The chair of the Communications Department served as one of three members on the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications accreditation site visit team at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
Jessica Gisclair, associate professor and department chair in the School of Communications, served as a member of the accreditation site visit team Oct. 28-31 at Washington and Lee University, the ninth oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Other team members were Site Visit Team Chair Jennifer Sizemore, vice president and editor-in-chief at Starbucks, and Michael Philipps, retired president and CEO at Scripps Howard Foundation.
“It is an honor to serve the academy as a site visit team member. Visits allow academic and professional colleagues to be part of the self- and peer-assessment of academic quality,” Gisclair said. “Accreditation is voluntary and an essential part of higher education.”
Site visit teams are trained by the council and chosen by the executive director in consultation with its officers. ACEJMC maintains a pool of potential team members, including female and racial/ethnic minority practitioners and educators. School of Communications Dean Rochelle Ford, Professors Paul Parsons, Kenn Gaither and Brooke Barnett, and Associate Professor Don Grady have served as site visit team members from Elon University.
Gisclair said the visits allow for a deep dive into the unit and the institution at every aspect that might affect the quality of the program. “In addition to providing feedback on the quality of a program, it is an opportunity to share best practices that prepare students for future careers as professionals in their chosen communications disciplines,” she said.
Elon University’s School of Communications has been an ACEJMC accredited program since 2006.
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Brooke Barnett
Associate Provost, Academic and Inclusive Excellence and Professor of Communications
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Don Grady
Associate Professor Emeritx of Cinema and Television Arts
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Jessica Gisclair
Associate Professor of Strategic Communications
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Paul Parsons
Professor of Journalism
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Rochelle Ford
Dean of the School of Communications and Professor of Strategic Communications
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Kenn Gaither
Dean, School of Communications, and Professor of Strategic Communications