Updated: This story was updated at 11:08 a.m. Tuesday to include statements and information from a University of North Texas professor.
Andrea Miller, dean of the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas, will become the next dean of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, according to an email from Senior Vice President and Provost André-Denis G. Wright Tuesday.
Miller will also hold the Sue Rainbolt Van Natta Chair in Journalism. She will officially join the university on July 15.
Miller beat out four other candidates: Mike Boettcher, a nationally distinguished veteran network news correspondent and OU journalism professor; David Perlmutter, Texas Tech University professor and former dean of its journalism college; Emily Metzgar, Kent State University’s School of Media and Journalism director; and Avery Holton, chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Utah.
"Dr. Miller brings a wealth of experience to OU, marked by her unwavering dedication to nurturing the next generation, and we are thrilled to welcome here to the OU community," the email from Wright read.
Miller succeeds former Dean Ed Kelley, who retired after serving roughly eight years in the role. When Kelley announced his intent to step down in March 2023, Kelley cited a need for younger leadership in the college.
“Should Gaylord College — an institution devoted to serving the needs of a constantly changing, 24/7 media environment that soon will be dominated by Generation Z — be overseen by a white-haired dean who is 70 years old? I think not,” Kelley wrote in the letter announcing his departure from the university.
We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Andrea Miller to @GaylordCollege.Dr. Miller brings a wealth of news production and leadership experience to a critical position within our community. We are eager to see her impact on OU and Gaylord College. ☝️ https://t.co/IWPKpqCefB
— Joseph Harroz, Jr. (@OU_President) April 23, 2024
Miller joined the University of North Texas in 2019 and recently was reappointed to another five-year term. She previously worked as a broadcast journalist starting in 1990 at KAMU-TV, at WFAA-TV in 1993 and then KTVT-TV in 1994, where she later became a producer, according to a news release from the university sent before she visited campus in March.
Miller received the Dallas Press Club Katie Award in 1993, an Associated Press Spot News Award in 1992 and an Emmy in 1996. She wrote a book about the media’s response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. She previously worked at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University, serving as a professor and associate dean for undergraduate studies. There, she taught courses in crisis communications, broadcast news and multimedia reporting.
When she visited campus Miller said her first three priorities as dean will be to build relationships with students, faculty and staff and the Board of Visitors, reading and responding to the findings and recommendations of the external consultant who visited campus this month and evaluating the college’s strategic plan to begin building fundraising opportunities.
One of the hallmarks of the Gaylord College dean search requirements was a prospective hire to have extensive plans and experience in fundraising for the college, building relationships with donors and alumni and advocate for the college on a state or national level, a need Miller said during her campus visit she could fulfill.
Miller said during her visit that she wants to create a successful funding environment in the college. Miller managed a $10 million endowment at the Mayborn School of Journalism and raised about $1.3 million in additional money to aid students and faculty there. Miller said one of her goals for fundraising would be to develop relationships with alumni who are passionate and excited about the college to find avenues to match those needs. Miller also said she wants to capitalize on Gaylord College’s 25th anniversary in 2026 to push a fundraising campaign. Miller also presented the idea of a grant incentive program for faculty.
“We must create a successful funding environment,” Miller said. “That is key to everything that we want to do here in Gaylord and is more and more important as the years go by.”
Miller said during her public forum that she sees opportunity to expand interdisciplinary studies to include things like an accelerated law program. Miller also said, in line with the university’s strategic plan, she wants to create an associate dean of research, adding to the already existing one associate dean and one assistant dean on faculty at Gaylord.
“We can imagine what that looks like in a number of different ways, but that person would execute the grant incentive program,” Miller said. “That person would work on partnerships across campus, flag grants that we can apply for and maybe we add ‘and strategic initiatives’ to the title to again, think about ways that we can further our reputation and grow our research.”
Another suggestion Miller made for the college was to house all Gaylord College sponsored student media organizations under one umbrella. This would include Gaylord News, Gaylord Hall Productions, OU Nightly and others. OU Daily is independent from the university and from the college and therefore would not be included.
Miller said one of her staples as a dean is student interaction, which she currently does at Mayborn School of Journalism through “doughnuts with the dean” events, and she will want to continue those efforts here.
“Relationships with the students are key because it helps you gauge the pulse of what’s going on,” Miller said. “It helps promote that family atmosphere that you all are famous for.”
Gaylord College is a family, a dysfunctional one, Kelley told OU Daily ahead of his retirement.
Gaylord College’s dysfunctional family reared its head in February 2020 when former professor Peter Gade used a racial slur in his journalism capstone class. Gade stepped down from teaching the class a few days later. In 2022, Imran Hasnat, a Gaylord College assistant professor, was charged and later convicted of making lewd proposals to a child under 16.
Nearly half of Gaylord College female faculty and staff signed a letter sent to the college and university leadership detailing an alleged hostile work environment and culture of discrimination, nepotism, violation of policies and secrecy within the college in September, OU Daily reported last week. Five faculty and staff members met with OU Daily to discuss their experiences of a toxic workplace in Gaylord College, detailing instances of pay inequity, hostility and harassment, as well as dismissed Title IX and Equal Opportunity Complaints.
