Patricia Prijatel is a winner of the Madelyn Levitt Teacher of the Year Award and of the Burlington-Northern Junior Teacher Award, both university-wide honors for classroom excellence.  In 1997, she was honored by both of her alma maters, receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Southern Colorado and the Alumni Achievement Award from Drake University. She was named the E.T. Meredith Distinguished Professor of Journalism in 1997.

Prijatel is the co-author (with Sammye Johnson of Trinity University) of Magazine Publishing, a textbook used in more than 70 universities throughout the world. Prijatel and Johnson are now writing a second edition of the book, which was also published as a trade title under the name The Magazine from Cover to Cover .

She has been a writer, editor and designer for a host of national, local and regional magazines and has earned numerous national awards for magazine editing and design, including 13 first place awards from the Catholic Press Association. Her work has appeared in Print, Country Home, Midwest Living, Home Plan Ideas, Building Ideas, Window and Wall Ideas, The Des Moines Register, Wallace's Farmer, and Country Woman.

She has helped several organizations redesign and reposition their magazines and improve their business plans, including Kentucky School Boards Association; Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife; Iowa Public Television; Farm Bureau's; Des Moines University; Des Moines Home Builder Association; and Iowa League of Cities.

She received her B.A. in English and journalism from the University of Southern Colorado, her M.A. in mass communication from Drake, and she has done doctoral work in sociology at Iowa State University.