Fall 2016
Volume I Issue I
LR Alum Makes it Big on the Dr. Phil Show Erin Parker attended Lenoir-Rhyne from 1994-1998 where she inititially started on a soccer scholarship. She always knew she wanted to be involved in studio production, but originally thought she would like to be in front of the camera- little did she know that her future career would lead her behind the camera instead. A childhood friend of hers was the assistant to the president of FOX in LA, and called her after graduation to ask if she wanted to be a production assistant on a few different shows: the Hugleys, Malcolm In the Middle, Maggie Winter, Roswell. She moved back home after about nine months and then went to Chicago to be the associate producer at the Jenny Jones show where she met a lot of people that helped her along in her career. After a few years she decided to Erin Parker, News Producer for the Dr. Phil Show, take a break from TV and went into pictured above with her father, David Parker marketing and advertsing in South Florida. Several years later a friend messaged her on Facebook and told her she was interested in her working for Dr. Phil. She’s now on her fifth season with Dr. Phil, where they asked her to develop the news department. She scours the news everyday & watches all her competitors and sees what would be a good fit for Dr. Phil, and flies around and shoots on location for different news stories. She goes out and talks to guests and puts it together before Phil flies out with her supervising producer. She’s usually pre-interviewed the desks so Dr. Phil will know what the guests will be talking about, and decide what direction they want the show to go. “With LR, I really think you do have to strategically place yourself. NBC was everywhere and I knew there was opportunity – I see a lot of kids these days that don’t take certain jobs because it feels beneath them – but take any experience you can get and go full force because you never know who you’re going to meet. Your internship is a huge opportunity to get your first job.”
Student Spotlights Because communication is such a widespread topic, our COM Bears can seek internships in some uncommon places; Amber McKnight is a prime example of that. McKnight is a senior multimedia communications major and this past summer she held an internship position with Novant Health in Salisbury. She initially became interested in this organization when writing a paper on momography for professor Richard Gould’s class. One of Novant Health’s large mobile buses caught her attention, and one of the workers pointed her in the direction to finding a job there. McKnight originally intended to work with marketing and event planning, but there were no internships available for that at the time.The internship that she was given included responsibilities such as making rounds on the hospital floors, checking on patients, and participating in board meetings. She had the opportunity to meet with the head chair of Novant and discuss some ideas that she had for the organization. McKnight said she is thankful for this internship because it was a great networking opportunity, and it allowed her to broaden her skills that she could use in the future. Check out what some of our other COM students have been up to this semester!
Alumni Relations
Check out where some of our COM Bears have ended up after graduation Jazmine Charles -Catawba College Aaron Burns - Communications Specialist at Charlotte Motor Speedway Kristine Elizabeth Smith - Email Marketing Manager at Biltmore Estates, Asheville Kaitlyn Burton - Luxury Suites Administrator at Bank of America Stadium Jade Love Bittle - Teacher for Rowan-Cabarrus County Schools Lauren Hauser Walters - Co-Owner at River Trail Mercantile Make sure to follow LR’s COM department on social media @lru_com @lru_com Lenoir-Rhyne Journalism & Mass Communication
School of Journalism & Mass Communication