Beth Garfrerick Naprca Educator Of The Year

Mar. 18, 2011

Michelle Eubanks, UNA, at media@una.edu, 256.765.4392 or 256.606.2033

FLORENCE, Ala. - University of North Alabama communications instructor Dr. Beth Garfrerick was recently selected as the 2011 North Alabama Chapter of the Public Relations Council of Alabama Educator of the Year. Educator of the Year is one of NAPRCA's top three honors. The Educator of the Year award was established to recognize an educator who has taught public relations or a closely related discipline and who has demonstrated a commitment to advance the profession of public relations. Garfrerick teaches public relations at UNA and has more than 20 years of experience in the field of education as a public relations practitioner. She has held positions with the Times Daily, Florence and Lauderdale County schools, the Tennessee School Boards Association and UNA. Garfrerick teaches courses in public relations writing and research, campaigns, media writing and reporting. She received her bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from The University of Alabama. Also honored this year by NAPRCA were Lori Miller, sales marketing and research director for WHNT News 19, with the Professional Achievement Award, and George Winters, marketing and corporate communications manager for XMED Disposal Inc., with the Grover Smith Lifetime Achievement Award. Each of the award recipients is moving forward to compete with other honorees from the Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, East Alabama and West Alabama chapters for state PRCA awards to be announced at the state conference in Hoover April 3-5.

About The University of North Alabama

The University of North Alabama is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs through the colleges of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering; the Sanders College of Business and Technology; Education and Human Sciences; and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions. Occupying a 130-acre campus in a residential section of Florence, Alabama, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. UNA Athletics, a renowned collegiate athletics program with seven (7) Division II National Championships, is now a proud member of NCAA Division I as part of the Atlantic Sun and United Athletic conferences. The University of North Alabama is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age, or national origin. For more: una.edu and una.edu/unaworks/.