Dean's Report 2019
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Boston University College of Communication Boston University College of Communication Increasing Industry Diversity Great Narratives A Hollywood Story College of Communication 365 / COM DEAN’S REPORT 2019 DEAN’S LETTER DEAR FRIENDS elcome to COM/365, the Dean’s moment he revealed anger, it was “righteous indig- Report 2019. This is the inaugural nation.” The key word: “righteous.” Dean LeSourd edition of what we intend will come was an ordained Methodist minister, but he left the to you and every COM alumnus ministry for academia and it was at BU where he each year, reporting the highlights encountered his true pulpit—putting mass media in ofW the prior year and signaling exciting things ahead. the service of teaching. Even in this era of online communication, we believe Prominently featured in a 1939–1940 edition of it continues to be important to deliver some infor- Bostonia was an article headlined “Boston Univer- mation in a form to be held in the hands, to be felt, sity Radio Institute,” a program he pioneered. He’d to sit on the coffee table. Some things may be old, enlisted several colleagues to but also enduring. Which brings me to the story of develop lectures to be delivered our founder. on the radio, the emerging media “EVEN IN THIS Rarely does a day go of that time. For $2, listeners ERA OF ONLINE by that I don’t walk along who passed the mail-in exams COMMUNICATION, the COM hallway with the would earn a certificate. gilt-framed oil portrait of a “Grandfather has a legacy WE BELIEVE IT dignified gentleman wearing of seeing the value of mass CONTINUES TO BE dark academic robes. A communication well before it IMPORTANT TO small brass plaque beneath mushroomed,” Jeff LeSourd DELIVER SOME the portrait reads, “Dr. told me. His visionary work Howard M. LeSourd, Dean, persuaded then-BU Presi- INFORMATION IN A School of Public Relations, dent Daniel Marsh (STH 1908, FORM TO BE HELD when established in May 27, 1947.” Hon.’53) to authorize LeSourd to IN THE HANDS, TO The School of Public Relations is the forebear of create and lead a school where BE FELT, TO SIT ON today’s College of Communication. Then as now, the students would learn the skills to school encompassed all the fields that comprise the become media professionals and THE COFFEE TABLE. mass media professions. Seven decades ago, that appreciate the positive values of SOME THINGS MAY was considered controversial. Today, it’s regarded as humankind. BE OLD, BUT ALSO visionary. Again, old but enduring. It has been my task and that ENDURING.” I knew little about Dean LeSourd until recently, of my predecessors to carry on when a stack of yellowed issues of Bostonia arrived LeSourd’s vision. I will pass that in the mail, rescued from the attic of a deceased BU responsibility forward to my successor when I retire alumnus. As I began reading, I wondered: Who was later this spring. His ideas may be old, but they’re this man? What fueled his vision for this school? certainly enduring. I was able to locate three of his grandchildren. We in COM are the inheritors and beneficiaries Jeff and Chet LeSourd and Linda LeSourd Lader of Dean LeSourd’s extraordinary vision, which is as knew him as “Potty,” a man with twinkling eyes who relevant today as it was then. brought them to his summer home in Christmas Cove, Maine, and taught them to fish, to row Warm regards, and, maybe most important, to set their moral compasses. Said Chet, “His style would be to nudge us toward some truth or lesson but never to tell us TOM FIEDLER (‘71) Greg Marinovich Greg what it should be.” Linda recalled that if in a rare Dean 1 bu.edu/com COM/365 2019 1 BEYOND COM Jacqueline Policastro (’06) 10 26 of Gray Television and other Dean COM alumni have been busy Tom Fiedler (’71) informing and entertaining. Check out some of the ways Assistant Dean, Development & Alumni Terriers across communica- Relations tions industries distinguished Kirsten S. Durocher (CGS’03, themselves. COM’05) Director of Strategic Initiatives & Creative Production Kim Relick Tiye Barnes (’19), left, and Kayla Richardson (’20) are the first Editor beneficiaries of a COM scholarship Marc Chalufour for minority students. Contributing Writers CONTENTS Rich Barlow Joel Brown Lara Ehrlich (UNI’03) COVER STORY: THE CHANGEMAKERS Emma Guillén Amy Laskowski COM is tackling the communications industry’s lack of diversity, starting Andrew Thurston with its own. One of the first steps: a scholarship for two students from a Megan Woolhouse THE TRANSPORTER leading historically black university. By placing Hollywood stars in Ford Graphic Designer Raquel Schott cars, Alessandro Uzielli (CGS’87, THANKS TO ALL OF YOU 20 COM’89) connects two of America’s Produced by Boston iconic industries—and now he’s Storytelling is at the heart of University Marketing & COM THIS YEAR IN SEARCH OF everything that COM under- Communications helping COM film students prepare 28 Journalism professor Ellen for their own dream jobs. graduates, graduates