50 list in 2023 as well as Business Insider’s 2022 list of 20 Rising Stars in PR. He also earned honorable mention recognition for the 2021 PRWeek Outstanding Young Professional Award and participated in the inaugural Adweek Rising Mentorship program in 2021.
Before joining Chipotle, Tyler spent nearly five years at Burson, a global PR firm based in New York City. He holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Boston University.
