Long-time broadcast professor and award-winning documentary producer Maryanne Reed was named dean of West Virginia University’s P.I. Reed School of Journalism today (March 2), WVU Provost Gerald Lang announced.

Reed was named interim dean of the school last fall. She had held the title of acting dean for a year following the promotion of Christine Martin to vice president for institutional advancement in 2004.

“Maryanne has done an outstanding job in her capacity as both acting and interim dean,said Provost Gerald Lang.She has a deep loyalty to the School and has worked tirelessly to advance its mission. Her appointment comes with the unanimous support of the facultya recognition of her leadership efforts. I look forward to working with Dean Reed to advance the School to greater prominence.”

Before being named interim dean, Reed had been a part of the journalism school’s faculty for 11 years. She chaired the broadcast news program and taught broadcast news writing, TV reporting and producing and journalism history. She created the school’s highly successful partnership with KDKA -TV News in Pittsburgh , in which students serve as off-air reporters for KDKA , shooting news and covering stories in the Morgantown area.

It is a great honor and privilege to be appointed to this position,Reed said.As a faculty member, and now dean, I am proud to be a part of the P.I. Reed School of Journalism’s rich tradition of teaching students to become skilled and ethical mass communicators. I look forward to working with faculty, alumni and friends to prepare our students and graduates for careers in the 21st century media.

Reed has a background as a news reporter, producer and anchor. She worked previously in TV markets in Elmira , N.Y. , Rochester , N.Y. and Pittsburgh , Pa.

Reed currently produces TV documentaries and news features for public and commercial television. Her award-winning documentary”Righteous Remnant: Jewish Survival in Appalachia ,”originally aired on West Virginia Public Television in 1997 and was distributed nationally by PBS . Her feature on children and mountaintop mining aired on”Nick News”in 1999, on the Nickelodeon Cable Channel.

She recently directed students in the production of an Emmy award-winning documentary profiling five cancer patients,”Cancer Stories: Lessons in Love, Loss and Hope.”The documentary aired on West Virginia Public Television in December 2003 and has been distributed nationally by the National Education Television Association.

Reed is currently working on a documentary about Vietnamese women correspondents who covered the Vietnam War.

She earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Northwestern University , and resides in Morgantown with her husband, Bill Yahner, a professor at California University of Pennsylvania.