Founding dean of Cronkite School named next president of University of the Pacific
The founding dean of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in downtown Phoenix was announced Thursday as the next president of University of the Pacific in California.
Christopher Callahan became the school’s founding dean in 2005. He also serves as vice provost of ASU’s 13,000student downtown Phoenix campus and CEO of Arizona PBS.
In a Thursday statement, the school said Callahan during his tenure led efforts that “dramatically increased” enrollment, retention, diversity, graduation rates and recruitment of out-ofstate students.
Faculty size tripled under Callahan’s leadership and he also forged partnerships with major corporations and nonprofits, the school said.
Among those partners are the Scripps Howard Foundation, which invested $3 million to establish a Howard Center for Investigative Journalism that opened this fall, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation that has invested more than $10 million in Cronkite programs, the statement said. “Chris Callahan is a great architect of the future through his design creativity in complex academic settings,” ASU President Michael Crow said in a statement. “He has designed and built the nation’s finest journalism school in an era of great social complexity and made significant national contributions through these efforts.”
In an email to Cronkite Endowment Board members obtained by The Arizona Republic, Callahan said it was a “terribly difficult decision” to leave Cronkite.
“This is more than just my home,” Callahan wrote. “Cronkite is part of me. And I feel part of our school.”
Callahan wrote that it is a tradition for someone stepping down from a leadership position to say that they have accomplished all they set out to do.
“Well, that is nonsense, at least for our school,” Callahan wrote. “There is so much more to do and achieve at Cronkite.”
“In some ways, I believe we have just scratched the surface of our potential. I am convinced that the next 15 years will be even brighter than the last 15.”
Both in that email and in a statement released by the school on Thursday, Callahan said that it was an “honor and privilege” to serve as dean.
Prior to becoming Cronkite dean, Callahan served in faculty and leadership positions at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. He was formerly a correspondent for The Associated Press in Washington, D.C.
University of the Pacific is the oldest chartered institution of higher education in California.
Callahan and his wife, Jean, will reside at the President’s Residence on the university’s Stockton campus.