Rate My Professor Irene Thrower

Irene Thrower has a distinguished career in speech communication education within the Communications faculty at Tarrant County College. She began her tenure as an adjunct instructor at the Northeast Campus in 2001, advanced to full-time Speech Instructor there from 2003 to 2009, and continued in that role at the Trinity River Campus from 2009 to 2020. As Department Chair of Communications and Fine Arts at the Trinity River Campus, she managed programs encompassing speech communication and fine arts disciplines. Thrower also assumed key administrative responsibilities, including Acting Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Trinity River Campus, interim Director of Staff Development, and involvement in faculty leadership panels.

In recognition of her teaching excellence, Thrower received the Chancellor's Award for Exemplary Teaching in 2014 at the Trinity River Campus. She coached the college forensics teams to notable successes, such as top honors at the Newbie Novice Tournament in 2011. Thrower contributed to campus initiatives by presenting on the Sign Language Interpreting program to the Board of Trustees in 2016, participating in the Leadership TCC class in 2010, and teaching speech courses at the Tarleton State campus for Tarrant County College, where she emphasized applying communication skills to real-world situations. Her publications include co-authoring the Public Speaking Workbook (Fountainhead Press, 2018) with Deborah Blankenship and Stephen Bailey, and the Instructor's Resource Manual for Hamilton's Essentials of Public Speaking, 3rd edition (Thomson Wadsworth, 2006), with Deborah Blankenship and Cheryl Hamilton. Thrower earned a B.A. in English from the University of Dallas in 1996, an M.A. in Communication from the University of Houston in 1999, and completed doctoral coursework toward a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of North Texas.