Anita K. McDaniel is an Assistant Professor of Speech Communication at the University of North

Carolina at Wilmington in Wilmington, North Carolina where she teaches in the Department of

CommunicationStudies.  She received her B.A. degree in Speech Communication from Texas

A&M University, her M.A.in Interpersonal and Organizational Communication from the

University of Houston, and her Ph.D. in Interpersonal Communication from the University of

Texas at Austin. For the last fourteen years, she has presented papers at national communication

conferences on popular culture and currently conducts research on popular myths about

interpersonal relationships.