Butler Names New Dean
Brooke Barnett
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowBrooke Barnett has been named dean of Butler University’s College of Communication, effective June 1. She is a professor and associate provost at Elon University. Barnett earned her master’s and doctorate from Indiana University,
She is from Kentucky and has taught in Elon’s School of Communications since 2001 in subject areas that include broadcast journalism, communication research, documentary film, freedom of expression, global studies, intellectual property law, journalism and the law (at Elon School of Law), literary journalism, media and culture and media law and ethics.
During her time at Elon, Barnett was awarded the School of Communications Distinguished Scholar award, was founding director of the Elon Program for Documentary Production, served as Faculty-in-Residence for the Elon London Centre and served as chair of Elon’s faculty governing body.
She has been a member of the president’s senior staff since 2010 and has provided leadership for academics (five university-wide scholar programs, and national and international fellowships office) and inclusive excellence (diversity, and inclusion efforts, civic, global, and community engagement, education access programs, a lifelong learning program for community members). Barnett has secured major and planned gifts, co-created two university centers and worked collaboratively to create two alumni groups.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts at Georgetown (Kentucky) College, where she majored in English and Communication Studies. Barnett went on to get her Master of Arts in Journalism and doctorate in Mass Communication with concentration in Law and Visual Communication at IU-Bloomington. She earned a Diversity Management Certificate from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Barnett is a 2011 alumna of the HERS program for women in higher education leadership and a 2016 alumna from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Institute for Educational Management program. This year she was elected to the board of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, a leading national higher education group with 1,400 member institutions.
Barnett started her teaching career in the IU-Bloomington School of Journalism. She also has been a News Director, Reporter, and Host on WTIU, the public television station in Bloomington.
She replaces Jay Howard, who has been serving as acting dean of the College of Communication and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences since July 2017.