PULLMAN — Three finalists have been selected for the position of founding dean of the Murrow College of Communication.
Lawrence Pintak, director of the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism Training and Research and associate professor, Journalism and Mass Communication of the American University in Cairo, Egypt; Angela Powers, director and professor of the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University; and Charles Self, director of the Institute for Research and Training and professor and Edward L. & Thelma Gaylord Research Chair of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma, will visit campus in the coming weeks.
A number of meetings and interviews are scheduled during the visits. Faculty, staff and students are invited to attend the open sessions that will be announced through WSU Announcements as soon as schedules are finalized.
Pintak, a veteran of 30 years in journalism and media consulting on four continents, will visit campus April 9-10. He writes and lectures on America’s relationship with the Muslim world, the role of the media in shaping global perceptions and government policy, and the evolution of journalism in non-Western countries.
He is the publisher/co-editor of Arab Media & Society and publisher of Mogtamana.org, a portal for Egyptian civil society, and Intihabat2008.org, a U.S. election resource site for Arab journalists. His columns appear in The Daily Star (Beirut and Cairo), Arab News, Gulf News, Tempo (Indonesia), The Jakarta Post, the Turkish Daily News and other newspapers in the Middle East and Muslim world, along with Columbia Journalism Review, Newsweek, WashingtonPost.com, CommonDreams.org and a variety of U.S. and European outlets.
Pintak covered the Lebanon conflict, the Iran-Iraq War and the birth of modern radical Islamist terrorism as CBS News Middle East correspondent in the 1980s. He won two Overseas Press Club awards for his Middle East coverage and was twice nominated for Emmys. Pintak holds a doctorate in Islamic Studies from the University of Wales and has written extensively on Buddhism and Eastern religion.
Powers, an expert on media management and digital news convergence, will be on campus April 14-15. She has developed international exchange programs between universities in the United States, Spain and Denmark. She is a senior Fulbright specialist and spent two semesters as a Fulbright Scholar at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania, a Catholic institution with about 4,000 students. Powers lectured on research related to media management and broadcast news and worked with students to produce a magazine-type news program that aired on the largest cable system in Kaunas.
She has published numerous book chapters and journal articles on media management and broadcast news.
Powers holds a doctoral degree in mass media from Michigan State University. She has 25 years of teaching and research experience and was the recipient of the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award in 1997 at Northern Illinois University. She has also taught at Arizona State University, University of North Florida and Loyola University of Chicago. She also was assistant director of the Northern Illinois University Honors program.
Self will visit campus April 16-17. He served as the founding dean of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma and as associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University. He also served as head and professor of the Department of Journalism at Texas A&M University and as chair of the Department of Journalism at the University of Alabama.
Self has been president of the Council of Communication Associations, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Southwest Education Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
His professional experience includes serving as editor at U.S. Army Newspapers and reporter for the United Press International. Self’s research interests include alliances between media outlets and schools and departments of journalism and mass communication, communication theory, journalism skills, new media technology issues, and media credibility. He earned a doctoral degree from the University of Iowa.
Fran McSweeney, vice provost for faculty affairs, is chairing the search committee. Erica Austin has served as dean of the College of Communication since July 1, 2008 and prior to that as interim director from August 2006-July 2008.
