Detroit (March 22, 2012) - The College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts at Wayne State University is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Lee Wilkins as the new chairperson of Wayne State's Department of Communication.

Lee Wilkins is a curator's teaching professor at the University of Missouri where she teaches in the radio/TV department. Her research and teaching focus on media ethics and media coverage of disasters and risk. She is editor, and member of the founding editorial board, of the Journal of Mass Media Ethics. She is a former newspaper reporter and editor.

"Dr. Wilkins is an extremely accomplished scholar who brings considerable expertise to our programs," said Matthew Seeger, dean of the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts. "She will help us continue to grow and expand our communication programs into new areas."

Wilkins earned a doctorate in political science from the University of Oregon, a masters degree in journalism from the University of Oregon and bachelors degrees in political science and journalism from the University of Missouri. She taught at the University of Missouri for more than 20 years.

Wilkins' co-edited volume The Handbook of Mass Media Ethics, was named the best edited volume of 2009 by the ethics division of the National Communication Association. Her co-authored study of the ethics of public relations professionals received the National Communication Association's PRIDE award for best research in public relations in 2010. Other books include The Moral Media: How Journalists Think About Ethics (2005) and the seventh edition of her co-authored undergraduate ethics text Media Ethics: Issues and Cases.

Wilkins has received multiple awards for teaching at the University of Missouri. She holds elected national office in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. In June 2009 she was the featured scholar at Wayne State's Summer Doctoral Seminar, a national workshop for doctoral students, hosted annually in WSU's Department of Communication.

The Department of Communication offers several undergraduate and graduate degrees in the areas of communication studies, media arts and studies, film, public relations, journalism and dispute resolution. The department also houses Wayne State's nationally recognized debate teams and the renowned Journalism Institute for Media Diversity.

Established in 1986, Wayne State's College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts serves more than 2,500 students majoring in 16 undergraduate and 13 graduate programs through the Department of Communication, the Department of Music, the James Pearson Duffy Department of Art and Art History and the Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance. The college's size, diversity and creative energy make it a major force in the life of Wayne State University and metropolitan Detroit.

Wayne State University, located in the heart of Detroit's Midtown Cultural Center, is a premier urban research institution offering more than 400 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 32,000 students.