Kristal Gerdes, PhD, is a Professor and Department Chair in the Hospitality & Technology Innovation Department at the University of Wisconsin–Stout. She has spent eighteen years in academia, following a fourteen-year career in the tourism and destination marketing sector, where she held roles ranging from tour operations to co-ownership of a receptive tour company.

Her scholarly work centers on qualitative inquiry, with research interests spanning student learning and engagement, customer experience, caregiving in academia, and women’s and gender studies. She is particularly interested in how personal and professional roles intersect in the lives of educators, and how these experiences shape teaching, scholarship, and leadership in higher education. Dr. Gerdes is committed to fostering meaningful connections between research, practice, and lived experience in academic life.