Mary Frances Luce

Mary Frances Luce is the Interim Dean and Robert A. Ingram Professor of Business Administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. In addition to being the first woman to serve as Fuqua’s dean, she is the first Fuqua alumnus to hold the position.

Fascinated by the influence of emotions on decision-making, Luce has enjoyed a 30-year career as a specialist in behavioral marketing. Her research interests lie in consumer behavior and medical decision-making, including how emotions can impact a patient’s health care decisions. She has taught students in all of Fuqua’s ten degree programs, including core marketing and elective health care marketing courses.

Luce has a strong and balanced track record of academic leadership, previously serving as Fuqua’s associate and senior associate dean of faculty for six years. She was also the associate vice president of Research & Innovation at Duke. Passionate about encouraging exceptional interdisciplinary research, she approached this role with a commitment to creating a supportive environment for Duke researchers in the areas of social and behavioral sciences, humanities and the arts.

In addition to her new role at Fuqua, Luce will serve on the Board of Trustees of Duke Kunshan University (DKU). She spent one year as DKU’s interim executive vice chancellor.

Before joining Fuqua’s faculty in 2004, Luce was on the faculty of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for ten years. She earned her Ph.D. in business administration with a concentration in marketing from Fuqua in 1994 and a bachelor’s degree from Ball State University in 1989.