USC Marshall School of Business

Allison Cerra is Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Public Affairs for Alcatel-Lucent in the Americas Region. In this capacity, Allison oversees marketing strategy and communications and engages with North and South American service providers on go-to-market strategies for new product launches, including video, broadband and mobile services. Prior to her position at Alcatel-Lucent, Allison served in a variety of product management, marketing, sales and operations positions for various service providers, including GTE, Verizon and Frontier.

She recently co-authored Identity Shift: Where Identity Meets Technology in the Networked-Community Age, based on extensive primary research involving more than 5,000 US consumers to address how communications technologies influence personal identity and the implications to service providers and marketers vying for trust as the new intangible currency. She also co-authored The Shift: The Evolving Market, Players and Business Models in a 2.0 World, also derived from primary research, which estimates a $100 billion market opportunity when networks are leveraged as development platforms. In addition to both books, Allison has published multiple whitepapers and articles about emerging user broadband trends and market potential for next-generation services.

Allison holds Bachelors Degrees in Marketing and Management from the University of South Florida. She also holds Masters Degrees in Business Administration and Telecommunications from Southern Methodist University. She was recognized as the Outstanding Young Alumna from Southern Methodist University in 2011, honored by the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter of the American Marketing Association as CMO of the Year for 2011 and named to the Global Telecoms Business and Dallas Business Journal’s lists of the top 40 under 40 in 2012. She serves on the boards of the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth, the Telecommunications Industry Association and the Institute for Communication Technology Management.