Lucinda D. Davenport
College of Communication Arts and Sciences
Lucinda D. Davenport encourages and inspires faculty, students and staff to do more than they think possible and is the first to applaud their efforts and celebrate their successes. As a believer in the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats, Davenport has rallied faculty to share a vision of achieving unparalleled excellence and innovation in research, teaching and outreach.
With Davenport’s guidance, the School of Journalism surpassed its strategic plan to enrich the student experience, improve community and economic life, appreciate diversity, expand international reach, increase research opportunities and advance a culture of high performance. A recent re-accreditation report noted that the school is “clearly in the select group of premier programs today.”
Evidence indicates that the School of Journalism has substantially revised programs that embed innovative technologies and creativity throughout the curriculum.
Davenport’s success extends to faculty: an increased number of faculty members and greater diversity among them, faculty departures from the school only for retirement, significantly elevated grant awards, best-ever rate of faculty awards, an increase of 50 to 165 percent in productivity over all 17 scholarly accreditation categories and markedly improved faculty citations and metrics. The school also multiplied its revenue through distance learning and other entrepreneurial initiatives, grants and advancement.
Davenport leads by example, co-authoring top texts in the market, publishing articles and pursuing grants. She is a pioneer of innovative technology, from building the first interactive journalism textbook to implementing augmented content into her books. She has won research, leadership and education awards, including the Outstanding Woman in Journalism and Mass Communication Education Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and the MSU Alumni Club of Mid-Michigan Quality in Undergraduate Teaching Award.
For her commitment to excellence and dedication to achieving unprecedented successes in the School of Journalism, Michigan State University honors Lucinda Davenport with the Robert F. Banks Award for Institutional Leadership.