and Cover photo: Ally Schmaling Ruppel Shell on the future of GREAT NARRATIVE faculty do, and their work for BU Photo 4 work; an award-winning investi- relies on your support. Meet COM/365 welcomes your gation of jail suicides; national the donors, including Heather comments. Write to the recognition for PRLab; crisis Barbod (CGS’03, COM’05), editor at [email protected]. reporting in Venezuela; election who make it all possible. Send address updates to Bestselling author Mitchell [email protected]. night at COM; and more Stay Connected Zuckoff has trekked deep to the 14 into jungles and interviewed Recyclable hundreds of sources to find College of In keeping with BU’s stories. At COM, he teaches Communication commitment to sustainability, other writers how to fill their Join the COM online community! Post, tag, this publication is FSC-certified. notebooks and directs the tweet, ask questions, watch videos, network with fellow alums and reconnect with renowned Power of professors and classmates. Narrative Conference. bu.edu/com facebook.com/COMatBU instagram.com/COMatbu linkedin.com/school/COMatBU twitter.com/COMatBU youtube.com/COMatBU f QitY 2 bu.edu/com COM/365 2019 3 Flaviana Sandoval (’19) reported from inside this operating room COM THIS YEAR on Venezuela’s organ transplant crisis. NEW FACES, NEW ROLES fter three decades in public and Michelle Sullivan (’95) Acorporate affairs, most recently returned to COM as a as US CEO for the global PR firm professor of the practice of Burson-Marsteller, Michael Fernandez advertising. She helped to A team of reporters and joined COM as professor of the practice shape the story of Boston interns found of strategic communications. Beer Company, brewer of that inmates in Michael Holley is a new visiting Samuel Adams, for 17 years. Massachusetts professor of the practice of journalism. Anne Donohue (’89), county jails were Holley has covered sports for the Bos- associate professor of committing sui- cide at twice the ton Globe, cohosted a show on WEEI, journalism, was appointed (SPH’18)—came out of a new multidisci- rate of those in authored six books, and was part of a associate dean of diversity, equity and plinary course, Global Health Storytelling, state prison. Pulitzer Prize–winning team at the Akron inclusion. She chairs a committee of faculty cotaught by Anne Donohue, an associ- Beacon Journal. He cohosts a nightly and staff, and works closely with Crystal ate professor of journalism, and Jennifer sports show on NBC Sports Boston. Williams, BU’s associate provost for diver- Beard, a clinical associate professor of Jennifer Redfearn, an Academy Award– sity and inclusion. Among her early goals: global health at BU School of Public nominated documentary filmmaker, joins encouraging recruitment of diverse faculty Health (read more about the program at INVESTIGATING JAIL SUICIDES COM as an associate professor of the members and graduate degree candidates. sites.bu.edu/pghs). practice of visual storytelling in journalism. Sandoval’s fellowship began with two Her short film Sun Come Up documented weeks in Washington, D.C., where she Student journalists’ for investigative reporting in the large institute, an advanced seminar for a South Pacific island community’s loss of started her reporting at the Pulitzer Center tenacious reporting on market radio category; it also received COM students, workshops for high land to sea level rise and was nominated CRISIS REPORTER and met with journalists from the Washing- inmate deaths helps earn a 2017 Publick Occurrences award school teachers and boot camps for for an Academy Award. Redfearn has also ton Post, National Public Radio, National Regional Murrow Award from the New England Newspaper & practicing journalists. worked for National Geographic, Discovery hen Flaviana Sandoval was Geographic and other outlets. Then, she Press Association. For the jail suicides story, the stu- BY ANDREW THURSTON Channel, CNN and PBS. Wawarded a 2018 Pulitzer Center spent six weeks reporting in Venezuela. The close scrutiny of counties’ dents worked with McKim and Burrell Gary Sheffer was named COM’s Sandra fellowship for international reporting, she “It was very challenging to do a deep efforts (or lack thereof) to help those to file public records requests, sift A. Frazier Professor of Public Relations. knew she wanted to return to her native dive into such a technical matter,” she says. alfway through a 30-day jail standing on the brink was led by the through data, speak with families and He spent 16 years at GE, most recently as Venezuela. Amid Venezuela’s economic She started by asking doctors a simple Hsentence for animal cruelty, Guy center’s full-time veteran reporters, tour jails; they also helped transcribe vice president of corporate communica- crisis, she spotted a story in the breakdown question: “How is this supposed to work?” Duffy made a despairing call to his Jenifer McKim and Chris Burrell— hours of audio, including Duffy’s des- of the country’s organ She learned the medical jargon and parsed wife.