Summer Camps and Programs Welcomes New Director

Jackie Yates to lead the Business and Marketing Institute 

Assistant teaching professor of Business Administration and Economics Jackie Yates will direct this summer’s Business and Marketing Institute at Saint Mary’s College. Yates is the founder and owner of CMParker Media, a company that helps elevate brands through voice-over and audio production, working with companies such as Nike and Spotify. Prior to starting her business, Yates managed the Women’s Business Center at Cornerstone Alliance, where she helped empower women to get their businesses off the ground. 

For the past several  years, Business professor Jim Rogers has led the summer program, and recommended Yates in his retirement. According to Yates, the Institute aligns with her background and her love for providing work experience to young women. She said, with the help of Saint Mary’s makerspace, Spark Lab, participants will be able to “pressure test” their ideas in an environment that allows them to learn and grow. “They will see it through from the concept to being able to walk away with something tangible, thus empowering themselves to see the possibilities in business,” she said. 

Yates plans to engage a variety of women entrepreneurs to speak at the Institute this summer, so students can imagine all that is possible. Students will have the chance to dive into the marketing strategy that runs a business, create and work with social media platforms to promote and engage their business, while learning marketing strategies and developing a tactical plan. 

Yates wants to emphasize that this institute is not limited to students pursuing business or marketing, but to anyone “who’s ever had a what-if moment, or a cool idea they were not sure how to pursue.” Yates notes that all you need to come with is the “curiosity and creativity to build off of it.”

Yates hopes participants will leave campus with confidence and see something in themselves they did not see before. “The best and simplest of ideas come from observing others,” she said. “Entrepreneurship can be overcomplicated, yes. So it is important to have the foundation.” Yates wants these young women to know: “Give yourself permission to be good at something.”

Click here to learn more and register for the Business and Marketing Institute. 

April 3, 2026