Join us in welcoming assistant professor Aaron Staples to the department! With a 75 percent research and 25 percent teaching appointment, Aaron specializes in consumer demand and marketing.

His research emphasizes decision-making across food and beverage supply chains, including consumer and producer responses to emerging markets, market conditions, and policy changes. His dissertation, for example, explored regulatory, policy, and marketing challenges across US beer supply chains. Methodologically, he enjoys leveraging the strengths of both primary and secondary data to best address the research question at hand. As he begins his time at UT’s Institute of Agriculture, he will continue to address policy shifts, with a particular interest in beverage markets.

In the classroom, Aaron is eager to lead courses in demand analysis and agricultural marketing and to serve as a mentor to the diverse group of students at UT Knoxville. He is scheduled to teach AREC 350 (The Food and Agricultural Marketing System) and AREC 550 (Advanced Agribusiness Marketing).

When asked what he hopes to achieve in his new role, Aaron said, “to create a stakeholder-driven and policy-relevant research portfolio that informs business decisions to improve the flexibility and sustainability of our food systems. Stakeholder engagement has been and will continue to be a crucial component of my research agenda. As Tennessee is an agricultural hub with prominent stakeholder groups and congressional support, I know that UT is the ideal place for this goal. I look forward to the opportunity to develop my research, inspire the next generation of agricultural leaders in the classroom, and serve stakeholders across the Tennessee agricultural value chain.”

Aaron earned a PhD in agricultural, food, and resource economics from Michigan State University, an MS in agricultural economics from Purdue University, and a BA in economics from Westfield State University.

In his spare time, Aaron enjoys all things sports. From the game of baseball that he has loved since he was a kid to a newly developed appreciation for golf, Aaron enjoys watching, playing, and talking sports.