“Self-education is the only possible education;
the rest is mere veneer laid on the surface of a child’s nature.”
― Charlotte M. Mason
Hello! My name is Dr. Carol Hepburn. Welcome to my website and online portfolio. I am glad you found my site, and hope you find what you are looking for as you browse the online pages. This website is a compilation of my life and work experience in industry and education.
My professional experience includes corporate communications, higher education, IT, web, and graphic arts roles. Since 2013, I have worked as a professor teaching English and Communication courses while completing a Ph.D. in Communication from Regent University’s School of Communication and the Arts. I completed my degree program in 2017, and I graduated with distinction.
I currently teach master’s and doctoral courses in Strategic Communication. Additionally, I teach writing courses in the first-year writing program at Arizona State University.
Please click the Resume link above to learn more about my professional experience. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn.
Research Interests
My primary area of research is rhetoric and communication. My dissertation examined how organizations, specifically the American megachurch, applied communication to influence culture and identity. This research contributed to the current literature in organizational communication and applied communication studies. Moreover, this research suggested a model of organizational culture within the American megachurch and illuminated areas of further research within the intersection of applied communication and organizational culture and identity research.
Other News and Notes
- January 2024 – Development of two courses: Special Topics Seminar and Theoretical Practicum. Both courses are for the Ph.D. in Strategic Media and Communication at Liberty University.
- January 2024 – Development of a course in AI for doctoral students at Regent University. The working title is “Strategic Communication and Generative AI.”
- December 2023 – I co-authored an article titled “Using Generative AI to Communicate with History.” It has been submitted to the BEA – Broadcasting Educators Association for publication or presentation in 2024.
- June 2022 – I recently published two articles in the Journal of Business and Social Sciences Review.
- January 2022 – Development of the course for Applied Research Methods and a Global Contexts: Cultural, Diversity, and Equity seminar.
- January 2021 – Development of a seminar in strategic rhetoric for Ph.D. and DSC students.
- August 2020 – Development work designing an applied research methods course for strategic communication research professionals.
- January 2020 – Continued development work designing two research methods (Quantitative and Applied) courses.
- November 2019 – Begin development work on Introduction to Strategic Communication and Qualitative Research Method courses for Regent University’s new Doctorate of Strategic Communication degree program.
- August 2019 – Begin development work on a new strategic communication professional degree at Regent University.
- January 2019 – Redeveloped a Media Research and Analysis course for Regent University.
- January 2019 – Begin development work on a mixed-methods course for Liberty University’s Ph.D. in Strategic Communication degree program.
- October 2018 – Working on a critical analysis of early medieval spirituality, specifically focusing on how men and women of faith communicated their spiritual experience.
- August 2018 – Full-time faculty at the Arizona State University Writers’ Studio.
- May 2017 – Dedication, Commissioning, and Commencement at Regent University.
- April 2017 – Dissertation accepted for publication and confirmed received by ProQuest.
- March 2017 – Dissertation defended.
- March 2017 – My dissertation on the role of mediated communication in the American megachurch is finished. My scheduled defense was on March 13, 2017.
- December 2016 – My research project is coming along nicely. I am in the middle of coding my visual artifacts and will start processing the data by the end of the month. I am on track to finish my dissertation this spring.
- October 2016 – I passed my defense earlier this week with flying colors. My research project on the American megachurch will officially begin on November 1. I’m still on track to finish sometime in early spring 2017. #HomeStretch
- September 2016 – I will defend my research proposal on corporate culture and identity in the American megachurch at the end of October. Phase 1-3 of my mixed methods research (qualitative and quantitative content analysis) using Luc Pauwels’s framework for analyzing websites as cultural expressions should be completed by December 2016. The final defense should follow in early-mid March 2017.
- July 2016 – My proposal for my dissertation on how the American megachurch uses mediated communication to create an organizational culture and establish organizational identity is in revision.
- May 2016 – My article, “Ethnography of Communication in Praxis in the Literature Classroom,” has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Instructional Research. The print release date is August 2016. Update: Read the published article here.
- May 2016 – My research seeks to understand mediated communication’s role in the American megachurch. This project will utilize a mixed-methods approach, including content analysis and rhetorical analysis, to examine the effectiveness of emerging technology in developing and sustaining an organizational identity—draft Proposal – submitted for review (May 2016).
- December 2015 – I completed a review of the 12th-century French teacher and philosopher Peter Abelard. This critical review discusses Abelard’s views on theology and the nature of reason. As an undergraduate English student, I read Abelard’s “Letters to Heloise” and greatly admired his work. In addition, I enjoy reading medieval philosophy. I am interested in the works of the early Church fathers, specifically in their assertion of the necessity of reason as a precursor to faith. My focus of this paper will center on his position in support of reason and his argument that faith rests upon reason. This position is contrary to what most theologians of the period, and those following, have argued that reason rests upon faith.
- Fall 2015 – Literary ethnography is a relatively new approach to research, and until recently, it was not considered an accepted method for ethnographic research. However, scholars have pushed the boundary lines of what constitutes ethnography to include disparate approaches such as auto-ethnography and ethnography in the classroom. This critical review will examine key texts produced by Native American writers and will explore their conceptual framework of liminal spaces as they observe their own culture through dual lenses.
- Spring 2015 – I wrote an article on the Ethnography of Communication and suggested a way for college Literature instructors to introduce this framework into the literature lesson. This manuscript is currently under review at The Journal of Instructional Research.
- Fall 2014 – I conducted a visual analysis of the Boarding School’s exhibit at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ, in 2014. In addition to writing a conference paper, I also created a short video of my analysis, which is available on my Media page.
- Fall 2013 – I developed a proposal in 2013 to suggest ways to improve communication at Paradise Church in Phoenix, AZ. This proposal partially fulfilled a course in Organizational Communication at Regent University. I have a short video presentation describing the project on my Media page.