Patricia Harms

Patricia Harms is a Clinical Professor of Management and Corporate Communication at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. She has taught business communication since 2003, focusing on visual rhetoric, data communication, and generative AI applications. She holds a PhD in rhetoric and professional communication from Iowa State University, along with an MA and BSN.

Dr. Harms has served as President of the Association for Business Communication (ABC), reflecting her leadership in the field. She received the 2023 Meada Gibbs Outstanding Teacher-Scholar Award and the BPCQ Outstanding Article of the Year (2011). Her teaching spans MBA programs, the Master of Accounting Program, and executive development courses.

Her research integrates virtual learning strategies with traditional business communication practices. Notable work includes studies on feedback mechanisms, genre theory applications in education, and longitudinal analyses of learning communities in engineering disciplines.

Dr. Harms advises corporate clients across healthcare, government, and academia, including the Defense Logistics Agency and UNC-Chapel Hill’s public health divisions. Her prior career as a registered nurse in labor and delivery and healthcare administration informs her teaching on interdisciplinary communication challenges.

She has authored/co-authored textbooks like Connect Master: Business Communication (2024) and serves on the editorial board of Business and Professional Communication Quarterly.