UNC Clean Tech Speaker
Patricia Parker
Biography
Dr. Patricia Parker is Chair of the Department of Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is also an associate professor of critical organizational communication studies. Her work focuses on leadership by women and girls to promote equity and social justice in their communities and beyond. As the inaugural Director of Faculty Diversity Initiatives for the College of Arts and Sciences (2012-2015), she developed the College’s diversity liaison program, a network of faculty leaders working for equity and inclusion in their respective departments. For this effort, she won the 2014 University Diversity Award, UNC-Chapel Hill’s highest award for achievement in advancing diversity and inclusion. She is founder and executive director of The Ella Baker Women’s Center for Leadership and Community Activism, a venture supported by a 2006 Kauffman Faculty Fellowship for social entrepreneurship. In 2013 she received the UNC Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Award for teaching. She is the inaugural recipient (2010) of the Engaged Scholars Service Award in the National Communication Association’s Organizational Communication Division. Dr. Parker is the author of Race, gender, and leadership (Erlbaum, 2005), and a forthcoming book on community-based leadership for social justice. She has published over 20 essays and book chapters appearing in international journals and edited volumes, including Management Communication Quarterly, Leadership Quarterly, the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication Research, and the Handbook of Business Discourse.