Biography and education
Kristen L. Sussman, Ph.D. (University of Texas at Austin), is an advertising scholar and computational social scientist with expertise in social media and online advertising. She leverages advanced knowledge of native and third-party social media platforms to connect, monitor, and assess consumer behavior, with an interest in AI-mediated communication.
Dr. Sussman draws on her entrepreneurial background having owned and operated one of the first social media marketing agencies in Austin, TX from from 2011 to 2019. The award-winning agency, Social Distillery, was founded on a mission to deliver long-term, powerful, and measurable results while creating marketing campaigns that people love.
Dr. Sussman and her team were part of the first to scale social business strategies for notable clients including Facebook (now Meta), Dairy Queen, Chuy's Restaurants, Micro Focus (now HPE), Spredfast (now Khoros), Farm Credit Bank of Texas, Jive Software, KVUE-TV, H-E-B, John Deere, and many, many others.
In 2019, when Sussman returned to academia, the agency was acquired, allowing her to focus fully on her coursework dedicated to learning data science, statistics, and computational methods.
Dr. Sussman draws on her entrepreneurial background having owned and operated one of the first social media marketing agencies in Austin, TX from from 2011 to 2019. The award-winning agency, Social Distillery, was founded on a mission to deliver long-term, powerful, and measurable results while creating marketing campaigns that people love.
Dr. Sussman and her team were part of the first to scale social business strategies for notable clients including Facebook (now Meta), Dairy Queen, Chuy's Restaurants, Micro Focus (now HPE), Spredfast (now Khoros), Farm Credit Bank of Texas, Jive Software, KVUE-TV, H-E-B, John Deere, and many, many others.
In 2019, when Sussman returned to academia, the agency was acquired, allowing her to focus fully on her coursework dedicated to learning data science, statistics, and computational methods.
Teaching Interests
Research Interests
Featured grants
- Sussman, Kristen Leah, Ngondo, Prisca. Verena and Kenneth J. Wilson Research Program, Center for International Studies, Private / Foundation / Corporate, $500. (Funded: December 2025). Grant.
- Sussman, Kristen Leah. AI-Mediated Communication in Real-World Contexts: A Comparative Study of Human-Authored Text on Social Media, Texas State University, $8000. (Submitted: October 8, 2024, Funded: May 1, 2025 - August 31, 2025). Grant.
- Sussman, Kristen Leah. Multilingual AI-Assisted Emergency Preparedness: Enhancing Resilience and Equity in Underserved Communities during Climate Change-Induced Weather Events, City of Austin, State, $10200. (Funded: September 2023 - August 2024). Grant.
Featured scholarly/creative works
- Sussman, K. L., & Carter, D. W. (n.d.). Detecting Effects of AI-Mediated Communication on Language Complexity and Sentiment∗. In WWW Companion ’25: Companion Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2025 Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.1145/3701716.3717543
- Sussman, K. L., Looi, J., & Park, H. (2024). Examining Implications of Search Query Construction on Sentiment Analysis: The Case of Brandwatch. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, (Special Issue “Emerging Issues in Computational Advertising”). https://doi.org/10.1080/10641734.2024.2383695
- Hotker, P., Garg, R., & Sussman, K. L. (2023). Strategic Social Media Marketing: An Empirical Analysis of Sequential Advertising. Production and Operations Management, 32(12). https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.14075
- Sussman, K. L., Bouchacourt, L., Bright, L., Wilcox, G., Mackert, M., Norwood, A., & Altillo, B. (2023). COVID-19 topics and emotional frames in vaccine hesitation: A social media text and sentiment analysis. Digital Health, (9). https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231158
- Sussman, K. L., Bright, L., & Wilcox, G. (2022). Digital consumer engagement: examining the impact of native advertising exposure in a social network. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-10-2021-0265
Featured awards
- Award / Honor Nominee: AAA Mary Alice Shaver Promising Professor Award, American Academy of Advertising. November 26, 2024 - Present
- Award / Honor Nominee: Presidential Awards for Excellence in Scholarly/Creative Activities, School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Texas State University. January 12, 2024 - August 31, 2024
- Award / Honor Recipient: American Academy of Advertising (AAA) Ad-hoc Graduate Committee, American Academy of Advertising (AAA). January 2021 - May 2022
- Award / Honor Recipient: ANA Educational Foundation’s Future Visiting Professor Program, ANA Educational Foundation’s Future Visiting Professor Program. 2021
- Award / Honor Recipient: W3 Award Creative Award, W3 Award. 2015 - 2018
Featured service activities
- Organizer
Google AI for Education Accelerator
- Reviewer / Referee
Journal of Advertising
- Reviewer / Referee
Journal of Interactive Advertising
- Reviewer / Referee
Journal of Current Issues in Research in Advertising
- Participant
Grad Committee Meeting
- Participant
SJMC Brown Bag Research Meeting