Biography
When you are craving great ice cream from a mom-and-pop dairy, you should visit the Way Har Farm Market in Bernville. If you need a high-quality acoustic guitar, you should check out Martin & Company in Nazareth. If you seek one of the best views on the Appalachian Trail, you should hike The Pinnacle outcrop in Berks County.
If you are looking for an expert on the power of words and story at a small inclusive college in the mid-Atlantic region, you should take a class at 麻豆视频 with Dr. Caroline Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick is a Professor of Communication and Digital Media with 30 years experience in higher education. As a scholar, she presents and publishes both nationally and internationally, and periodically serves on editorial boards for academic and creative journals. A seasoned academic, she has presented research at more than sixty academic conferences, and she has published more than thirty articles/studies as well as two textbooks. Currently, she is learning new skills in both photography and content creation.
Fitzpatrick鈥檚 specialties include media literacy and advocacy, digital rhetoric and composition, media law and ethics, qualitative research, and cultural studies. Over the years, she has shared her expertise by mentoring 100+ college students in professional conference presentations and publications at regional and national levels. Additionally, she has led students in travel throughout the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean for experiential learning that included cultural readings, historical sites, and community-based research. She is a strong believer in taking classroom projects and revising them with students into professional works and experiences for each student鈥檚 career development and portfolios.
As a practitioner in the community, she has 20+ years of nonprofit board experience and 10+ years of consulting experience. She holds expertise in research interviewing, focus groups, content analysis, narrative/storytelling, and working with vulnerable populations. In the past, Fitzpatrick has held numerous leadership roles in higher education and creative nonprofits: Past President of the International English Honor Society - Sigma Tau Delta; Reading Film Office Board Member (Reading Film Festival); Department Chair of Communication and Digital Media (Alvernia); Co-Chair of Institutional Review Board (IRB at Alvernia); Director of Instructional Standards (Alvernia); Director of the Master of Arts for Community Leadership (Alvernia); first Director of the Schuylkill Center (Alvernia); first Director of Distance Education (Alvernia).
Trained in both technical and grant writing, she is known for her curriculum design and assessment strategies, and she has developed/revised over twenty-five courses and ten academic programs for traditional, blended, or online delivery. In her professional and community service, she has served on more than fifty different committees, completed five years of missionary work, and facilitated more than thirty campus events and service projects.
She is an advocate for reducing the costs associated with college textbooks using open educational resources (OERs). Recently, she edited an OER textbook collection Writing the Disciplines, which is free to students and life-long learners at writingthedisciplines.org. (Read Alvernia's Summer 2023 Faculty Spotlight story on Dr. Fitzpatrick.)
Fitzpatrick encourages learners to explore the world, work toward a common good, and strive to achieve their professional goals. Her personal motto is 鈥 "Every day, we have two options: 1. Step forward into growth; 2. Step backward into safety. Choose wisely.鈥 She lives in rural Pennsylvania with her husband, two dogs, and way too many books. In her spare time, she enjoys indie films, creative writing, art projects, nature walks, and novels so good they keep her up at night.