Mary Frances Luce

Mary Frances Luce is the Dean and Robert A. Ingram Professor of Business Administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She is the first woman to serve as Fuqua’s dean and the first Fuqua alumnus to hold the position. Her research interests include health care marketing and consumer behavior, with a focus on how emotions influence decision-making in medical contexts. Luce has taught across all of Fuqua’s ten degree programs, including core marketing and elective health care marketing courses. She has held academic leadership roles at Fuqua, including associate and senior associate dean of faculty, and was also an associate vice president of Research & Innovation at Duke. She will serve on the Board of Trustees of Duke Kunshan University and previously served as its interim executive vice chancellor. Before joining Fuqua in 2004, she was a faculty member at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for ten years.

Mary Frances Luce is a professor at Fuqua School, Duke University, specializing in consumer behavior and decision-making processes. Her research explores how emotions, cognitive load, and coping mechanisms influence consumer choices, particularly in emotionally difficult or high-stakes situations. She investigates trade-off difficulty, strategic preferences, and the role of unconscious thought in decision-making. Her work also examines the impact of advertising and expert relationships on consumer trust and behavior. Luce's research highlights the interplay between emotional and rational processes in consumer decision-making, offering insights into both descriptive and prescriptive approaches to understanding choice behavior.