David Boardman, executive editor and senior vice president of The Seattle Times, has been named as the new dean of Temple University's School of Media and Communication (SMC). Boardman is expected to begin his new duties Sept. 1.

In announcing the appointment, Temple President Neil D. Theobald praised Boardman's record as a renowned journalist who has led The Seattle Times, the Pacific Northwest's largest news organization, to the forefront of innovation over the last seven years.

"This is a time of profound change in the world of media and communication. David Boardman understands these changes, because he navigated a leading media organization through this period of convergence and new technology," Theobald said. "We want Temple students to be real-world ready. To produce tomorrow's intellectual and industry leaders in media and communication, SMC needs a real-world-tested hand at the helm. That's David."

"Temple University is pleased to have recruited David Boardman, a highly respected journalist, to become the next dean of the School of Media and Communication," said Hai-Lung Dai, Temple's provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. "Under his leadership, The Seattle Times won four Pulitzer Prizes and a number of other prestigious major national awards, and has established an international reputation for excellence in investigative journalism and digital innovation."

Dai noted that Boardman "has earned enormous respect in the field of journalism both as a leader in his newsroom, in the profession and in journalism education."

Boardman is the newly elected president of the American Society of News Editors, and next year will assume the presidency of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC), the agency responsible for the evaluation of professional journalism and mass communications programs in colleges and universities. He serves as chairman of the National Advisory Board of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, and he is a Poynter Ethics Fellow. Boardman also sits on the Steering Committee of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, on the Board of Directors of the Center for Investigative Reporting and on the Advisory Board of ProPublica.

Boardman said he is "thrilled" to be joining the Temple leadership team. "I am fortunate to be going from one of the best jobs in journalism to one of the best in media and communication education," he said. "The values of Temple University and this school are precisely the values to which I have dedicated my journalism career: public service, social justice and the essential role of communication in our democracy."

Boardman will succeed Thomas L. Jacobson, who has served as interim dean of SMC since 2009.  "Dean Jacobson has provided strong leadership and brought the Center for Public Interest Journalism as well as greater emphasis on globalization and international communication to SMC during his tenure, and he successfully guided the School through its reorganization last year," said Dai.

Susanne Shaw, executive director or ACEJMC and a professor at the University of Kansas has known David Boardman through his contributions to higher education via the accrediting council. "Temple hired one of the best journalists in the country to be dean of the School of Media and Communication," Shaw said. "He will provide faculty and students with a vision for the rapidly changing media world. In addition he will be a dean who will be unselfish for others, especially for faculty and students. Temple made a very smart choice."

Prior to joining The Seattle Times in 1983, Boardman was a reporter and editor at several newspapers in the Northwest. A graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, Boardman also earned a graduate degree from the University of Washington. He is an inductee of both the Medill Alumni Hall of Achievement at Northwestern University and the Communications Hall of Fame at the University of Washington.

Temple's School of Media and Communication, with over 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students, has four academic departments in advertising, journalism, media studies and production and strategic communication, and an interdisciplinary program in communication studies. SMC's three masters programs and doctoral program generate nationally recognized academic and professional leaders. The school is home to Temple University Television (or TUTV, a cable television station available on Comcast and Verizon) and to research centers, including the Center for Media Literacy and Information and the Center for Public Interest Journalism. Undergraduate students have opportunities to study away in SMC-specific programs in London, New York City, Dublin, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Costa Rica and South Africa, and to participate in student organizations that have garnered many regional and national prizes for their outstanding creative work and research.