Patricia Parker
Director, Ruel W. Tyson Distinguished Professor of Humanities919-962-6831
psparker@email.unc.edu
Office: Hyde Hall, Suite 120
Patricia Parker is the Ruel W. Tyson Jr. Distinguished Professor of Humanities and has been a member of the Carolina faculty since 1998. A professor of critical organizational communication studies and former chair of the communication department, she brings a wealth of leadership experience and engaged scholarship to the Institute. Her research and teaching focus on social justice leadership and decolonizing organizational communication processes.
A longtime veteran of the Institute, Parker’s first Faculty Fellowship was in 2002. She was a Kauffman Fellow for Social Entrepreneurship in 2007, and participated in the Academic Leadership Program in 2011.
As the inaugural director of Faculty Diversity Initiatives in the College of Arts and Sciences (2012-2015), Parker developed the College’s diversity liaison program, catalyzing a network of critically engaged faculty leaders working for equity and inclusive excellence in their respective departments. She is also founder and executive director of the Ella Baker Women’s Center for Leadership and Community Activism, a community-based not-for-profit organization building community power for social change and supporting girls’ and women’s leadership development.
Parker co-chairs, with professor James Leloudis, the University’s Commission on History, Race, and a Way Forward.