For Maryanne Reed, the path to an office on the second floor of Stewart Hall on West Virginia University’s Morgantown campus was more like a winding road. The history major went from freelancing to a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, to reporting, anchoring and producing television news, to teaching a college class as an adjunct instructor and then, to an assistant professorship at WVU.
Reed didn’t know anyone in Morgantown in 1993, and she said she didn’t fully appreciate what a tenure-track faculty position would entail. But she learned and adapted quickly and like her undergrad degree, the rest is history.
“Now I look back at how fortunate I was,” she said. “I fell in love with every class I taught. I just loved working with students and watching their enthusiasm and engagement and watching them grow into professionals. It’s incredibly satisfying to see how they’ve taken off and what they’ve done with their careers. I look at that as one of my greatest achievements, helping these young people advance their careers, finding what drives them and what they’re passionate about and helping them find their own career path and purpose.”
Reed launched WVU News in 1994, a statewide student TV newscast that has gone on to win a National Emmy Award and many other national and regional awards. She also started a partnership with KDKA-TV in which WVU students served as off-camera reporters for the top-25 TV station in Pittsburgh. And she produced her own award-winning documentaries, including “Righteous Remnant,” a PBS-distributed film that chronicles the Jewish diaspora to West Virginia.
Strides like that led her to be chosen as the dean in 2004 of the then-Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism, a position she held for 15 years. Under Reed’s tenure as dean, the school experienced record enrollment in its graduate and undergraduate programs, including its online master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications, the first-of-its-kind in the country.
“Not only did we grow our online offerings, we also adapted to the changing media landscape by revamping our curriculum and programs to be digital-first and forward-facing so our students could be positioned for success in modern media,” she said.
Reed said the Media Innovation Center on the Evansdale area of campus, which opened in 2016, was the visual demonstration of the School of Journalism’s evolution to become the Reed College of Media. “It’s a beautiful space and open learning environment, and it connects the traditional era of journalism to the modern age.”
She received many awards and accolades for her innovative leadership in media education, including being named Scripps Howard Foundation Administrator of the Year in 2016. Her achievements and reputation as a change-agent also led President Gordon Gee to select her as first the interim dean at the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and then as WVU provost in 2019 to succeed Joyce McConnell.
“Maryanne Reed has brought her unique brand of energy and a sense of purpose to every facet of her career here at West Virginia University,” Gee said. “Her commitment to students, caring for colleagues and innovative spirit have been evident from her earliest days as a faculty member to her years as provost and vice president for academic affairs where she cultivated a talented team committed to serving the WVU System as we plan for the future.”
The need to adapt has certainly been at the heart of her tenure as provost. Just seven months into her new role, the country was beginning to hear about a new virus spreading around the world. By the beginning of March 2020, Reed was part of the planning to move to remote learning to keep students, faculty and staff safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We enabled our students to continue to go to college, to learn and grow and develop resiliency in the face of a very stressful situation,” she said.
Sometimes life comes full circle, and so it was with Reed in the early days of COVID-19. “My journalism background came into play during COVID, because I had to think on my feet, react to what was happening in real time, synthesize information quickly and be part of a decision-making team.”
Reed also notes the other skills necessary for life in a newsroom: multitasking, communication, strategizing. Those skills prepared her to help WVU through its more recent financial challenges that resulted in both program and personnel reductions. The details of that time, much like COVID, have been well documented, but what has been lost, perhaps, is how Reed weathered that storm.
She said she learned leadership skills from her parents. Her mother was strong, organized and a “straight shooter,” who made hard decisions that benefitted her family. Her father was an eternal optimist who bounced back from failures and challenges.
“With Academic Transformation, we made some hard decisions I believe will set the University on a stronger trajectory,” she said. “Despite the fact it was very difficult on the University and our community, the work was necessary to help preserve the University we love for the future.”
As her 31 years at WVU come to a close, Reed is approaching the next chapter in her life with the same enthusiasm she had when she set up a classroom in Martin Hall. “I have enjoyed every part of my academic career here and I will always carry WVU in my heart. But I’m excited to have more time to spend with my family and friends and explore new opportunities to be creative and find purpose and joy in the journey.”
