Amy Reynolds, Ph.D., will serve as the
new dean of Kent State University’s
College of Communication and Information.

Following a national search, Amy Reynolds, Ph.D., has been selected to serve as the new dean of Kent State University’s College of Communication and Information. Todd Diacon, Kent State’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, made the announcement.

Reynolds currently serves at Louisiana State University as the director of the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs, part of the Manship School of Mass Communication, where she manages all aspects of the center and oversees its research facilities. She will join Kent State on July 1, 2015.

Reynolds succeeds AnnMarie LeBlanc, who has served as interim dean of the college since July 1, 2014.

“We are most fortunate to have someone of Dr. Amy Reynolds’ experience and talent joining our leadership team,” Diacon says. “A prolific scholar in her own right, Amy will bring to Kent State valuable experience as a professor, director and associate dean at Indiana University and LSU. She is taking over an excellent college that is quickly building a national reputation for excellence.

“I especially want to thank Interim Dean AnnMarie LeBlanc for her outstanding service this year,” Diacon continues. “The College of Communication and Information has not lost a beat due to her steady hand, and I am mindful of the value AnnMarie has added to our School of Visual Communication Design.”

Reynolds says she is looking forward to her new position at Kent State.

“I’m excited to join Kent State’s academic community,” Reynolds says. “During my time on campus, I could feel the energy and enthusiasm of the campus leadership, faculty and students toward both the university and the College of Communication and Information. Kent State is an excellent institution with a one-of-a-kind College of Communication and Information that is poised to serve as a national leader for the professional and academic disciplines it serves. I am really impressed with the quality of the college’s faculty, staff, students and alumni, and I look forward to working with them, as well as with Provost Diacon and President [Beverly] Warren.”

Reynolds joined Louisiana State University in 2010 and served for four years as the associate dean for graduate studies and research in the university’s Manship School of Mass Communication. She also currently serves as co-director of the Press Law and Democracy Project and as the Thomas O. and Darlene Ryder II Distinguished Professor, both in the Manship School of Mass Communication. Reynolds worked at Indiana University from 2000 to 2010, serving in the School of Journalism as associate dean for research and graduate studies, director of the Indiana University’s School of Journalism National Teaching Fellows Workshop, associate professor and assistant professor. She also has held faculty positions at the University of Oklahoma and Miami University of Ohio.

The focus of Reynolds’ research is on dissent and the First Amendment, First Amendment history and media sociology, particularly in relationship to media coverage of breaking news and terrorism. She has authored or co-authored seven books and has written several articles and book chapters.

Prior to her career in higher education, Reynolds worked at various news organizations, including Erie Daily Times and WSEE-TV in Erie, Pennsylvania; Orlando Sentinel, College Press Service and Generation X Press in Orlando, Florida; and WTIU Public Television in Bloomington, Indiana. Positions she held include reporter, managing editor and news director.

Reynolds received her bachelor’s degree in English writing from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, her master’s degree in journalism from Indiana University Bloomington and her Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Texas at Austin.

She and her family will be moving to the Kent, Ohio, area from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

For more information about Kent State’s College of Communication and Information, visit www.kent.edu/cci.