WILSON, N.C. – Barton College is pleased to announce Phyllis R. Parish Howard, as the featured speaker for the 109th Opening Convocation. The annual campus event is scheduled for Tuesday, August 31, at 11 a.m. in Howard Chapel.
Parish Howard is Director of Local Production for WRAL-TV, a CBS affiliate and division of Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc. in Raleigh. Chosen as Employee of the Year by her colleagues, she was honored with WRAL’s prestigious 5-Star Award in 1987. Recognized for her outstanding broadcasting achievements with six Mid-South Regional Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Parish Howard’s award-winning programs include her environmental documentary, “Troubled Rivers,” WRAL’s ‘For the Children’ campaign, WRAL’s teen pregnancy prevention campaign “Sex, Lies & Education,” two Emmy awards for “Smart Start Kids” and an Advanced Media/Community Affairs Emmy for WRAL’s Komen for the Cure project. In 2003, Parish Howard was presented the NC Prevention Performance Award for Excellence in Media by the NC Prevention Partners for her documentary, “Super-sizing Our Kids: NC’s Epidemic of Overweight Children.” She also is the recipient of a 2005 Gracie Allen Award for the same locally produced documentary.
A native of Wendell, Parish Howard graduated magna cum laude from Barton College (then Atlantic Christian College) in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. She served on the Barton College Board of Trustees as an alumni representative from 1999 until 2003, and later returned to the Board as a trustee in 2004. She currently serves as chair of the Board of Trustees’ Enrollment Committee. Parish Howard is a past member of the Barton College Alumni Board and was honored in 2004 with the Barton College Alumni Achievement Award.
In 2008, the Phyllis Parish Howard Television Control Room in the Department of Communications and Performing Arts at Barton College was dedicated in Parish Howard’s honor. This addition to the television studio on campus was made possible by a gift from the WRAL/Capitol Broadcasting Company Fund, and presented by Jim Goodmon, president and CEO of Capitol Broadcasting Company in honor of Phyllis Parish Howard.
Parish Howard also serves as an active member of Hillyer Memorial Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Raleigh, where she has served as a deacon, an elder, and chair of the board. She also volunteers with Wake County’s Meals on Wheels and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.
The daughter of Aileen and Bill Parish of Wendell, Parish Howard is married to Seab Howard III, and they have one daughter, Gabrielle. The Howard family makes their home in Raleigh.
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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.