Christopher Callahan, vice provost of the Downtown campus and dean of the Walter Cronkite School, was recently appointed as a serving member for the National Advisory Board of the Florida–based journalism organization, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
The National Advisory Board engages in discussions and panels regarding the future of the Poynter Institute, relying on the knowledge and experience of its board members for advice.
The dean’s new position marks an expansion of the Cronkite School’s relationship with the Poynter Institute.
“Poynter and the Cronkite School had already developed a healthy and mutually supportive relationship,” Roy Peter Clark, vice president and senior scholar of the Poynter Institute, said. “It was a natural progression.”
The Poynter Institute’s Board of Trustees consulted with the Institute’s administration and faculty to develop a list of possible new board members, according to Clark.
“These people make such an important contribution to us that we’re really only looking for the best,” Clark said.
Callahan is one of six new members added to the board, which includes a total of 14 people involved in journalism and media professions. Callahan will serve for a three-year term.
He is also only one of four educators on the board. The other members are from Duke University, Temple University and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
“(I hope to) give them good advice,” Callahan said. “Good advice in trends in the industry, where it’s going, where we feel like professional journalists might need, and want, some extra training.”
“I think there’s a growing sense that some really interesting and dynamic things are happening at the Cronkite School,” Clark said. “We here at Poynter wanted to learn some of that mojo.”
Other board members recognized the work the Cronkite School has done, Callahan said.
“I talked to so many people there, some of whom I didn’t even know, who came up to me and said, ‘What you all are doing at the Cronkite School is really a model for other universities and other newsrooms,’” Callahan said. “It was very gratifying to hear.”
Kristin Gilger, associate dean of the Cronkite School, said Callahan’s appointment was a smart idea for the Poynter Institute.
“I’m really glad he’s on board. I think he brings a different perspective,” Gilger said, referring to his unique position as both a dean and an educator. “He’s a very innovative thinker … he’s kind of a change agent.”
Board members met last Thursday and Friday at the Poynter Institute’s headquarters in St. Petersburg, Fl., to discuss necessary adjustments the Institute needs to make as the journalism field changes. At the meeting were new appointees, including Callahan, who spoke of the journalism programs at the Cronkite School.
The new board members were selected during a period of important change for the Poynter Institute. Institute President Dr. Karen B. Dunlap will retire at the end of January, Clark said – a transition that will require the support of board members.
For the last year and a half, Poynter faculty has come to present at the school’s Must See Mondays speaker series. Cronkite staff have in turn visited the Institute. The school is also working with the Poynter Institute to develop an online training program for Cronkite School adjunct faculty, Gilger said.
Callahan said he was in the process of contacting other National Board Advisory members to visit and possibly speak at the Cronkite School.
“Just the opportunity of getting to meet some of these folks and seeing them in action, and hopefully getting a couple of them to come visit us … just that, I think, would be worthwhile for Cronkite,” Callahan said.
Other members of the National Advisory Board include Rob King of ESPN and Monica Guzman of The Seattle Times and GeekWire.com. New appointees include Monica Davey of The New York Times and Lou Ferrara of The Associated Press.
Callahan said he believed his new position speaks well of the Cronkite School’s place in the national journalism landscape.
“This is very much about the school and about the school’s reputation,” he said. “That reputation, I think, is very fairly planted now in the journalism community.”
Contact the reporter at miguel.otarolaalfaro@asu.edu
