Carol Oukrop is a professor of journalism at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. She was director of the school 1986-1997. She worked on newspapers and in public relations in North Dakota and Iowa before entering higher education. She was honored as Kansas Press Women Communicator of Achievement in 1991 and received a Public Relations Professional of the Year Clarus Award from the Kansas Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America that same year. She received the 1997 Award for Outstanding Contributions to Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education awarded by the Commission on the Status of Women, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Oukrop's research interests include media history and coverage of rape and sexual abuse. Before joining the Kansas State University faculty in 1969, Oukrop had taught at Dickinson (N.D.) State College and the University of Iowa, and she was a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii, Manoa in 1983-84.