{"id":18614,"date":"2026-05-08T20:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/?p=18614"},"modified":"2026-05-08T20:52:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:52:37","slug":"dr-betty-farmer-retires-after-33-innovative-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/blog\/2026\/05\/08\/dr-betty-farmer-retires-after-33-innovative-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Betty Farmer Retires After 33 Innovative Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Betty Farmer, professor of communication, will be professor emeritus starting July 1, after 33 years at Western Carolina University.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout her career, Farmer has developed and taught 27 different courses and founded the PRSSA chapter at Western. She served as head of the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts, faculty fellow for mentoring and assistant to the chancellor for Dillsboro. Farmer led the Dillsboro revitalization project, served as a provost fellow for engagement and led the effort to reaffirm Carnegie community engaged university.<\/span><\/p>\n

Farmer has experience as a consultant, trainer, coach and contributor with the North Carolina workforce development, providing leadership training for corporate and governmental entities. She also chaired and served on hundreds of committees across all levels of the university\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a scholar, Farmer published dozens of articles and book chapters, as well as presented on international, national and regional levels.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last 33 years, I\u2019ve enjoyed serving in numerous leadership positions, collaborating with colleagues and community partners on meaningful projects, and being part of so many students\u2019 professional development,\u201d said Farmer.\u00a0 \u201cIn recognition of my retirement, dozens of former and current students have sent me letters and emails to share how I have impacted their lives both professionally and personally. It has been so very touching. I am both grateful and blessed to have had this wonderful career and to develop so many close relationships with students, colleagues, and community members.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuesday, April 28, Farmer received the Student-Nominated Faculty of the Year Award, which is previously known as the \u201cLast Lecture Award.\u201d This honor is given to a professor who exhibits passion and excellence in teaching. The award was created to continue the legacy of a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, by providing students with the opportunity to honor praiseworthy professors. It is the only student-nominated faculty award on campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201dWhile I am retiring from WCU, I will continue to provide leadership consulting, training and coaching for regional organizations,\u201d said Farmer. \u201cI also look forward to spending more time with my husband and family, traveling, and gardening.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Congratulations to Farmer on her retirement and thank you for the great impact you have left at Western Carolina University.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Betty Farmer, professor of communication, will be professor emeritus starting July 1, after 33 years at Western Carolina University. Throughout her career, Farmer has developed and taught 27 different courses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3360,"featured_media":18616,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3360"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18615,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18614\/revisions\/18615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}