M. Heather Carver, Department Chair, Co-Director of the Writing for Performance Program, Co-founder Troubling Violence Performance Project, Creator and Artistic Director of the Life and Literature Performance Workshop and Series, and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Theatre at the University of Missouri, recently received the 2021 Leslie Irene Coger Award for Distinguished Performance from the National Communication Association (NCA).

Presented annually, the Coger Award honors a body of performance or an outstanding career in performance. Dr. Carver's career in performance studies has been exemplary. Carver models the artist/scholar dynamic with a steadiness of inquiry, a boldness of tongue, and a softness of reflexivity. Carver's performance work exemplifies the highest levels of artistic excellence and social efficacy in performance studies methodologies. Carver’s work explores issues associated with breast cancer and the difficulty and complexity of domestic violence. As one colleague wrote, Carver provides "strategies that are moving and inspiring, a brave and empathetic connection to people facing similar challenges."

“NCA’s annual awards honor Communication scholars’ teaching, scholarship, and service,” NCA Interim Executive Director Linda Taliaferro, CAE, said. “NCA is proud to recognize Dr. Carver's significant contributions to the Communication discipline with this award.”

Dr. Carver's award will be presented on November 20 at the NCA 107th Annual Convention in Seattle, WA. For more information about NCA’s awards program, visit http://www.natcom.org/awards/.

To schedule an interview with M. Heather Carver, please contact Dr. Carver at carverh@missouri.edu.

About the National Communication Association
The National Communication Association (NCA) advances Communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media, and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific, and aesthetic inquiry. NCA serves the scholars, teachers, and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems. NCA supports inclusiveness and diversity among our faculties, within our membership, in the workplace, and in the classroom; NCA supports and promotes policies that fairly encourage this diversity and inclusion.

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