Pam Parry
Pam Parry joined the Belmont faculty in fall 2001, and she teaches communication studies courses. She is working on her doctorate of philosophy from the University of Southern Mississippi, where she was named the top graduate student in 2009 by the School of Mass Communication and Journalism. In 2009, she also was named a Gene Wiggins Fellow by USM's School of Mass Communication and Journalism.
Receiving grants from the Eisenhower Foundation, she is working on her dissertation on the public relations strategy of the Eisenhower administration. As part of her dissertation, she wrote a conference paper on Anne Williams Wheaton - the first woman to serve as an associate press secretary to a sitting U.S. president - which won four awards, including two from the American Journalism Historians Association and two from the University of Southern Mississippi.
An Accredited Public Relations (APR) practitioner, Parry earned her bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia and her master's degree in journalism and public affairs from The American University in Washington, D.C. She also holds a seminary degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.
She worked as a religion reporter for about 10 years before switching to public relations, where edited publications for a senior citizens lobby in Washington, D.C. In 1997, she started her own communication firm. As a small business owner, Parry worked for several clients in the nation's capital, including the nationally syndicated "The McLaughlin Group" and The Baltimore Sun. She also has written two trade books. Before coming to Belmont, Parry taught at American University, George Washington University's Center for Career Education and Taylor University in Upland, Ind.
In May 2008, Parry received Belmont's Presidential Faculty Achievement Award for outstanding service to students outside the classroom. In August 2009, she was named the Teacher of the Year by the Small Program's Interest Group of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Parry created the public relations major and minor at Belmont University. Additionally, she secured the charter for Belmont's Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) and developed the student-run public relations firm, Tower Creative Consultants. Today, she directs the corporate communications major.