Women to Watch at UA Little Rock: Dr. April Chatham-Carpenter

​​In celebration of Women’s History Month, UA Little Rock is profiling women in leadership positions who are making a difference at the university and in the community.

The next Woman to Watch at UA Little Rock of 2024 is Dr. April Chatham-Carpenter, chair of the Department of Applied Communication!

Tell us about yourself and your background.

I was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I grew up in Hope, Magnolia, and Conway, Arkansas, and went to school at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA), so that I could live at home and save money when going to school.

Everyone expected that I was going to major in music in college since I played classical piano and violin, but I didn’t think I was good enough to be a professional musician full-time, and I had no interest in becoming a music teacher. My sophomore year of college, I took an aptitude test that said I would be good as a teacher in the social sciences. Since I didn’t fully know what that would entail, I thought about what I liked and was good at, besides music. I had been successful in my high school speech classes, and I liked the way my college speech instructor talked about the role that communication plays in relationships and the importance of public communication for a democracy, so I decided to major in Speech Communication and minor in Music. Through a series of unforeseen events, however, I realized that high school teaching wasn’t the path I wanted to pursue, so I looked into other ways of becoming a teacher and found out that college teaching was one option.

I applied for two graduate programs, and I still remember the surprise I got when I received a phone call to say I was accepted into the MA/Ph.D. program in Communication at the University of Oklahoma (OU) and was being offered a graduate teaching assistantship there. My Dad was an OU alum, and I loved the Sooners and Sooners football, so this sounded ideal to me. Also, my grandmother still lived in Oklahoma, not too far from the OU campus, so I could live with her and save money.  (As you can see from my educational choices, my family and saving money when going to school, was a strong value for me.)

From my first week in the college classroom teaching at OU, as a graduate teaching assistant, I fell in love with teaching and working with college students. I wasn’t much older than the students were at the time, but it was truly fun learning alongside them in the Basic Speech class. I also excelled in my graduate coursework and found learning about communication principles, contexts, and research interesting. Although I was no longer studying music, I knew I had found my academic home!

After graduating with my Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma, I took my first teaching position at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where I stayed for 24 years. I thrived in the classroom, building relationships with students, and I loved the classes I was teaching in Interpersonal Communication, Research Methods, and the Basic Communication course.

Before coming to UA Little Rock, in addition to teaching, I moved in and out of a variety of academic administrative roles, none of which I sought out. In each position, I learned through trial and error – through both beautiful and terrible times – what it meant to serve well.

• Assistant Basic Course Director as a graduate student – put into that position in my second year in the MA/Ph.D. program (1985-1986);
• Coordinator of the Communication program – nominated for that position in my second year as an assistant professor (1993-1995);
• Graduate Director (2008-2011);
• Assistant to the Acting Department Chair (2010);
• Administrative Fellow in the Provost’s office (2012-2014), where I was co-chair of the specialized first-year experience self-study for university HLC reaccreditation efforts, and co-director of the university’s first-year cornerstone course, which I helped create; and
• Interim Associate Provost & Dean of the Graduate College (2014-2015).

I never sought out such positions, but it seemed people were always coming to me to ask if I would do this or that. For a long time, I couldn’t figure out why, since I didn’t consider myself “leadership material.” Eventually, in one of these roles, I took the Clifton StrengthsQuest inventory and found I had many strengths that were considered important in the leadership roles to which I was appointed. Then it all started making sense – my winding path through academia, which allowed me to both teach and do administrative tasks. But I still find it interesting that my current administrative position is the ONLY one I ever applied for and actively sought.

What is your current position and professional duties at UA Little Rock?

I am currently the chair of the Department of Applied Communication at UA Little Rock and a professor in that department. In my role as department chair, along with problem-solving student and faculty concerns, I support the development and assessment of curriculum for the department, supervise and mentor faculty and staff, advocate for the department with internal and external constituencies, and provide oversight of departmental budgets and course scheduling.

As a professor, I am expected to teach, do research, and serve in the community. As a teacher, I teach 3+ classes a year and am active in academic advising students. I teach research methods classes, as well as our senior-level capstone and portfolio classes, and a new class I developed, called Listening and Civil Dialogue.

My research is focused on issues related to listening and civil dialogue, storytelling and identity, transformations in online teaching, and assessment of the impact of initiatives to effect change within the higher education industry. I value doing collaborative research projects with colleagues, students, and alumni.

Along with my service on campus, my community service in recent years has been towards efforts to bridge the political divide by focusing on the communication that takes place in our relationships. Specifically, I have done that as a volunteer leader and workshop facilitator with a nonprofit organization called Braver Angels. I am also currently a co-host of a podcast entitled “On the Other Hand,” sponsored by the local Arkansas chapter of Braver Angels.

What brought you to UA Little Rock?

With all of my varied academic leadership experiences, I was told if I wanted to continue in higher education administration, I needed to have experience as a department chair. I saw a job announcement come through for UA Little Rock for department chair, which would bring me back to my roots and family if I could get the job. So I started checking out the department and its faculty. I saw that the department was actively involved in doing meaningful assessment work, and its mission to “co-create better social worlds through positive communication” was intriguing to me.  It was also a Master’s granting program, which I wanted to be a part of, if I ever moved, since I had loved working with Master’s level graduate students at my previous institution, as well as undergraduate students.

