Patricia Dean
Patricia Dean joined Annenberg as Associate Director of the School of Journalism in 2003. She assists the Director of the journalism school, including first line responsibility for classes and faculty teaching issues. She teaches television news classes. Her research interests focus on local television news and reporting on public policy issues.
Dean joined USC from Northwestern University, where she taught for 16 years. She also served as Chair of the Broadcast News sequence for six years. Dean taught television news writing, reporting and producing, as well as a seminar on ethical issues facing decision makers in television newsrooms.
Dean was honored for her teaching in 1999 with the prestigious Northwestern Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award. She was nominated by the dean of the journalism school, current students and alumni.
Prior to joining Northwestern in 1987, Dean was a professional broadcast journalist for more than 18 years. She began her career in 1968 at WMAQ-TV (NBC) in Chicago as a news writer. She later worked at WLS-TV (ABC) as the producer of a consumer investigative unit and at WBBM-TV (CBS) as a producer and as Program Director.
A native of Chicago, Dean holds a Master's Degree in Communication Studies from the School of Speech at Northwestern University and a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism from Iowa State University.
Her work has been honored with numerous awards, including two George Foster Peabody Awards, two Chicago Television Academy Emmy Awards, the Gavel Award of the American Bar Association, and the National Press Club Award for Best Consumer Journalism.
