Stephen Marshall, chief officer for the ETSU Research Corporation, was recently appointed to the Digital Marketing Institute.

“My approach and my mission is to be a contributing factor to positive force in the development of talent,” says Marshall.

Photo of Dr. Stephen Marshall. (Contributed/LinkedIn)

The Digital Marketing Institute is a global organization with over 300,ooo members worldwide. It’s focused on education programs in the digital marketing space in the form of certifications. They do so by partnering with other organizations in order to train the professionals of the future.

“About 90% of folks who are in the digital marketing space do not have entry-level skills in the digital marketing space,” says Marshall. “So, there’s a real talent gap there. ETSU is doing an amazing job to cover that, but the role of the digital marketing institute is really to help bridge that gap, not only for universities . . . but mainly for enterprise and industry.”

The committee that Marshall had joined is made up of industry executives from large players in the digital marketing space, such as Google and Meta. His role is to help make sure that the certifications and programs they are building are reflective of what the industry needs. They do so by looking at a number of standards and trends within the industry in order to update curricula.

ETSU has been officially partnered with the Digital Marketing Institute since 2020 and the universities Media and Communications program was the first in the United States to be accredited by the Institute.

“We’re focused on workforce development and we’re focused on making sure that students are not only great critical and creative thinkers, but also have the skills to get hired now . . . I believe that the university is a place for us to create lifelong learners while we are also creating opportunities to match workforce development needs,” says Marshall.

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