M.A. grad, national thesis award

Major Chad Carroll wins national thesis award

Major Chad Carroll, who earned his master’s degree from UNC-Chapel Hill in spring 2007, received national recognition with the Northwestern Mutual Best Master’s Thesis Award given by the Institute for Public Relations.

He received the award for his thesis, “The U.S. Army Public Diplomacy Officer: Military Public Affairs Officers’ Roles in the Global Information Environment.” Dulcie Straughan, senior associate dean of the Hussman School of Journalism and Media, served as his adviser.

His thesis featured quantitative and qualitative analysis of the roles that public affairs officers (PAOs) perform in the global information environment. He found that the role has evolved, and PAOs interact not only with domestic media but also foreign media and other publics. He proposed a model to address emerging roles of the PAO as well as options to train some PAOs to assume public diplomacy officer (PDO) duties. Copies of his thesis are housed in the Park Library in Carroll Hall and UNC’s Davis Library.

Judges, representing both the Institute for Public Relations and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s public relations division, commended Carroll for his research on a timely and important topic that applies directly to the professional environment and contributes to the scholarly body of knowledge. They also applauded his clear and professional writing.

Carroll earned a $2,000 prize and Straughan received $1,000 at the Annual Distinguished Lecture and Awards Dinner at the New York City Yale Club. The award has been given annually since 1981 to recognize outstanding graduate study in public relations.

A Texas native, Carroll serves in the U.S. Army as a public affairs officer and currently is stationed in California. He has served stateside and in Korea and will be deployed to Iraq later this year.

Carroll earned a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Military Academy in 1994 and a master’s from the University of Missouri-Rolla in 1999. He was selected by the Army to attend its Advanced Civil Schooling Program to pursue his master’s in mass communication from UNC.

The Institute for Public Relations is an independent nonprofit that bridges the academic and professional communities through public relations research and education.