KU News Release

KU professor honored for distinguished service to journalism education

LAWRENCE — Susanne Shaw, professor of journalism at the University of Kansas, will receive the 2008 Gerald M. Sass Award for Distinguished Service to Journalism and Mass Communication on Friday, Aug. 8, at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication national convention in Chicago.

The award is presented by the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, which promotes excellence in journalism and mass communication education. Shaw is being recognized for her dedication to accreditation as executive director of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, the agency responsible for the evaluation of professional journalism and mass communications programs in U.S. colleges and universities.

“I am honored that the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication selected me for the Gerald Sass Award,” said Shaw. “This honor forced me to reflect on my career at Kansas, and the people who were outstanding mentors for me. Deans Ed Bassett and Del Brinkman and Professors John Bremner and Calder Pickett taught me the right values and shaped my ideas about what a good journalism education should be.”

Shaw has taught at KU’s William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications since 1971 and has been executive director of the accrediting council since 1986. While at KU, she has served as news adviser and general manager of the University Daily Kansan, the journalism school’s graduate director and twice as associate dean of the school.

“On behalf of her many friends and KU family, we extend our sincerest congratulations on the well-deserved award,” said Ann Brill, dean of the journalism school. “We are so proud of Susanne and know how much it means to her to be honored by ASJMC.”

Shaw is a past executive director of AEJMC, the national organization for journalism educators. Her many other honors include AEJMC’s Presidential Award; the Freedom Forum’s Lifetime Achievement Award; the Al Neuharth Teaching Professorship; the Del Brinkman Teaching Professorship; and the H. Bernerd Fink Award for Distinguished Classroom Teaching. Shaw earned her bachelor’s degree in education and her master’s in journalism at KU.

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