E.W. Scripps School of Journalism director Dr. D discusses career and retirement

Photo via Scripps College of Communication

Dr. Eddith Dashiell is retiring from her role as the director of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. She served as the director for five years as the first woman and first African American in the position. She will be succeeded by Dr. Hans Meyer.

Dr. D spent seven years working as a broadcast journalist in both her home state of Tennessee and, eventually, St. Louis. She worked as news director of KWMU, a St. Louis public radio station. When contacted about an opportunity to teach broadcast news at her alma mater, Middle Tennessee State University, she decided to apply and try teaching. 

“My first day of class, I knew I was in the right spot. It just felt natural to me. I felt like I had something to offer,” Dr. D said.

When asked about her experience as director, Dr. D shared that her time in the role started shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The campus was completely shut down, and many professors and staff were not prepared to transition to remote learning as quickly as possible.

For four years, Dr. D has taught Journalism 1010, an introductory course required for new journalism students. Dashiell shared that teaching the course during the pandemic was difficult—how do you connect and engage with first-year students when everybody is socially isolated? 

“It was a different period of time,” Dr. D said. “No one had been through anything like that, and we were just feeling our way through. It was hard, it was challenging, but for the most part, I think the students kept their sense of humor about it, and they were really pumped when they were back in person again.”

Prior to becoming director, Dr. D worked with undergraduate students and was responsible for course scheduling as associate director, “but that was as far as I wanted to go,” Dr. D said. “I had no desire to direct anything. … I am a faculty member first.”

“When I first joined the faculty in 1992, becoming director of the school was not on my bucket list. It didn’t cross my mind.”

When her predecessor, Dr. Robert Stewart, retired early, Ohio U announced that the next director would be a current faculty member. Although Dr. D had neither considered nor desired the position, nearly all of her colleagues approached her individually and asked her to apply, and she ended up being the only applicant.

“It was with the support of the faculty,” Dr. D said. “They asked me to apply, and I said ‘Well, I can’t do it by myself, you have to help me,’ and they said they would, and they have.” 

Navigating the new role of director at the start of the pandemic, Dr. D focused her energy on pragmatic ways to support students and learning new, unprecedented day-to-day responsibilities.

“I always thought it was funny, I would get these questions from different people, ‘What is your vision for the School of Journalism?’ But at that time, my vision for the School of Journalism was that we didn’t die of Covid,” Dr. D said. “I sit back in amazement sometimes that I survived it as director, because everything was new, and everything was a challenge.”

When asked what she had accomplished that she was the most proud of, Dr. D shared two moments of success. The first was working alongside her colleagues to hire Mark Turner, which involved an extensive bureaucratic process to get the position approved. 

The second accomplishment was getting to see the 2023 celebrations of 100 years of journalism education at Ohio U. She valued the experience of meeting visiting alumni and hearing their testimonies about the influence of the School of Journalism on their lives and careers. 

“Sometimes, we’re so busy doing our job that it’s nice to be able to see the fruits of our labor when the alumni come back,” Dr. D said.

When asked about her future plans after retirement, Dr. D began by discussing her experience and history at the university. She has been on staff for 33 years, and the university is drastically different now than when she started. 

Speaking as an individual, not reflecting any views or affiliations with the university, Dr. D shared that she looks forward to deleting some of her social media when she retires. She dislikes the amount of time people spend on technology, taking away from time that could be used elsewhere. New technology, like AI, must be addressed, “but not at the expense of giving up on the basic foundational skill sets that students need,” Dr. D said.

“I’m an analog person stuck in a digital world. I’ve been in both worlds–I’ve lived a lifetime where we did not depend on computers, we did not have the internet. Social media did not exist. And now, we have become so dependent on the technology,” Dr. D said. “If we lose internet connection, we can’t function, and it shouldn’t be like that.”

In retirement, Dr. D intends to move back to Tennessee, where her mother lives at age 88. 

“My prayer is that she continues to stay healthy for a few more years, so we can live like the Golden Girls. She’s getting psyched for it,” Dr. D said.

Dr. D’s name appears on a plaque outside the School of Journalism office suite commemorating the school as a historic site for journalism. Although she did not personally write the copy or order the plaque, she said that it was nice to see her name alongside that piece of history.

“Anyone who’s been a faculty member or a director, you easily become obsolete in three years. Once the new, incoming class comes in four years, no one is going to know who Dr. D is. And that’s okay, but to see that, … there is evidence that I have been here, and that I was Director of the school for five years. Not as long as some of the other directors, but I felt like I did it out of love for the school. It’s a hard job, but I did it out of love for the school.”