Photo of Ceridwyn King
  • Faculty

Ceridwyn King

  • Professor
  • Dimond Family Dean of the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration
Email ck867@cornell.edu
Office
146-D Statler Hall
Website

Biography

Ceridwyn King was appointed Dimond Family Dean of the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration, part of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, on July 1, 2026. She is an accomplished hospitality leader and educator whose research focuses on service management, branding and marketing, with emphasis on the employee’s role in delivering exceptional customer experiences. Her work integrates theory and practice to help organizations strengthen their brands by aligning employee engagement, organizational culture and service strategy.

Before joining Cornell, King served as associate dean for Indianapolis and strategic initiatives in Purdue University’s College of Health and Human Sciences and is a professor and former White Lodging Services Head of the White Lodging–J.W. Marriott Jr. School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. She oversaw strategic growth initiatives, curriculum innovation, faculty development, external partnerships and philanthropic efforts, elevating the school’s national and global reputation. Under her leadership, the program rose to No. 3 in the United States and No. 7 globally in the Shanghai Global Ranking of Academic Subjects for Hospitality and Tourism Management.

King spent more than a decade at Temple University, where she served as professor, chair of the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management and director of strategic industry engagement. Earlier in her career, she held academic appointments at Griffith University in Australia and leadership roles in the hospitality industry, including senior marketing positions with Conrad Jupiters Hotel and Casino and Sheraton Mirage Gold Coast.

She developed one of the first empirically validated models of employee based brand equity and has published extensively in leading journals in hospitality, marketing and service management. Her work has earned numerous research and teaching awards, and she has been recognized among Stanford University’s top 2 percent of researchers worldwide in sport, leisure and tourism.

A committed mentor, King has designed innovative undergraduate and graduate curricula, developed online degree programs and supervised doctoral students who have gone on to academic careers around the world.

King earned a Ph.D. in marketing, a Master of Marketing Management (First Class Honours) and a Bachelor of Hotel Management from Griffith University in Australia.

Education

PhD Griffith University, 2008
MS Griffith University, 2004
BA Griffith University, 1994

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Research

Awards

  • Outstanding Reviewer of the Year Award (2020) Cornell Hospitality Quarterly
  • Robert Johnson Best Reviewer Award (2015) Journal of Service Management
  • Outstanding Reviewer Award (2015) International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

Faculty Academic Areas

  • Services Management

Expertise

  • Hospitality and Services Design, Management and Operations
  • Services Marketing
  • Management and Organizations