TCU’s Bob Schieffer College of Communication welcomes to its Board of Visitors alumnae Katherine Beattie ’08 and Bonnie Creel ’71 (’74 M.S.)
Katherine Beattie
A graduate of the Schieffer College’s Film, Television and Digital Media Department, Katherine Beattie ’08 is co-executive producer for television’s long-running series NCIS, and previously produced NCIS: New Orleans. Her efforts to improve on-screen representation of and more opportunity for people with disabilities won her the Writers Guild of America West’s Evan Somers Memorial Award.
As a wheelchair motocross athlete, she was in 2016 the first woman to land a backflip using a wheelchair. As a para surfer, she has competed on the USA Para Surfing Team at the International Surfing Association’s world championships. In February, Beattie was featured in TCU’s sesquicentennial campaign with a 56- by 32-foot mural on the side of Hollywood’s Fonda Theatre.
Dr. Bonnie Creel ’71 (’74 M.S.)
After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Schieffer College’s Communication Studies Department, Dr. Bonnie Creel ’71 (’74 M.S.) completed a Ph.D. in speech communication from Texas A&M and taught at Tarrant County College for more than 20 years. As a faculty member in speech communication, she also led the college’s honors program and received the Chancellor’s Award for Exemplary Teaching.
Since her retirement from TCC, she has continued as co-author of the textbook Communicating for Success, the third edition of which was published in February by Routledge Press. Creel and her husband recently endowed a scholarship that will support students transferring from Tarrant County College to complete degrees at TCU, with priority given to students studying in the Schieffer College.
Three longtime Schieffer Board of Visitors members have been named emeritus members. They are Roy Eaton ’59, former Schieffer board chair and Wise County Messenger owner; H. Andrew Schwartz, senior vice president for external affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; and Stephen Tatum, attorney and Canty Hanger LLP partner.