Karyl Elizabeth Sabbath earned her Ph.D. in Interpersonal Communication in 1988 from Ohio University. During her 21 years teaching in the Department of Communication at Otterbein College, Sabbath was tenured in 1993 and promoted to Full Professor in 2002. She served as President of the Speech Communication Association of Ohio from 1997-99 and as the (renamed) Ohio Communication Association’s Journal Editor from 1999-2006. In June 2010, Sabbath retired from Otterbein College and was conferred emeritus status. She served as a counselor in outpatient and inpatient drug and alcohol treatment prior to her doctoral studies and presently holds an Independent Chemical Dependency Counselor License. Karyl Sabbath is presently employed as a Senior Teaching Special Assistant Professor, teaching public speaking, nonverbal communication, interpersonal and professional communication skills, family communication, senior capstone, and popular culture courses for the Colorado State University Communication Studies Department. Registered as a Psychotherapist in Colorado, Sabbath passed the National Addiction Counselor exam (MAT) in Spring 2014 and received her Addiction Counselor licensure (LAC) in Colorado in March 2015.

For several years, Sabbath has served as an outside consultant and facilitator for organizational change, team-building and small group consensus, organizational visioning, and mentoring. Her present research interests involve critical thinking strategies in service learning & community engagement, as well as change in family communication. Her 1999 chapter in Communication in Recovery: Perspectives on Twelve-Step Groups examines communication styles of Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoA).