Profile
March 18, 1999
9
Tara Michels brings teaching and research to JCM
Lauren Bigge
The Pendulum
Dr. Tara Michels thor
oughly enjoys learning as well as
teaching. In fact, learning is as
much an integral part of her pro
fessional life as teaching.
Though she is constantly
busy with her two young children
(Andrew is three and Hannah is
one and a half) as well as a full
teaching schedule, she takes the
time to do research about minori
ties in advertising at Duke Uni
versity.
She has also done some re
search on interactive advertising
and presented papers about on
line advertising to the American
Academy of Advertising.
Originally from
Gainesville, Fla., Michels first be
came interested in advertising/
public relations as an undergradu
ate when she took classes in the
field.
She then got into the stock
brokerage industry for seven years
before going to work for the non
profit Dairy Council in Florida.
It was during those years
that Michels’ passion for her cur
rent career was refueled. She
learned through the public rela
tions experiences the Council pro
vided that there are various ways
of “getting your message out
there.” She said that “advertis
ing allows for a little more cre
ativity.”
After her stint in the Dairy
Council, Michels got her Ph.D. at
the University of Florida, where
she also met husband Randy
Patnode as a graduate student.
They married in 1994.
She came to Elon from
Florida three years ago and is now
an assistant professor in the Jour
nalism/ Communications (JCM)
department.
Michels likes teaching at
Elon because the students are
bright and attentive. “I like the
[concept of] personal attention to
students... I like getting to know
my students by name,” she said.
Another reason Michels
said she enjoys the personal con
nections among faculty and stu
dents is that the professors are
encouraged to bring personal ex
periences from their own lives
into the classroom to use as teach
ing tools and stories of those ex
periences help the students to
learn.
The advertising/public re
lations professor teaches Organi
zational Communications, Corpo
rate Communications Senior
Seminar, and Public
Relations (during the
summer) among oth
ers.
However, her
favorite class to teach
is Honors Media and
Society because it
“brings up a lot of im
portant [media] is
sues.” Michels said
she thinks the Media
and Society class is
“kind of fun” and
thinks it’s going pretty
well.
Personally,
Michels enjoys the cli
mate here in North
Carolina more than
Florida because she
“can’t stand the heat.”
She also commented
that she and her hus
band generally like
this area.
Professionally,
she is happy to be de
veloping an advertis
ing program for the
JCM department and
likes working with both interns
and professionals in the advertis
ing field.
As for the future of the JCM
department, Michels said she
Chris R&shJThe Pendulum
Dr. Tara Michels enjoys both the teaching and
research aspects of college life in North Carolina
thinks that the renovation of
McEwen Library into the new
JCM Building will provide many
more opportunities for faculty and
students because there will be
more space to work with.
But as for her own future,
Michels is hesitant to speculate.
“I’m a ‘wait and see’ kind of per
son,” she said.
CAREERi^FOCnS
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