COLLEGE PARK – Rafael Lorente, the associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism, has been appointed to the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) Accrediting Committee.
The ACEJMC is responsible for evaluating professional journalism and mass communications programs in colleges and universities.
Members of the Accrediting Committee meet once a year to thoroughly review reports of on-site observations submitted by site-visit teams. The committee then makes recommendations to the Accrediting Council, which makes all final accrediting decisions.
The committee has 15 members. Lorente’s term runs through 2024.
Lorente joins Merrill College Dean Lucy Dalglish as part of the ACEJMC’s leadership group. Dalglish is a member of the agency’s Accrediting Council, making Merrill College one of three schools to be represented on both the Accrediting Committee and Council.
“The appointment to the Accrediting Committee not only illustrates that Rafael is respected well beyond the walls of Knight Hall,” Dalglish said. “It also shows that Merrill College is held in the highest esteem as a journalism education leader, charged with evaluating the work of college and university programs across the country.”
In addition to serving as Merrill’s associate dean, Lorente directs the college’s master’s programs. He previously served as director of the college’s Capital News Service Washington, D.C., and Annapolis bureaus.
A 1998 Merrill master's alum, Lorente is a former reporter with the South Florida Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. As a reporter in Washington for the Sun Sentinel, Lorente covered the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, the attacks of Sept. 11 and U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America, particularly Cuba.
He also serves on the boards of the National Press Foundation and the National Press Club Journalism Institute.
For more information, contact:
Josh Land
joshland@umd.edu
301-405-1321