By ANDREA ESTRADA

	Karen Kroman Myers

KAREN KROMAN MYERS, an assistant professor of communication, has received the 2010-11 Harold J. Plous Award. One of the university’s most prestigious faculty honors, the award is given annually to an assistant professor from the humanities, social sciences, or natural sciences who has shown exceptional achievement in research, teaching, and service to the university. The award, which is presented by the College of Letters and Science, was established in 1957 to honor the memory of Harold J. Plous, an assistant professor of economics.

Myers will showcase her research when she delivers the annual Plous Lecture next spring.

“The Plous Award is a prestigious peer recognition of our exceptional colleagues,” said Chancellor Henry T. Yang. “I am delighted to see this honor bestowed on Assistant Professor Myers for her exemplary contributions to the field of organizational communication, and for her truly remarkable record of research, teaching, and service since joining the UCSB faculty. We look forward to her exciting Plous Lecture next spring.”

Myers, who came to UCSB in 2007, received her Ph.D. in communication from Arizona State University. She has been recognized nationally and internationally for her research, which is grounded in organizational communication with a special emphasis on organizational knowledge as embedded in assimilation processes. Her work also focuses on how the media and secondary programs socialize women and minorities to enter particular professions.

A gifted and popular instructor, Myers earns praise from her undergraduate students for the clarity and precision of her lectures, which combine theory and practical application, and for her enthusiasm and dedication. At the graduate level, Myers has received high marks for developing new courses on topics that include newcomer socialization and mixed-methods research. She also designed and taught a marketing management course for doctoral students in the physical and biological sciences and engineering.

Said Michael Stohl, professor and chair of communication: “It is wonderful that Karen Myers’s extraordinary teaching, research and service contributions have been recognized through the Plous Award. Her research makes important theoretical contributions, demonstrates significant methodological sophistication, and has been published in the best journals within our field.

“Her teaching is exceptional, and Professor Myers has increased the number and depth of our course offerings at both the undergraduate and graduate level,” he continued. “Her service to the department, university, and the wider discipline of communication has been exceptional.”