Associate professor Frances Ward-Johnson has been named the new associate department chair in the School of Communications. Ward-Johnson's appointment was made by Dean Paul Parsons and new Department Chair Jessica Gisclair. Ward-Johnson succeeds Gisclair in the role.
Ward-Johnson’s responsibilities will include coordinating introductory and core courses, promoting new programs and services, assisting current and prospective students, serving as liaison to designated faculty committees, and participating in annual faculty reviews. In addition, she will continue to direct the school’s honors society and the Bateman public relations team.
“During the round of leadership conversations, Frances’s name was mentioned by many as someone who would be strong in such a role. She has the respect of her colleagues and brings experience and a fresh perspective to the team,” Parsons said.
In 2008, Ward-Johnson was one of nine faculty members across the nation selected as a fellow in the year-long Journalism Leadership Institute for Diversity sponsored by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Ward-Johnson earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from North Carolina A&T and her Ph.D. as a Park Fellow at UNC Chapel Hill. She is a former staff writer for the Greensboro News & Record and The Associated Press and served as communications manager at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro before becoming a faculty member and public relations sequence coordinator at A&T.
Ward-Johnson joined the Elon faculty as an associate professor in 2003 and teaches courses in strategic communications and journalism. She also is a service-learning scholar at Elon.
She received the 2009 Excellence in Teaching Award in the School of Communications and the 2010 Faculty of the Year Award for teaching and scholarship from the African/African-American Studies program at Elon.
Her research focuses on women and ethnic minorities in the media. She has published in the Journal of New Communications Research, Public Relations Strategist and Public Relations Tactics. She is a member of the Universal Accreditation Board of the Public Relations Society of America and the editorial board of the Journal of International Women’s Studies.