Carla Willard received her M.A. in poetry in 1990. The title of her thesis was  Bureau of  Seconds…. After graduating from Temple she went on to earn her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995. She is now an associate professor of American studies and Africana studies at Franklin & Marshall College. Willard specializes in the area of women’s studies, black feminist history, advertising and theory, and American and African-American cultural studies. She was awarded an American Association of University Women Post-Doctoral Fellowship for her project "Marketing 'Development': Female Targets and Progress Planning in Global Marketing and Development Partnerships" where she investigated a health development project currently operating in the rural areas outside Harare, Zimbabwe.