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  • Maj. Chad Carroll, center, receives the 2007 Northwestern Mutual Best Master’s Thesis Award from Ward Wright, right, a retired vice president of communications at Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. His faculty advisor, Dulcie Straughan, is pictured at left. Courtesy photo

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January 3, 2008

CHS grad wins thesis award

Carroll’s writing earns high praise

By Monica Green/features@trcle.com

Maj. Chad Carroll, a 1990 Cleburne High School graduate, won the 2007 Northwestern Mutual Best Master’s Thesis Award by the Institute for Public Relations.

“I feel pretty humbled,” Carroll said. “Not being an academia by trade, I feel that it’s a credit to the Army and the folks that helped me. Also it’s a credit to the faculty who guided me through the process. It’s nice to be recognized, especially as a soldier, for something that’s academic.”

Carroll’s thesis, titled “The U.S. Army Public Diplomacy Officer: Military Public Affairs Officers’ Roles in the Global Information Environment,” was chosen from 17 applicants. In the final round of judging, which included him and one other candidate, nine judges reviewed his thesis.

“This thesis is truly remarkable in both its scope and its potential implications,” one judge said. “[It] makes a true and important contribution to the body of knowledge, and I strongly encourage the author to publish these findings in a journal.”

Carroll said he does plan to revise and condense the thesis and submit it to a journal, possibly the Military Review, the army’s academic publication.

Carroll received his award Nov. 8 at the Institute’s Annual Distinguished Lecture and Awards Dinner at New York City’s Yale Club.

His award included a $2,000 prize, and his faculty advisor, Dulcie Straughan, Ph.D., an associate professor who heads the public relations sequence in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass communications, received $1,000.

Straughan saw the contest and urged him to submit his thesis, Carroll said. He decided to write it after discussions with senior public affairs officers who believed it was an area that needed analysis and study.

A 1994 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Carroll joined the military because he believed it was the right thing to do.

“I think it’s important ... all the things that come with the military — the camaraderie, the things that it teaches you, life experiences it gives you,” Carroll said. “Someone has to do it and I felt like I was someone that could do it and wanted to do it.”

He received a master’s in engineering management from the University of Missouri at Rolla. He completed his master’s in mass communications at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May.

Carroll is the son of Paul and Priscilla Talley of Cleburne and the late Joe Carroll.

“Of course we’re very proud of him,” Priscilla Talley said. “He has certain goals in his life, and he works very hard to achieve these in his life. Chad’s always loved a challenge and strived to do the very best he could.”

Paul Talley said he used to challenge Chad by telling him, “get your money’s worth.”

“All my life I’ve kidded him about that,” he said, “but he’s gotten his money’s worth. I guess kidding him about that has worked.”

Carroll lives in Harker Heights with his wife, Jennifer, and two children, Alexa and Cole. He scheduled to deploy to Iraq in late spring.

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