Patricia Harms’ interests and research include visual rhetoric, slide design, and communicating with data; performance feedback; virtual teaching and learning; and business writing strategies and trends. She has taught written and oral business communication at UNC Kenan-Flagler since 2003. Patricia is co-author of Connect Master: Business Communication (McGraw-Hill, 2024) with Dr. Heidi Schultz.

She was elected as the vice president of the Association for Business Communication (ABC), the largest professional organization focusing exclusively on business communication. She previously served as the ABC’s Southeastern US regional vice president. She also is a member of the Management Communication Association. She received the 2023 Meada Gibbs Outstanding Teacher-Scholar Award, which honors an ABC member whose teaching has made an outstanding contribution to the business communication discipline.

Prior to her academic career, she was an administrator for a small, home-health agency where she also was responsible for marketing and public relations. A registered nurse, she has worked in labor and delivery, infection control, and hospital and home-health staff development. She received her PhD in rhetoric and professional communication from Iowa State University, her MA in business and technical writing from Iowa State University, and her BSN from the University of Pennsylvania.