Lorraine Branham, director of the journalism school at University of Texas at Austin, has officially been selected as the next dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Branham will begin her position on July 1, after current Dean David Rubin steps down. Rubin has served as dean of the Newhouse school since 1990.

Branham has served as director of the journalism school at UT since 2002. In her career as a journalist, she’s held various editorial positions at The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Tallahassee Democrat, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Tribune and The Baltimore Sun. She holds a bachelor’s degree in television, radio and film from Temple University.

Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina, who announced the appointment Wednesday, said Branham’s long career as a professional journalist will make a difference in her deanship.

‘As dean she will be able to capitalize on that experience in leading the school,’ he said. ‘She can quickly figure out how to fill gaps, and she’s a warm person in her interactions with faculty and staff.’

David Smith, vice president for administrative planning, was chair of the Newhouse dean search committee. Smith said he was ‘absolutely delighted’ about Branham’s appointment.

‘She’s a nationally respected person in her work,’ he said. ‘Recently, she was involved in helping to select the Pulitzer prizes. There’s just very many aspects of her background that I think are very positive as we look at the Newhouse school going ahead.’

Smith said those involved in the search process believe Branham rose above the other candidates in a search pool of highly qualified and capable applicants.

‘She was our first choice, and now we seem to be her first choice,’ he said.

Branham was the only remaining candidate for the deanship after Samuel L. Grogg, the dean of the communications school at the University of Miami, withdrew his candidacy for the position Feb. 8.

But Spina said because one candidate dropped out, it was not a sure thing Branham would be selected.

‘By no means did him dropping out dictate that I had to go to Branham,’ he said. ‘This is a very talented person, and what Sam Grogg did or didn’t do had no effect.’

According to an SU news release, Branham was chosen out of 300 nominations and 60 applicants in the seven-month search to fill the position.

Branham visited SU Jan. 29 to meet with faculty and students, where she discussed issues of diversity and media convergence.

‘I think that as dean, she’ll be supported by the university and the school,’ Spina said. ‘She’ll work to find out where the school is, where its strengths are and where it can be improved.’

He described Branham as a very collaborative person and said he thinks she will work well with faculty in finding the path to get to where the school should be.

There are still two dean searches in progress at SU, including The College of Arts and Sciences and the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science. New deans have been hired this semester in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the School of Information Studies.

‘Each college is different,’ Spina said. ‘And it has different areas it needs to focus on. We’re looking for particular kinds of people, so each deanship is very different.’

-Assistant copy editor Shayna Meliker contributed reporting to this story.

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Published on March 17, 2008 at 12:00 pm