Strategic communication professor empowers students to pursue their callings

Sheri Parmelee has done it all. From establishing careers in event planning, real estate, home and business decorating and, most recently, publishing, Parmelee has certainly built an extensive resume.

Framed and displayed on Parmelee’s Green Hall office walls are her many scholarly accolades, including her bachelor’s degrees in communication and English at the University of Maryland, College Park, her Master of Business Administration at Liberty University and her doctorate in philosophy at Regent University.

Parmelee said that she began teaching as a communication professor because of the Lord.

“The thing is, I was called to teach,” Parmelee said.

Parmelee can recall the very day God told her to teach. She was in her junior year at the University of Maryland, standing with her professor in an American rhetoric class, when she heard a voice that, inextricably, did not belong to her professor nor her classmates.

“I heard a voice that said, ‘This is what I have for you,’” Parmelee said. “And I was like, ‘Who said that?’” 

Parmelee taught at two other colleges prior to Liberty, but she holds that Liberty students are “fabulous.” 

“The students are (of) such incredibly high quality,” Parmelee said. “Most of them care very deeply about their education, but just knowing that we have our Christian faith in common is awesome.” 

Parmelee finds her passion and calling not only in teaching, but also writing. Parmelee has written and published several scholarly pieces, including an article she and a former Liberty colleague, Clark Greer, wrote on Fortune 500 companies’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. A tier-1 academic journal has published the article.

Last year she and Greer partnered again and published a study that follows the British royal family’s use of Instagram, utilizing Erving Goffman’s presentation of self theory to determine which family members are “in-group” and “out-group” (Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are considered “out-group” because they only appeared twice on the Instagram page).

In addition to her scholarly work and teaching, Parmelee published her first novel, “Though I Walk,” in January. The story follows its female protagonist as she draws upon her God-given talents to defend against her abusive husband, and Parmelee hopes it will reach the women’s fiction audience with the gospel.

“I wanted to tell a compelling story and halfway through the story share the gospel,” Parmelee said. “I don’t hit anybody over the head with the Bible. I don’t cite any Bible verses. I just gently share what it means to be a Christian and have a relationship with Jesus Christ, and the idea I had is (to) show what happens when (one) character follows Christ and (the other) character doesn’t.”

Her calling to teach, however, has impacted several students.

“(Parmelee) facilitated my growth by not only encouraging me, but also providing personalized feedback that strengthened the areas I needed to develop for the future,” first-year strategic communication graduate student Joy Lee said.

Parmelee’s influence continues to stick with students when they leave the classroom environment.

“Parmelee helped me so much with my public speaking skills,” 2022 alumna Emily Pitts said. “Every time that I had a class with her — which was a lot — my public speaking skills improved so much over the course of the semester. I feel like now I do better in interview settings, and I feel like she helped my overall professionalism.”

Goforth is a feature reporter for the Liberty Champion