Patricia Dean joined Annenberg as Associate Director of the School of Journalism in 2003. She assists the Director of the journalism school, including first line responsibility for classes and faculty teaching issues. She teaches television news classes. Her research interests focus on local television news and reporting on public policy issues.
Dean joined USC from Northwestern University, where she taught for 16 years. She also served as Chair of the Broadcast News sequence for six years. Dean taught television news writing, reporting and producing, as well as a seminar on ethical issues facing decision makers in television newsrooms.
Dean was honored for her teaching in 1999 with the prestigious Northwestern Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award. She was nominated by the dean of the journalism school, current students and alumni.
Dean was a founding member of the Consortium for Local Television Surveys (COLTS). The research team included former professional broadcast journalists who were teaching at universities throughout the country. The team studied the reporting of public policy issues on local television news programs.
Prior to joining Northwestern in 1987, Dean was a professional broadcast journalist for more than 18 years. She began her career in 1968 at WMAQ-TV (NBC) in Chicago as a news writer. She was promoted to producer of the 10 P.M. News and was honored with a Chicago Television Academy Emmy Award. She was named the first writer/producer of the Unit5 investigative unit. Her investigative reports won numerous awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award, the Chicago Television Academy Emmy Award, and the Gavel Award of the American Bar Association.
In 1980, Dean joined WLS-TV (ABC) in Chicago as the producer of a consumer investigative unit. Her work was honored with numerous awards including the George Foster Peabody Award and the National Press Club Award for "The Best Consumer Journalism."
Dean moved to WBBM-TV (CBS) in 1982 as a field producer for local news. She was promoted to producer for special projects. Her assignments included planning and producing news specials on the election of the city's first black mayor, the elevation of the Roman Catholic cardinal, and live coverage of the governor's hearing on the Gary Dotson case (his accuser recanted her rape charge).
In 1983, Dean was promoted to Program Director for WBBM-TV. She supervised the production of all programs not under the news department, including a magazine show, sports specials, the Bears coach's show and documentaries.
Dean is a member of the Radio Television News Directors Association, the National Association of Television Arts & Sciences, the Association for Women Journalists, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the International Communication Association and the Academy of Political Science. She is a former member of the WBEZ-FM (NPR) governing board and a former member of the Chicago Television Academy board of governors. She is a former member of the Advisory Board for The Fund for Investigative Journalism. She served on the Executive Board of the Center for Religion and the News Media, co-sponsored by the Medill School of Journalism and the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. She also was a member of the Executive Board for the joint graduate degree program offered by Medill and Garrett. Dean was selected in 1997 for inclusion in the first edition of Who's Who in the Media and Communications.
A native of Chicago, Dean holds a Master's Degree in Communication Studies from the School of Speech at Northwestern University and a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism from Iowa State University.
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