Leadership Team

The Deans
Christopher Callahan, Dean
Christopher Callahan is the founding dean of the Walter Cronkite School. He is responsible for leading a 75-member faculty and staff and 1,300 students. Prior to joining ASU, Callahan was associate dean at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland and senior editor of American Journalism Review. Before entering journalism education, Callahan was a Washington correspondent for The Associated Press. He is a graduate of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the author of "A Journalist’s Guide to the Internet."

Marianne Barrett, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Marianne Barrett is responsible for academic affairs at the Cronkite School and serves as the school’s graduate director. She joined the Cronkite School in 1994 after receiving her Ph.D. in Mass Media from Michigan State University and her MPS in Media Administration from Syracuse University. Prior to her graduate studies, Barrett was director of program scheduling for ESPN in New York. Her teaching and research focuses on media management, economics and policy.

Frederic “Fritz” Leigh, Associate Dean for Student Affairs
Fritz Leigh, associate dean for student affairs, is responsible for student services administration, faculty associate coordination, academic scheduling, equipment/space management and supervision of KASC, the school’s campus radio station. Leigh served as the first associate director of the Cronkite School from 1987 until 2005, when he was appointed associate dean.

Kristin Gilger, Assistant Dean
Kristin Gilger is assistant dean in charge of professional programs for the Cronkite School. She directs the school’s 30-plus part-time faculty members, oversees the school’s growing professional programs and serves as a liaison to the news industry. Gilger was director of Student Media at ASU from 2002-2007, directing student publications. Before coming to ASU, she held various editing positions at a half a dozen newspapers around the country, including The Arizona Republic, The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, La.; and the Salem (Ore.) Statesman Journal.

The Directors
Mary Cook, Director of Enrollment Management and Student Success
Mary Cook is the director of Enrollment Management and Student Success at the Cronkite School. She manages course and classroom schedules and works on retention and recruitment programs. Cook joined the Cronkite School in 1987 as an academic adviser. She earned her bachelor’s degree in management and her master’s degree in higher and adult education from ASU.

Patrick Hays, Business and Finance Director
Patrick Hays is the school’s chief budget officer. His responsibilities include administering the budget, directing personnel matters such as payroll actions, recruitment, selection and new hire actions and preparing strategic financial analyses and projections. Hays started his business management career in 1991 at the University of Wyoming. He joined ASU’s Morrison Institute of Public Policy in 1999 and the Cronkite School in 2004.

Mark Lodato, News Director, Professor of Practice
Mark Lodato joined the Cronkite School in 2006 after working for 16 years as a television reporter and anchor for television stations in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Phoenix and Ft. Myers, Fla. He also served as news director at the University of Maryland’s Phillip Merrill College of Journalism. At the Cronkite School, Lodato oversees the broadcast news operation and works with advanced students in the school’s national award-winning television newscast, Cronkite NewsWatch, which airs three times each week across much of Arizona.

Anita Luera, Director of the Cronkite Institute for High School Journalism
Anita Luera is the director of the Cronkite Institute for High School Journalism, a consortium of national and local programs designed to support and train high school journalism teachers and students. Luera was the first woman news director at Phoenix television station, running the news department for Spanish-language Univision affiliate KTVW-Channel 33. She worked at KPNX, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, and KOOL-TV, now Fox 10. She is a former president of the Arizona Latino Media Association.

Sasan Poureetezadi, Director of Computer Services
Sasan Poureetezadi has worked in the information technology field for more than a decade and has been actively involved in various technology-based organizations on campus. His responsibilities include support for the school’s servers, labs, radio station and broadcast facilities. Before joining the Cronkite School, he served as computer learning director and IT director at the Boys & Girls Clubs.

Kelli Solomkin, Director of Special Events
Kelli Solomkin is responsible for planning the school’s major events, including convocation, public lectures, development functions and the annual Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism luncheon. She also serves as the liaison between the school and the Cronkite Alumni Chapter. Solomkin previously was program coordinator for the ASU Foundation’s outreach and engagement programs and operations manager for a Scottsdale destination management company. She earned a B.A. and M.A. in public relations from Rowan University in New Jersey.

Bethany Taylor, Director of Development
Bethany Taylor joined the Cronkite School team in September 2005 after serving as director of major and planned gifts at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. A University of Tennessee graduate, Taylor began her career in public relations at E! Entertainment Television and later coordinated the marketing efforts for the Southern California Chapter of the March of Dimes.

Mike Wong, Director of Career Services
The Cronkite School’s long-time TV/Radio news director, Wong is now the school’s first full-time director of career services. He is the school’s chief liaison between students and the profession. As news director, Wong was responsible for the award-winning student-produced newscast ASU NewsWatch. He has coordinated television reporting workshops for the Voice of America-hosting journalists from Bosnia, Macedonia, and Slovakia and has trained journalists in Kosovo.