Diversity advocate named journalism dean at UC Berkeley

Geeta Anand will head UC School of Journalism.

The Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley welcomes its new Dean, veteran journalist Geeta Anand, who had been serving as the school's interim Dean.

"Journalism has never been more attacked than during the past four years of the Trump presidency when even the most deeply reported stories are denounced as fake news," Anand said in her vision for the school. 

"The idea of a society based on facts hangs in the balance. The truth needs reinforcements. Berkeley Journalism stands ready to shore up our profession and defend our democracy by sending the most diverse, best trained and most passionate revealers of truth and injustice into our troubled world."

The new Dean began teaching at Berkeley in 2018 after a distinguished career as an investigative reporter and foreign correspondent.

RELATED: On newsroom diversity: Let there be a thousand Elaine Quijano's

As the school's first woman of color to lead the school, increasing diversity in the profession will be one of school's goal.

"The tragedy of George Floyd’s death was met with the global call to end systemic racism, not only within the rank and file of law enforcement but across all institutions," she said in a statement. 

"For their part, our students told us in angry, painful letters how the pangs of structural racism are felt here on our campus. They told us how they have struggled to get the education that Berkeley Journalism promises while also working almost full time to pay for basic living expenses. Some have even fought eviction or just plain hunger while attending classes here. This is hard for them to say. This is hard for us to hear. But we heard them."

"After working for nearly 30 years as an investigative reporter, a foreign correspondent and a political reporter—in beats dominated by white men, I know how hard it is to have your work recognized, to be offered equal opportunities for advancement when perceived as other. I know how hard it is to rise within a system that makes it harder for you and your talents to be truly seen."

Anand began her career covering local government in Vermont before going on to become the city hall bureau chief for the Boston Globe, and later serving as a foreign correspondent in India for The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Anand is the author of the nonfiction book "The Cure." She was a key member of the team of reporters that won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for their coverage of the history and consequences of corporate scandals in America. She was a finalist for a 2004 Pulitzer Prize for her contributions to a series of articles that revealed how hidden decision makers make critical choices about who gets health care, writing the lead article for that series. 

Among her other honors, Anand is also the recipient of the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting, and the Danny Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting.

It is her experience, not only as a journalist, but as a journalist of color that Anand says she will be bringing to her new position.

"It is my entire lived experience that I bring to this position, my success and humiliating discrimination that fuel my determination to transform not just our school but also our industry so that women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community are seen, supported, and unencumbered in their pursuit of success."