Professor Mike Wagner to become SJMC Director

This July, Michael Wagner, William Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea and Director of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal, will step into the role of Director of the UW–Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Wagner joined the SJMC faculty in 2012 after earning his Ph.D. in 2006 and serving on the faculties of the Universities of Delaware and Nebraska. Since coming to UW–Madison, Wagner has been a champion of the Wisconsin Idea, consistently finding ways to share and apply his knowledge with the greater Wisconsin community. Over the years, he has moderated live televised and radio broadcast debates, given over 250 public talks about his scholarship around the state, nation and globe, taught summer courses to legislative staff at the Wisconsin State Capitol, and become a nationally recognized political communication expert.

Michael Wagner, Incoming SJMC Director

“I feel deeply grateful and, frankly, very lucky,” Wagner said. “This is important work, and I’m honored to find a new way to contribute to the Wisconsin Idea – the belief that the university exists to serve the public good. I believe in that idea with everything I’ve got.”

In his new role, Wagner hopes to expand the SJMC’s research impact, instill ethical responsibility in its students and continue to develop relationships with alumni.

“My priorities are pretty interconnected: invest in our faculty’s research excellence, prepare students to lead in a world that’s changing fast, and deepen the relationships with alumni who have been so generous with this school. Those three things reinforce each other,” Wagner said.

After 14 years at the SJMC, Wagner has a deep love for the School and all of the people that make it one of the best journalism and mass communication schools in the world. He is looking forward to charting the course into the future.

“We’re an internationally elite program. As a native Midwesterner, I know I’m not supposed to say that, but it is the truth,” Wagner said. “Protecting and advancing that reputation while advocating for the people who make it possible feels like work I am uniquely suited to do.”

Kathleen Bartzen Culver, Outgoing SJMC Director

Wagner succeeds Kathleen Bartzen Culver, who wraps up her three-year term as director June 30 to return to her position as Professor, James E. Burgess Chair in Journalism Ethics and director of the Center for Journalism Ethics. In her time as director, Culver has led the SJMC through a time of incredible change and uncertainty. Despite budgetary, staffing and other challenges, the SJMC added three new faculty and five new staff members to its ranks, modernized its lab spaces for greater classroom collaboration, expanded alumni relations with events in New York City, Milwaukee and Chicago, and stewarded the establishment of two $1 million professorships.

“I am consistently amazed by the sheer force of commitment and smarts our faculty, staff and students bring to this place,” Culver said. “We are scrappy and dedicated, and that makes me very hopeful for the future. We’ve always excelled in times of tumultuous change, and we need those qualities more than ever.”

While it’s bittersweet for Culver to leave her role as Director, she is looking forward to dedicating more time to the Center for Journalism Ethics and teaching the next generation of communication leaders.

“I am so deeply grateful for the honor of serving in this role that I quite honestly tear up every time I think about thousands of moments over the last three years,” Culver said. “What a gift.”