Welcome to the UMSL Marketing and Entrepreneurship Department
The world of marketing and communications is a quickly changing and dynamic area driven by advances in technology, artificial intelligence, and mobile. At the University of Missouri – St. Louis our mission is to prepare and equip our marketing students to be the most successful in this field. Our faculty are fully immersed in their discipline via their research, consulting, and other employment.
The job market for marketers has never been better. Glassdoor, in their 2019 survey, listed marketing managers as one of the top 3 job opportunities in the U.S. CNBC listed marketing as the #15 best paying job in America in 2019. It is our goal to help guide our students to success.
Co-Chairs of the UMSL Marketing and Entrepreneurship Department, Perry Drake and Michael Elliott speak with Marketing HR Representatives and Hiring Managers. They dive into advice for students, what hiring managers are looking for in recruits, and why marketing was listed as the 3rd best job by GlassDoor.
Our courses range from the basics of marketing which includes all aspects of the marketing mix and how they interplay in today’s world to other specialized topics including:
- Personal selling and sales
- CRM strategy utilizing Hubspot and Salesforce software
- Digital techniques including search engine optimization and paid search
- Web tracking including Google analytics.
- B2B and B2C strategies
- And more
For MBA students, we take deep dives into LinkedIn advertising and Salesforce. Content strategy is also highly stressed including blogging, video, and podcasting. MBA students with a Marketing emphasis also become Hootsuite certified.
Our marketing students manage all social channels for the College of Business: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. They also run the “In Your Business with UMSL Business” podcast series published on Spotify and iTunes.
The Co-chairs of this top-rated Marketing and Entrepreneurship Department, Dr. Michael Elliot and Dr. Perry Drake, are heavily involved in the industry and lead our advisory board comprised of executives from various organizations including Purina, FleishmanHillard, Momentum WorldWide, Maritz, and more. Over 30 companies in total are on our marketing advisory board. These board members provide mentoring and internship opportunities for our students. Additionally, they provide guidance on the marketing curriculum.
Download our brochure here

Department Co-Chair & Associate Professor
Associate Dean & Director of Undergraduate Business Programs
Office: 202J Anheuser-Busch Hall
Phone: 314-516-5832
Email: melliott@umsl.edu

Department Co-Chair & Assistant Teaching Professor
Office: 427 Social Science & Business Building
Phone: 314-516-6490
Mobile: 914-299-4879
Email: drakep@umsl.edu
The top-rated UMSL Marketing and Entrepreneurship Department offers a variety of marketing majors, minors, and certificates.
Our entrepreneurship courses are steeped in interdisciplinary concepts like systems thinking, design thinking and experiential learning.
Interested in learning more about courses? Download each of the courses syllabi for every class.
Advisory board was established by Dr. Perry Drake to set direction of the marketing and entrepreneurship department.
Meet our nationally and internationally respected UMSL Marketing and Entrepreneurship Department faculty.
Students will be producing their own podcast and this takes time for preparation, recording, and editing.
Student run organization that builds relationships and help students gain insights into the professional world.
Students will learn why is important to have a mentor/mentee to help expand personal development.
Hear how former marketing students used what they learned at UMSL to land their dream jobs.