As half-asleep students walk into the classroom of Nancy Parker-Wright on Friday mornings they are awakened by the energy and enthusiasm of this Organizational Communication instructor.

“She is very energetic and I like that, being that it is 9 a.m. on a Friday morning and I really don’t want to wake up,” says Melissa Gousse, a sophomore communication major. “But she really wakes me up and gets me into the class.”

Unlike many faculty members at Florida Atlantic University, Parker-Wright works at FAU part-time and has a full-time position as vice president in Washington Mutual’s Workforce, Performance and Development Department.

Susan Reilly, chair of the Communication Department, met Parker-Wright at a luncheon meeting of the Palm Beach County Cultural Council where she was the featured speaker. Reilly was so impressed with Parker-Wright’s presentation that she went up to her afterward and asked if she would be interested in teaching Organizational Communication at FAU.

“She was very poised and very well organized and clearly knew what she was talking about,” Reilly says.

Parker-Wright doesn’t just teach from the theory side, but brings the components of theory to practical applications.

Jessica House, a senior communication major, says that the Organizational Communication course is one of the best classes she’s taken because it is very practical and Parker-Wright has taught her how to use what she has learned as an executive. Adds Gousse: “I’m learning things that I can use every day in work, school and at home.”

This is the first time that Parker-Wright has been teaching at the university level, but she has been teaching as part of employee development and training for the last 10 years.

She has gone through a number of careers in corporate America, starting with advertising and marketing and understanding how to brand a product. She worked at the giant J. Walter Thompson ad agency and in the marketing department of Ford Motor Company. She also worked for McDonald’s, starting in advertising and marketing, and then moving to workforce development.

Parker-Wright explains that even people who come into the workplace with a college education still need development. At Bank Atlantic, she runs employees through the bank’s curriculum and classes. As vice president in workforce, performance and development she also helps workers to perform better, learn more, and build skills.

Parker-Wright brings a number of activities she uses with her employees into the classroom so students can see the practical applications. House says what she enjoys most about the course is that Parker-Wright doesn’t lecture the whole time but conducts group activities, shows videos and adds to the textbook from her work experience.

One of the class activities consists of a track-type device that has straps attached and the students as a group have to decide how to use the track to get to the other side of the building.

“This activity showed us that we needed teamwork to work together and we needed to communicate with one another,” House says, “because if someone in the back of the track did not express what was happening then the activity could be ruined.”

Gousse says that from this activity she learned how there could be misunderstandings due to improper communication between management and employees.

Parker-Wright believes that the problems that occurred at the now bankrupt energy giant Enron were due to a lack of ethical principles, violations of policies and procedures, and unethical behavior. The lack of truthful communication also probably had something to do with Enron’s woes, she adds.

“Companies should look at the vision they have for their organizations, the mission they have, and tie it into values based on principles, not social values, and really evaluate what the values of that organization are,” Parker-Wright advises.

Originally from Detroit, Parker-Wright is a communication graduate from the University of Detroit and has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan. In 1991, McDonalds transferred her to Boca Raton from Connecticut.

“When students leave here they are going to quickly realize that most organizations don’t need people who merely manage. They need visionary leaders,” Parker-Wright says. “They need leaders that have the ability to see the big picture, and how to put pieces together in various departments and divisions to make this vision come alive.”

“Go into any job experience and emulate a sponge,” Parker-Wright advises students. “Try to learn as much about the organization, learn as much about the department, learn as much about the job, and always be mindful that you are going to be responsible for your own development. The company will help employees up to an extent, but employees will be responsible for their own future growth and development.”

As Parker-Wright explains, what happens to fruit after it ripens is it rots. The next stage after being ripe is to deteriorate and to rot. “If you stay green you stay growing,” Parker-Wright says.