Pat Thompson Named Executive Director of Accrediting Organization

Patricia Thompson, assistant dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media, has been appointed as executive director of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. Submitted Photo.

The University of Mississippi’s assistant dean in the Meek School of Journalism and New Media Patricia Thompson is now the new executive director of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. She assumes her new role July 1.

“This is the perfect next step in my path as a journalist and professor,” Thompson said in a press release.
Thompson assumes the position from Susanne Shaw, a professor of journalism at the University of Kansas and the executive director of ACEJMC for more than 30 years.
The ACEJMC evaluates professional journalism and communications programs at colleges and universities in the United States and several other countries. Accredited programs total 118 in the U.S., Mexico, Chile, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and New Zealand. In her role as executive director, Thompson will report to the accrediting council and work closely with officers of the council and the accrediting committee.
Thompson came to the Meek School in 2009, after a career of being an award-winning journalist who worked as a writer and editor for The Washington Post and The San Jose Mercury News. She was also an assistant professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
Thompson is the facility advisor for the Daily Mississippian and oversees the UM’s Student Media Center.
“The naming of Pat Thompson as executive director of ACEJMC demonstrates the respect faculty in the Meek School have earned,” said Will Norton Jr., dean of the Meek School. “Pat is a highly regarded journalist and educator who has raised the profile of the Meek School.”

hottytoddy.com staff report