Professor Reif-Stice Earns Top Paper Honors

November 26, 2018

Columbus State University Communication professor Carrie Reif-Stice was a part of a team of scholars who recently earned the Top Paper Award of the year from the Applied Communication Division of the Southern States Communication Association.

Their study, "Controlled Chaos: Examining network response to the 2017 Hattiesburg tornado", was the top paper among communication faculty from across the southern United States.

The research examines the collaboration of organizations working in disaster relief following two tornadoes that hit Hattiesburg, MS, where Reif-Stice completed her doctoral program of study. The study identified four themes of collaborative management exhibited by organizations in the relief effort: coordination, facilitation of communication, identification, and experience.

The honor marks Reif-Stice's first Top Paper Award as part of the faculty at Columbus State University.