DeWayne Wickham
Dean, Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management
Dean, School of Global Journalism and Communication
Dr. Fikru Boghossian brings extensive experience as a professor or administrator at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Central Arkansas and the University of Arkansas. He also has a background in business from his native Ethiopia. But after nearly a quarter century at MSU, he believes that the University has positive qualities like none other. “Morgan has a proud history of greatness and gives access to persons with potential. I have seen lives transformed here,” says Dr. Boghossian, who was appointed last year as dean of the Graves School, an AACSB-accredited institution. He plans to strengthen current programs, especially by incorporating business analytics, while developing new initiatives such as a global M.B.A. program. He sees himself leading a student-centered but faculty-enabled school, and he is dedicated to expanding student scholarships, graduate student fellowships and faculty development offerings. Dr. Boghossian is widely published in academic journals and has spoken at numerous professional conferences. He recently completed a leadership and training program at Harvard University. When asked his vision for the School of Business and Management, he is blunt: “I would like for our school to be as good as the best business schools anywhere. Period.”
Developing the new School of Global Journalism and Communication at Morgan and serving as its founding dean seem to be the next logical steps in the career of DeWayne Wickham, a highly respected, multiple awardwinning, 39-year journalism veteran. A columnist for USA TODAY and Gannett News Service, he writes a syndicated column that runs in 130 daily newspapers in the U.S. As a founder of Baltimore’s Association of Black Media Workers, the National Association of Black Journalists and his not-for-profit organization, the Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies, he has worked tirelessly, since 1975, to create opportunities for black journalists and journalism students.
By Jannette J. Witmyer
Fikru H. Boghossian, Ph.D.
Wickham, a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, has taught at HBCUs, nonstop, since 2000. As he develops what is only the fourth school of journalism at an HBCU, he envisions partnerships with universities in the Caribbean, South America and on the African continent. However, his vision of globalism does not stop there. “…The globalism that we envision is one that will require us to teach knowledge-based journalism,” he says. “I expect (our program) to provide students with the mechanical tools to become journalists in the 21st century but also to leave this campus with the kind of knowledge that they can only obtain through an interdisciplinary approach to journalism education.” MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2014
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