Dr. Carolyn Atkins
Advisory Board Member
Dr. Carolyn Peluso Atkins is a Professor Emerita in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University, where she also serves as Assistant to the President and Coordinator of the Presidential Ambassadors Program. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in rhetoric and public address, a master’s in speech-language pathology, and her doctorate in curriculum and instruction, all from West Virginia University.
Over a career spanning decades, Dr. Atkins became one of the university’s most decorated educators. She was named the 2005 West Virginia CASE Professor of the Year and has received the WVU Foundation Award for Outstanding Teacher and the Golden Key International Honour Society’s Golden Apple Award, among other honors. She is widely recognized as the creator of Student Athletes Speak Out, a program that for more than twenty-five years built communication skills and self-confidence in WVU student-athletes. She brought that same work to those who served, teaching a Veterans Speak Out class that helped veterans find their voice and tell their stories with confidence.
As an advisory board member, Dr. Atkins brings a lifetime of mentorship, communication, and leadership development to The Eight Fifty Committee. Her experience helping veterans find their voice maps directly to our mission, and her guidance helps the Committee tell the veteran’s story with clarity and dignity.
