ASU Cronkite School associate professor named associate dean of Barrett Downtown

Craig Allen, an associate professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, has been appointed as the new associate dean of Barrett, the Honors College for Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix campus.

Allen will supervise Barrett’s downtown faculty and staff who serve approximately 700 students and will continue to serve on the Cronkite faculty, teaching an honors course for the school in the spring semester.

“Craig Allen is a great faculty member to be the leader of Barrett at the Downtown Phoenix campus,” said Mark Jacobs, dean of Barrett and ASU vice provost. “He is extremely well connected to faculty and staff of the downtown campus through his teaching and university service. He loves honors students and has taught them and advised them for years, and he is a friendly, collaborative person.”

Jacobs said Allen will focus on expanding Barrett’s footprint on the Downtown Phoenix campus, working to grow the number of overall honors students, courses and research opportunities. He also is tasked with increasing collaboration between Barrett and a multitude of city and community groups in downtown Phoenix.

“I am privileged to join the leadership, staff and faculty of Barrett and look forward to Barrett downtown for future pursuits,” said Allen, who starts his new position today.

At the Cronkite School, Allen established himself as a leader in international communication and mass media history. His scholarly interests — expressed in more than 100 book chapters, publications, conference papers and reviews — center on television news, the rise of private media around the world and the history of the first female newscasters in broadcast news.

“Craig has played an important role at the Cronkite School for more than 25 years through his scholarly research and his dedicated commitment to training the next generation of journalists,” said Christopher Callahan, dean of the Cronkite School and ASU vice provost. “We congratulate him on this new endeavor.”

Allen, who joined the Cronkite School in 1991, has written two books, one of which was “Eisenhower and the Mass Media: Peace, Prosperity and Prime Time TV.” He is the past president of ASU’s Downtown University Senate and member of the University Academic Council and ASU General Studies Council.  He currently chairs the University Hearing Board and is active in ASU’s Title IX activities.

Prior to receiving his doctorate from Ohio University in 1989, he was a newspaper reporter at the Oregon Journal in Portland and a news director and manager of television stations KMGH in Denver, KRDO in Colorado Springs and KHQ in Spokane. In March 2003, Allen was named an International Radio and Television Society Fellow.

He also has been active as a consultant to television news organizations outside the U.S. His foreign assignments have included ICTV in Ukraine, TVB in Indonesia and Pop TV in Slovenia.

He has contributed to numerous television productions, including a documentary on the 1988 U.S. presidential campaign that was prepared by Channel 4 in London and telecast to viewers in the United Kingdom.