When I came in for the job interview, I fell in love with the department, its faculty, and its mission. It seemed they really lived the mission out within their own relationships with each other, and their applied work in the community was quite impressive. I didn’t see any “dead weight” among the faculty, and they were all excited to be doing what they were doing. I knew it could’ve just been an act they were putting on for the interview, but since being here, I have found that to be true! I have now been at UA Little Rock in a department chair position for eight years, AND I still get to teach, which I consider the best of both worlds, in terms of my skill set and passions.

Along with the mission of my department and my great colleagues, I love teaching at UA Little Rock because I believe teaching with students here gives faculty a unique opportunity to make connections with students who are both traditional and non-traditional in their paths to and through college. Our students often have stories that show the grit and resilience they have built through tough times. As they bring these varied experiences into the classroom, it enriches the discussions and provides opportunities for transformative learning experiences with all who are involved.

What are some of the exciting projects that you are working on at UA Little Rock?

One of the most exciting projects I am working on is my bridge-building work across political divides. I started volunteering with the non-profit Braver Angels in 2020. As I hung out with people across the nation in Zoom meetings (since we were in Covid lockdown), I learned more about the importance of doing depolarizing work. Because of all that was going on in our country, I developed a course for the department called Listening and Civil Dialogue, which looks at how we can improve intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, and public communication to build bridges across our differences, as we communicate in relationships with people we consider to be “other” than us.  I also began developing a line of research related to conflict resilience and conversational receptiveness. In addition, I have been a part of offering several Braver Angels workshops on the UA Little Rock campus and in the local community.

A second project I am excited about is the work faculty, staff, students, and community members are doing to make the campus be more welcoming to Native American issues and persons, as we look for ways to create meaningful connections to Native American history in Arkansas and its relationship to our university’s history. Along with working with a small group of faculty to revise the university’s land acknowledgment statement, I am now working with an expanded group looking for ways to build awareness of Native American history and current impacts on campus, with specific instructional opportunities and projects. In addition, we would like to build coalitional spaces on campus where we can have open discussions on issues important to Native Americans in Arkansas and surrounding states, as we learn how to better communicate with each other about our pasts and consider what actions might best represent and respect our various shared and unique histories. My interest in this project stems from my own background, as I am a citizen of the Cherokee nation, and it is another example of how we can build bridges between us, as well as needed relationships.

A third project is the university’s Leadership Academy, which is a joint collaboration between the Department of Applied Communication and the School of Business, in which faculty from both units offer workshops for agencies and organizations across Arkansas. I teach one on Conflict Management, and my colleagues teach others equally as important for leading in today’s society. We believe we are making a difference by teaching important leadership and communication skills to leaders within multiple types of industries and organizations in Arkansas.

What woman has inspired you the most and why?

So many women have spoken into my life and modeled for me courage, vulnerability, and compassion, three traits that I greatly value. I will provide some exemplars below.

There are authors like Brené Brown, Sheryl Sandberg, Julie Lythcott-Haims, Donna Hicks, Ann Voskamp, and Michele Cushatt, who I have never met, but who have gone through their own life experiences and come out stronger as a result, encouraging others to “keep on keeping on” and making your world a better place than you found it, and to live a “both-and” life, holding onto the beautiful and the terrible at the same time, as you live life in the present moment.

There is my sister who consistently shows me what it looks like to not give up when things get tough. There is my current counselor who encourages me to embrace my bentness towards being driven and at the same time celebrate the little things in life with gratitude. There are the multiple volunteers in Braver Angels who give of their time to do difficult and important bridge-building work, and who have become close friends of mine, even though we live across the country in many different places.

What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders?

My advice comes from my own life experiences and the advice I have been given and that has been modeled for me. Here are a few things I would recommend.

• Be okay with a non-linear process. Life, and your career, don’t have to be in a straight line. Sometimes it’s more like a jungle gym, than climbing a ladder, as Sheryl Sandberg talks about in her Lean In book.
• Don’t take a job just because it’s offered to you and others expect you to take it.  Will it bring you joy? Is it something you’re passionate about, or is it only something that others think you should do? Sometimes you may have to walk away from the hierarchy to save your soul and well-being.
• Find out what your strengths are through an inventory like Clifton’s Strengths Assessment (Strengthsquest), and embrace your strengths as ways to make your world and community better.

Name something about yourself that most people would be surprised to learn.

I grew up in a musical family, where my Dad studied opera when he was in college. I learned to play the piano and violin in 2nd and 4th grades respectively, and because of the hard work of practicing up to three hours a day for many years (and a little talent), I had three of my four years of college paid for from music scholarships. I was a concert pianist soloist with the UCA symphony, as an undergraduate student, for which I also played first violin.

What is your favorite quote and why?

From the Anatomy of Peace book – this inspires me to keep doing the bridge-building work with myself, my family, my students, my colleagues, and my community.

“If we are going to find lasting solutions to difficult conflicts or external wars we find ourselves in, we first need to find our way out of the internal wars that are poisoning our thoughts, feelings, and attitudes towards others. If we can’t put an end to the violence within us, there is no hope for putting an end to the violence without” (pp. 68-69).