Keynote: Susan King

Lakeside welcomes Susan King, former Dean of the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism & Media, as the Keynote Speaker at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 18 in Hoover Auditorium.

In her 10 years as Dean, the university fostered student achievement at the highest levels. In six out of her final seven years, it won the Hearst National Championship, the most prestigious student journalism award in the country.

Over the final five years of her tenure, more than 90% of undergraduate alumni gained employment or enrolled in further education within one year of graduation.

Graduate students have continued to excel and earn national recognition. Doctoral students have won the nation’s top mass communication research dissertation award four times since 2012.

King’s emphasis on creating experiential learning opportunities for students, increasing faculty support and upgrading facilities to reflect media innovation are among the reasons media and journalism is the university’s second-largest major.

King began her Emmy-winning news career in local television and went on to work for legendary CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite, report for ABC, NBC and CNN, and host shows on NPR.

She served as a White House Correspondent during President Ronald Reagan’s administration and five years as a political appointee under President Bill Clinton.

In 2020, King was named the 2019 Scripps Howard Administrator of the Year by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the highest recognition for a Dean in her field. She is a 2022 inductee into the NC Media & Journalism Hall of Fame.