Seattle Times' editor becomes new Temple media school dean

David Boardman, the executive editor and senior vice president of The Seattle Times, will become Temple University's new dean of the School of Media and Communication, Temple announced Wednesday night.

Boardman let the paper when it won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news. In previous years, according to the Times' website, Boardman directed two projects that won Pulitzers and 10 stories that were Pulitzer finalists.

He starts Sept. 1.

"This is a time of profound change in the world of media and communication. David Boardman understands these changes because he navigated a leading media organization through this period of convergence and new technology," Temple President Neil D. Theobald said in a prepared statement. "We want Temple students to be real-world ready. To produce tomorrow's intellectual and industry leaders in media and communication, SMC needs a real-world-tested hand at the helm. That's David."

Boardman has worked at the Seattle paper since 1983 and before that, he was a reporter and editor at several papers in the Northwest.

In a prepared statement, Boardman said: "I am fortunate to be going from one of the best jobs in journalism to one of the best in media and communication education. The values of Temple University and this school are precisely the values to which I have dedicated my journalism career: public service, social justice and the essential role of communication in our democracy."

Boardman recently was elected president of the American Society of News Editors and next year will become the president of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, which evaluates journalism and mass communication programs at colleges and universities. He's also chair of the National Advisory Board of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

He's a graduate of Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and also earned a graduate degree from the University of Washington.

He will replace Thomas L. Jacobson, who had been interim dean since 2009.