photo by: University of Kansas

Ann Brill

The dean of the University of Kansas’ journalism school has been named the nation’s top journalism education administrator.

Ann Brill, dean of the William Allen White School of Journalism, recently received the administrator of the year award from the Scripps Howard Fund and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.

Brill is in her 20th year as dean of the KU school and told the Journal-World that she thinks the award is a recognition of the skills and talents of the school’s faculty and staff, which have had to evolve as the journalism industry has changed significantly.

“We’ve always had great faculty, but it is getting stronger every year,” Brill said.

Brill said she’s also proud of enrollment numbers at the school during her tenure, the creation of the state’s only doctoral program in journalism and a $7 million renovation project that made significant changes to the school’s 125-year-old building on the Lawrence campus. That renovation added new technology, including a full television studio, to Stauffer-Flint Hall.

Keeping up with changes in the industry has been a major part of the school’s mission, with changes in the digital world being chief among them. Brill said understanding the role of online platforms in news dissemination has required meaningful modifications to the school’s curriculum.

“The big thing is the online world, and not just responding to it, but really studying it, leading and trying to figure out where information is going,” said Brill, who came to KU as a leader in new media research.

Looking forward, Brill said the school has important roles to play in issues both familiar and new. She said the school must continue to take “really seriously” all efforts to protect and strengthen the First Amendment. But she said the school also must delve into newer issues surrounding the finances of the journalism industry because innovative ideas are needed on that front.

“The business model is something that we have to figure out,” Brill said. “There is so much information people expect for free, but journalists also want to get paid.”

Brill said issues surrounding sports journalism also are likely to get more complex, as the world of name, image and likeness issues unfolds, and as student-athletes start receiving revenue from multiple sources and start marketing themselves in new ways.

The Scripps Howard Fund — a nonprofit charity that supports numerous journalistic and literacy causes — annually hosts one of the industry’s top journalism awards programs, and it partners with the journalism education association to specifically recognize a teacher of the year and an administrator of the year.