Tarleton instructor wins national award
February 10, 2012
Tarleton State University communication studies instructor Prairie Endres-Parnell recently won the National Communication Association’s Theater Division Mid-Career Achievement Award. The award was given to Endres-Parnell in November at the NCA conference in New Orleans.
In the NCA since 2008, Endres-Parnell served on the theater board and since 2009 she has been the secretary for the group. Every year she has submitted research to the group focusing on equine therapy and autism and portrayals of transgendered individuals on television.
Endres-Parnell has been teaching since 2005 and although the award she received is called the “Mid-Career Award,” she said, “I don’t really feel like I’m halfway there. I hope I’m not halfway there, but I think I’ve done enough work to be considered halfway accomplished.”
Endres-Parnell explained that there are a lot of graduate students who present at the conference and disappear. She said that she has been going to the conference for three years and in those three years, she has received enough support to win a national award and to be on the committee. She summed it up by saying, “It’s pretty awesome.”
Endres-Parnell explained that she got into equine therapy because she missed her horses, and when she was at Texas Tech she had to make a decision between horses or theater. She combined the two, admitting that it was a challenge to do so. When she was getting her master’s degree in communication, she said it occurred to her that she should study how the horse and rider communicate. This was the topic she presented this year, which has been accepted to a new national conference.
Endres-Parnell earned two masters from Texas Tech. One is a master’s of fine arts in terminal theater degree with an emphasis in acting and directing and the other is a master’s in communication.