Darouny PhouybanhdytGraduate Studentshe/her/hers

Darouny’s interests lies in understanding the impact sustainable products, materials and practices have on consumers when choosing brands and companies to interact with. She is looking to dive deeper into the “what,” “why” and “how” as it relates to sustainability and consumer behavior. “What is the reason why a consumer chooses one brand over another?” “How can companies implement new practices that truly align with the consumer today and help the company itself work towards a more sustainable future?”

What attracted Darouny the most to the MS Human Ecology program is that she has the ability to combine her passions and experience together to uncover the answers to what she is most curious about. She can really hone in on having each of her passions work hand in hand.

Darouny received her bachelor’s degree in both Retailing & Consumer Behavior and Economics from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She started off her career in the retail/e-commerce industry working for Macy’s and Mack Weldon. There, she gained experience in buying, planning, merchandising, account management and product development. Though she loved obsessing over apparel, accessories and consumer behavior, she was yearning to expand her knowledge base more to find ways to improve the industry even further. She believed that a strong foundation in data science would provide her with the tools to take data further and automate processes. So, she moved to London to work on a postgraduate certificate in Data Science at Birkbeck, University of London.

To help her improve her skills in Data Science, Darouny worked for various companies in ticketing & entertainment, travel, food, women’s health and procurement before she returned to her true passion – retail/e-commerce. Darouny is now back working for brands in the retail and e-commerce space – specializing in marketing, analytics and engineering. As the Head of Data and Analytics at the consulting firm she works for, she is always thinking of ways they can grow as a team and leave a lasting impact in the industry and on the world. Being that she is passionate about what the natural world has to offer and is constantly trying to adopt more sustainable practices in her personal life, she hopes to help her brands add in more best practices when it comes to sustainability and the environment, as well as bring in more brands specializing in it already.