A veteran journalist and a film producer with a Ph.D. are the two finalists to succeed David Rubin as dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Lorraine Branham, director of the School of Journalism at the University of Texas – Austin, and Sam L. Grogg, dean of the School of Communications at the University of Miami (Fl.) are the two being considered to replace Rubin, according to an email from the dean search committee obtained by The Daily Orange.

The Newhouse dean search committee invited two candidates to come to campus for interviews this month with representatives from Newhouse and the university, according to an email sent to the Newhouse faculty and staff Monday from David C. Smith, chair of the search committee and SU’s vice president of administrative planning,

Rubin will retire at the end of the spring semester, after 18 years as dean.

Though both currently run communications schools, the two finalists share little else in common.

Before her taking her current position at Texas in the fall of 2002, Branham had been assistant to the publisher at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Prior to that, she had stints as an editor at the Tallahassee Democrat, Philadelphia Inquirer and the Baltimore Sun.

She received her bachelor’s degree from Temple University in 1976.

Grogg holds a Ph.D. in popular culture and film from Bowling Green University. He’s worked a variety of different positions in both the film and academic worlds, including dean of the American Film Institute Conservatory, founding dean of the school of filmmaking at the North Carolina School of the Arts and founder of production companies such as FilmDallas and Magic Pictures.

He was named dean at Miami in 2005.

Grogg will interview first, according to the email. He is scheduled to be on campus Jan. 24 and 25. Branham will visit four days later, meeting on Jan. 29 and 30.

Published on January 14, 2008 at 12:00 pm