The Rutgers School of Communication and Information (SC&I) welcomes its new Ph.D. Director, Associate Professor Jennifer Theiss. She is succeeding Professor Marie L. Radford, who just finished her term as the program’s director.

In a farewell message to the faculty, Radford said, “I'm looking forward to new adventures and have great confidence that Dr. Theiss will be an excellent Ph.D. Director. I've been working with her to ensure a smooth transition and will continue to do so.”

Theiss began at SC&I in 2006 as an Assistant Professor. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012, and decided to seek out yet another new position at SC&I in 2017. Theiss ran for Ph.D. Director and was elected by her fellow faculty. She was officially appointed on July 1st.

Theiss said, “I'm looking forward to working with the students and faculty to continue our reputation as a top notch doctoral program in the fields of communication, library and information science, and media studies.”

During her time as Ph.D. Director, Theiss said, “I would like to focus on improving our student recruitment and retention efforts to ensure that we continue to admit the best and brightest doctoral students in the field. As part of this effort, I would also like to increase the amount of funding that we have available for doctoral students and work to publicize our students' accomplishments and job placements.”

Theiss had always seen the Ph.D. Director position as one she could thrive in. She said, “Graduate education has always been one of my greatest passions and one of the things I like most about my job… I'm excited to take on this leadership position in the program so that I can work closely with our students and have a hand in shaping the climate of the doctoral program over the next few years.”

In addition to her role as Ph.D. Director, Theiss will continue to teach classes at SC&I. She will be teaching the introductory pro-seminar in communication, information, and media studies that is required of all incoming doctoral students. She will also be planning the weekly colloquium series for the program.

To learn more about the Ph.D. program, please click here.