Finalists for Medill Dean Represent Diverse Backgrounds
Evanston, Ill.
Ellis Cose and Laura Washington, two African American journalists, are reportedly among the four finalists for dean of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, according to the university’s campus newspaper The Daily Northwestern. However, the university declined to confirm the names of the candidates.
Cose is an editor for Newsweek and Washington is an editor for the Chicago Reporter. The other two finalists reportedly are Loren Ghiglione, director of the University of Southern California’s journalism school, and Medill professor Abe Peck, who is currently associate dean.
Medill professor Dick Schwarzlose told the campus newspaper that the candidates were chosen from a pool of 120 applicants for their combination of “star power” and administrative ability, including their fund-raising experience. If Northwestern chooses one of the two Black candidates, the person would become the first Black dean in Medill’s history, Schwarzlose said.
Washington earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Medill in 1978 and 1980. In addition to her tenure at the Chicago Reporter, she worked as a press secretary for former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington in 1985, wrote a monthly column for the Chicago Tribune and served as a WBBM-TV producer.
Cose has been a contributing editor for Newsweek since 1993. He serves on the board of contributors of USA Today and has written four books in the last eight years. In 1997, he won the National Association of Black Journalists Award.
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