Everette E. Dennis Named Dean of Northwestern University in Qatar

Will join Northwestern June 1, 2011, after serving as Felix E. Larkin Distinguished Professor and Chairperson of Communication and Media Management at Fordham University Business School

It is with great pleasure that President Schapiro and I announce that Everette E. Dennis, currently the Felix E. Larkin Distinguished Professor and Chairperson of Communication and Media Management at Fordham University Business School, has accepted our invitation to serve as Dean of Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q), effective June 1, 2011. He succeeds founding Dean John Margolis, who has served as the Dean of NU-Q since its inception in 2007.

Professor Dennis, who is also currently the Director of the Center for Communications at Fordham and Executive Director of the International Longevity Center-USA in New York City, is widely recognized and respected in the fields of communication and journalism, and more broadly within higher education, as a scholar, author, educator, and educational leader.  He earned his Ph.D. in mass communication, constitutional law and history from the University of Minnesota, and has held advanced fellowships at Harvard Law School and Harvard's Institute of Politics. He earned an A.M. from Syracuse University in communication and a B.S. in journalism/political science from the University of Oregon. 

His previous experience includes serving as Dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon; Director of Graduate Studies in Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, and as the founding director of the Media Studies Center at Columbia University, which he led while also serving as the senior vice president of the Gannett and Freedom Forum Foundations.

Professor Dennis also has extensive international experience that will serve Northwestern very well in Qatar. He served as founding President of the American Academy in Berlin, as a trustee at the International Institute of Communications and International Center for Journalists, and as the Executive Director of the International University Consortium for Freedom Forum.  He is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has been a consultant and lecturer in more than 50 countries.

In addition, Professor Dennis has authored, co-authored, and edited some 45 books, including two in 2010 -- Understanding Media in the Digital Age; and the reissue of Other Voices: The New Journalism in America.  Other works include The Media Society, Media Debates, Justice Black & The First Amendment, as well as studies of media in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and East Asia.  His influential coauthored media text with Melvin L. DeFleur, Understanding Mass Communication, was published in seven editions, and his books have been translated into 14 languages.  He has served on the editorial board of several international media journals, and is the founding editor of Media Studies Journal.

He is married to Emily T. Smith, an author and journalist.

Professor Dennis will succeed current NU-Q Dean John Margolis, whose service as founding dean has been outstanding.  President Schapiro and I, as well as the University communities in Doha, Evanston, and Chicago, will have an opportunity to thank John formally for his service this winter and spring, but I would like to take this opportunity to recognize several of the significant accomplishments of his tenure as Dean.

Dean Margolis and his leadership team have led NU-Q through the exciting phases of operational start-up, curricular expansion, and community growth.  In his three years as Dean, he and his colleagues in Doha have positioned NU-Q as both a site of academic excellence in the fields of journalism and communication and as a center for impartial and informed reflection on issues related to regional media.  As NU-Q’s principal representative in the region, Dean Margolis has forged multiple productive partnerships, including those with the Qatar Foundation, Education City branch campuses, and Evanston colleagues. His commitment to fostering a rich co-curricular Northwestern experience in Doha is evidenced by the Wildcat traditions that have thrived at NU-Q, and the intercampus exchange and service opportunities supported each year by the Dean’s Office. He also leaves behind a significant imprint on facilities planning, campus collaboration, and efforts to ensure the well-being of the NU-Q faculty and staff who have partnered with him in this enterprise.

We are very excited about this transition from the exceptional leadership of John Margolis as founding Dean to the new leadership and directions at NU-Q that will be undertaken by Everette Dennis. Please join me in congratulating Dean-designate Dennis and welcoming him to Northwestern and NU-Q, and in thanking the search committee for its excellent work on this endeavor.

Sincerely,

Dan Linzer, Provost