SJMC dean steps down, to return to teaching

Longtime FIU family member Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver is leaving the deanship of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) this fall semester.

Photo courtesy of the Green Library Special Collections.

The award-winning educator, a nationally recognized First Amendment and student press authority, has been at FIU for almost four decades. She will return to teaching in 2012 after a sabbatical.

“Being at FIU and being a part of the growth of this university has been one of the proudest opportunities I could ever have,” Kopenhaver said. “It’s been a unique experience in so many ways because there are not a lot of opportunities for people to grow up with a university, and I’ve had that opportunity.

“I look forward to many more years at FIU.”

A Torch Award-winning professor, Kopenhaver joined FIU a year after the university opened its doors in 1972, as director of Student Activities. Her accomplishments include initiating all student publications and developing the concept of FIU International Week.

In 1977, she served as assistant vice president for Student Affairs for a year, and then as director of Information Services and News Bureau, as well as director of Special Events, until 1981. That year, she became acting chair of the new Department of Communication. Throughout the years that followed, Kopenhaver held numerous leadership positions within the emerging SJMC and the university, until 2004 when she was named dean.

An accomplished dean

During her time as dean, the SJMC achieved reaccreditation by the ACEJMC, the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, with compliance in all nine standards at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. An outstanding group of community and professional leaders joined the school’s Professional Leadership Council and provided advice as it adapted to the evolving journalism and mass communication fields.

Kopenhaver led the school in the development of a graduate degree program in Global Strategic Communications, a curriculum across the SJMC that embraces the new media challenges that have overwhelmed other institutions. She supported an innovative media partnership that resulted in the South Florida News Service as well.

The relationships she established with leaders in the industry have resulted in enhancements to SJMC programs, such as the multimedia labs funded by the Scripps Howard Foundation and the developing partnership with Telemundo to train future Hispanic communicators .

She also has worked with faculty to enhance the national visibility of the school, which has been consistently recognized for educating Hispanic communicators across the country and Hispanic journalists in Latin America. Among the relationships developed during dean Kopenhaver’s tenure is one with The New York Times to host the New York Times Hispanic Student Journalism Institute. The SJMC also has expanded its international outreach with study abroad programs in Spain and Latin America.

Kopenhaver recently was elected chair of the Council of Affiliates of AEJMC, which consists of 36 national journalism and mass communication education and professional industry organizations, and holds a seat on its board of directors.