Professor Heilman teaches courses in Brand Management and Strategic Brand Consulting & Communication at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She is the faculty adviser to the students who compete annually in the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC), leading the student team to national titles in 2021, 2020, and 2016; a second-place finish in the national competition in 2018; and a third-place finish in 2013. In 2017, Professor Heilman was named UVA's faculty athletics representative; in 2018, she was recognized by Poet&Quants as one of the top 50 undergraduate professors in the country; in 2020 she was awarded the UVA All-University Teaching Award.  

Professor Heilman’s research interests include modeling consumer choice and brand loyalty in frequently purchased consumer goods categories, customer relationship management (CRM), retail loyalty programs and strategies, and the impact of consumer promotions, especially in-store promotions, on consumer behavior. Her current research focuses on topics including the impact of in-store free samples and coupons on choice behavior, retail loyalty programs, brand extension strategies, and consumer spending on luxury goods.

Professor Heilman has presented her research at national conferences sponsored by the American Marketing Association (AMA), the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS), and the Association for Consumer Research (ACR), to name a few. Her research has been published in journals such as Journal of Marketing Research; Journal of Marketing; Journal of Retailing; and International Journal of Research in Marketing. She has reviewed papers for Journal of Marketing Research; Marketing Science; Journal of Marketing; Journal of Retailing; and Journal of Business Research.