Interim Dean David Craig invited an external consultant and self-described “Dispute Doctor” to campus, Moira Kelly, after he received the letter and heard of allegations in the college. Kelly visited campus in March and will have her reports done by May 1, she told OU Daily.
Miller said during her forum that she aims to create a positive work environment in Gaylord College, something she says begins with getting to know everyone and what they wish to do.
Miller said a deanship starts with mutual respect and admiration, figuring out where a new dean would fit in the preexisting college collective.
“A deanship is not about me,” Miller said. “It’s about putting the needs of the college above self, and then doing everything that I can to make sure that that is successful, that we are all successful.”
Miller held an emergency meeting with Mayborn School of Journalism faculty and staff Tuesday morning to announce her impending departure.
Tracy Everbach, a print and digital journalism professor at the University of North Texas, told OU Daily Tuesday that Miller told faculty and staff that the Gaylord College dean position wasn’t a job she was searching for but was approached and asked to apply for the position. Everbach said Miller was interested in the job due to the proximity and she knows several members of faculty in Gaylord College. Miller had already notified UNT’s provost and dean of the university’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
“I don't think anybody was surprised, because we knew she was a finalist,” Everbach said. “We knew that she was a really good candidate and that she would be a very strong candidate for this job. … We just knew she would be a strong candidate because of her excellent reputation and because of her professional and academic experience. So I don't think that we were surprised because we knew that she had a good chance of getting the job.”
Everbach said Miller has been a good dean, expanding the college’s programs and helping manage grants and fundraising efforts. Everbach said Miller was responsible from shoring up names for the college’s advisory board and has been a good face for the college, building important relationships in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“There have been quite a few things that she's done that we're going to miss when she's not here. …” Everbach said. “I think (students) are going to enjoy having her as (their) dean. She's really smart and a person with a lot of leadership qualities. So I think she'll get along really well with the students. … She works really hard for the students and wants the best for them.”
Miller will be the first female dean of the college since its founding in 2001.
Charles Self was hired in 2001 as Gaylord’s founding dean when the H.H. Herbert School of Journalism was elevated to college status following a $22 million gift by the Gaylord family. The family owned The Oklahoman since before statehood until it sold The Oklahoma Publishing Company in 2011. At the time he was hired, Self held a doctorate, was an associate dean of liberal arts and a journalism professor at Texas A&M University and national president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication. He served in the role through summer 2005, before stepping aside to return to teaching.
Self was succeeded by Joe Foote, who also held a doctorate, and had returned to OU in 2004 after serving as director of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and previously as the founding dean of Southern Illinois University’s College of Mass Communication and Media Arts. He stepped down as Gaylord’s dean to return to teaching in summer 2015.
Foote was succeeded by Kelley, who served in an interim capacity before being named dean in March 2016 as selected by former OU President David Boren. Kelley, who holds a bachelor’s degree but not a master’s or doctorate, had previously led news organizations such as the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, The Washington Times and The Oklahoman, where he worked for decades and was named National Press Foundation Editor of the Year in 1996 after shepherding his staff through the coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Gaylord College was one of three active academic dean searches on OU’s Norman campus this year, as OU’s College of Law dean and OU’s Honors College dean positions are yet to be filled as of Tuesday.
OU currently has more open academic dean positions than its collegiate peers. As the semester winds down, OU is poised to have five, pending Miller’s appointment at the June regents meeting, of its 16 Norman deans to be interim or acting leaders of their colleges.
OU’s Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy, David L. Boren College of International Studies and College of Professional and Continuing Studies have open dean positions as of Tuesday. OU’s University College, which has an interim dean now, is being reorganized under the Office of the Provost and will no longer be a college in the coming academic year.
Of OU’s 16 Norman Campus deans, four, not counting Miller, are women.
OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. told OU Daily in a sit-down interview this month that the university is going to reexamine and reset its strategic plan. A portion of that strategic plan incorporates a sense of belonging and goals for diversity, equity and inclusion. In December, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed an executive order calling for a formal review of all DEI programs and services in higher education. OU has since renamed its Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to the Division of Access and Opportunity, and its offices in Copeland Hall are empty and closed currently.
With her experience at UNT, Miller is familiar with recent attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion programming and services as Texas Senate Bill 17 banned diversity programs in public universities in the state.
“That law doesn’t affect who we are. It doesn’t affect what we value. It doesn’t affect what we believe,” Miller said of the Texas law. “We know, we believe in having diverse faculty and diverse students in classes with us, walking side by side with us, at the table with us, having a voice. That is important.”
Gaylord College has 35 full-time faculty members and 16 full-time staff members in the spring 2024 semester, Craig told OU Daily in an email. Of the 35 faculty members found on Gaylord’s website, about 17 of them are women. Gaylord’s website shows 19 full-time staff members and, of those listed, about 12 are women.
Read more about Gaylord College:
Marshal Farmer, a broadcast journalism senior from the University of North Texas, and Ismael Lele contributed to this reporting. This story was edited by Peggy Dodd, Anusha Fathepure and Ismael Lele.
