LSU Chancellor Michael Martin recently named Manship School of Mass Communication Dean John M. Hamilton as the university’s new executive vice chancellor and provost for a two-year appointment. Ralph Izard has been named interim dean of the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication.

“Jack Hamilton brings an excellent record of service and many years of experience to this job, as well as a deep commitment to LSU,” said Martin. “He will be a vital part of the leadership team that will carry us through these tough times.”

Izard, the Sig Mickelson/CBS Professor in the Manship School, is serving as interim dean while the school searches for a permanent dean.

           
“Ralph Izard is a long-time faculty member and one of the most respected academic leaders in mass communication,” said outgoing Manship School dean John Maxwell Hamilton. “There is no one better equipped to lead the Manship School.”

Hamilton moved to his new position as provost on July 1. He remains on the faculty at the Manship School. He came to LSU in 1992 after more than two decades as a journalist and public servant. Under Hamilton’s stewardship, the Manship School of Mass Communication has quintupled its endowment, completely renovated its building to include state-of-the-art technology and instituted the highest admission standards for a senior college at LSU. Hamilton has also overseen the establishment of a new Ph.D. program in media and public affairs – the only one of its kind in the nation – and created the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs, the Media Effects Lab and the Public Policy Research Lab, which is one of the largest university survey facilities in the Southeast.

Izard has served on the Manship School’s faculty since 2001. As one of the architects of the Manship School’s award-winning Forum on Media Diversity, Izard helped to bring four separate national grants to the university on the topic of diversity. He edited the book “Diversity That Works,” which was created as a result of a national conference at LSU in 2008. The book and forum were cited among other works when the Manship School was honored in 2009 by the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication with its inaugural Diversity and Equity Award.

Izard is also professor emeritus in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. His 32-year career at Ohio University included 12 years as director. He also worked for two years with the Media Studies Center/First Amendment Center in New York. He served terms as president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication and vice president for campus chapter affairs of the Society of Professional Journalists and is a former editor of Newspaper Research Journal. He received bachelor and master’s degrees from West Virginia University and a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Illinois. He is also a senior fellow in the Manship School’s Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs.