2009 RMCA Awards
Each year, we offer Top Paper awards to an outstanding Graduate and Undergraduate research paper. The submissions this year were very strong, and three graduate papers in particular were well received. When all the votes were counted, a single winner was selected, but we want to acknowledge the two runners-up. Each receive a certificate in a protective plastic case.
Receiving an Honorable Mention Paper Award are Beverly Natividad from the University of Denver for her paper “Desperate Housewives: Now You Know its Colonial Discourse,” and Kristen Owen from the University of Wyoming for her paper, “A Case Study of the Rainforest Action Network to Illustrate the Power of Alternative Ideological Frameworks on the Environmental Movement.”
Congratulations to Beverly and Kristen.
Our two Top Paper winners receive framed certificates.
The 2009 Top Graduate Paper Award goes to Liesel Sharabi of the University of New Mexico for the essay, “The New Face of Dating: An Application of Social Penetration and Uncertainty Reduction Theories to Explain Relational Development Online.”
The 2009 Top Undergraduate Paper Award goes to Kellie Nelson from the University of Wyoming for the essay, “Applying Metaphors of the Strict Father Central Model to the LDS Church.”
Congratulations to Liesel and Kellie.
Each year, RMCA gives an engraved plaque to an Outstanding Teaching Assistant in recognition of their distinguished contributions to the communication classroom. We had a TIE this year, and two deserving TAs will receive awards. The recipients of the 2008-09 TA awards are Mitzi Hettgar of the University of Wyoming and Daniel Johnson of the University of Denver. (Note: we caught the typo and corrected plaques were ordered.)
Congratulations to Mitzi and Daniel.
Last, but certainly not least, the RMCA Leadership Council recognizes each year an individual with the A.C.E. award, that is, the Award for Communication Excellence. It is given to a person in recognition of their significant contributions to the communication discipline. This year’s recipient, in their nomination letter, was described as “a consummate professional in the communication discipline” and “also a consummate communicator – approachable, professional, conscientious, and thoughtful.” The author or co-author of 20 scholarly articles, 13 books an monographs, and 14 book chapters, our recipient has also delivered more than 140 presentations at national and regional conventions.
A long standing advocate of our discipline, our recipient has a long list of professional contributions including serving as an Associate Director for the National Communication Association, founder and first director of the UCCS Center for Excellence in Oral Communication, and is currently the graduate school representative for the RMCA Board of Governors.
It’s a shame we couldn’t do this in person, but please join us in thought as we recognize Sherwyn (Sherry) P. Morreale, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, as this year’s winner of the RMCA A.C.E.
Congratulations, Sherry!
Thank you for reading along and sharing in this e-celebration. Congratulations again to all our 2009 recipients.
p.s. thank you to Kate Boyer, Instructional Designer for UNC’s Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) for taking and formatting the photographs.