GCA Awards
2026 – Mercer University (Macon)
Standing Ovation Award – Dr. Barbara Graham Tucker is widely known for her sustaining leadership in the Georgia Communication Association and for the steady mentorship she has provided to generations of GCA officers. Serving through the full officer succession—from Secretary to President-Elect (and Conference Chair), President, and Past President—she helped guide the organization with consistency, institutional memory, and calm competence. She also served as Proceedings of the Georgia Communication Association Editor, strengthening an accessible publication venue that supports the work of scholar-teachers across the state. Across her broader career in higher education, Tucker modeled what durable service looks like: building infrastructure, welcoming new leaders, and doing the often-invisible work that keeps a professional community healthy. Her GCA legacy is not only the offices she held, but the culture she helped foster—one defined by care for students and colleagues, professionalism, and a genuine commitment to communication education in Georgia.
Top Paper – Amy Mendes (University of West Georgia) Entitled Transgression as Status Work: A Grounded Theory of Asshole Style in Contemporary Political Performance
Top Presentation – Kate Keib (Oglethorpe University) and Jess Hunt-Ralston (Georgia Institute of Technology) Teaching Tomorrow’s Communicators Today: Faculty Strategies for AI Integration
Top Student Paper – Jack McKinney (Georgia College & State University) The Nation Wears Prada: a Transnational Rhetorical and Ideological Critique of the 2025 Met Gala Through a Banal Nationalistic Framework
Top Student Presentation – Abbi Adams and Isabella Argudin (Wesleyan College) Hedbanz of Hermeneutics: Game based learning and literary theory in the English Classroom
Most Engaged Institution – Georgia State University
Student Involvement Champion – Georgia College & State University
2025 – The University of West Georgia
Top Paper – Jasmine Hope Jackson; 1964 Marietta Daily Journal Coverage of Marietta High School Integration
Top Presentation – Meredith Ginn & Emily Holler; Reflections on the First Semester or Core IMPACTS Implementation
Top Student Paper – Sara Fletcher Rivera; Grave of the Fireflies: An Elegiac Masterpiece
Top Student Presentation – Lauren Lane & Davia Lassiter; Twice as Good: Black Women and the 2024 Election
Most Engaged Institution – Georgia State University
Student Involvement Champion – Mercer University
2024 – Piedmont University
Top Paper – Philip Aust & Alex Bircik; The Connection between Communication, Music, and the Individual: A Business Communication Application
Top Presentation – Matthew Terrell; Improv Exercises in Communication Education – From Human Communication to Mass Media
Top Student Paper – Davia Rose Lassiter; Shattering the Concrete Ceiling: The Brown Table Talk Podcast
Top Student Presentation – Q. McElroy; Boss Babe: A New Stereotypical Archetype for Depicting African-American Women in TV and Other Mass Media
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2027 – Georgia Highlands College (tentative)
2026 – Mercer University (planned)
2025 – The University of West Georgia
2024 – Piedmont University
2023 – August University
2022 – Virtual event
2021 – Virtual event
2020 – Georgia Highlands College
2019 – Clayton State University
2018 – Columbus State University
2017 – Middle Georgia State University (Macon)
2016 – Georgia College and State University
2015 – Georgia Southern University
2014 – Georgia State University
2013 – Dalton State College
2012 – Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College
2011 – Brenau University
2010 – Georgia Southern University
2009 – West Georgia College & State University
2008 – Augusta State University
2007 – Gainesville State College
2006 – Toccoa Falls College
2005 – Georgia College and State University
2004 – Clayton State University
2003 – Georgia Perimeter College
2002 – Valdosta State University
2001 – University of Georgia
2000 – Augusta State University
1999 – Valdosta State University
1998 – Kennesaw State University
1997 – West Georgia College
1996 – Columbus State College
Were you at a GCA conference before 1996? Where was it? Email us at gacomm@gmail.com