Wanda Garner Cash, a clinical professor of journalism at The University of Texas at Austin since 2006, has been named associate director of the university’s School of Journalism, effective Jan. 1, 2011.
Garner is a Texas community newspaper veteran with more than 25 years of experience and is a long-time advocate of open records laws and press freedoms.
She was editor and publisher of The Baytown Sun, executive editor of The Brazosport Facts, assistant managing editor of The Galveston County Daily News and editor of the Kerrville Daily Times. Cash and her husband owned a weekly newspaper, The Ingram News, which was honored by the Texas Press Association in 1985 as the best Texas newspaper in its circulation category.
“Wanda has been at the forefront of our work to redefine our mission and transform our curriculum to meet the challenges and opportunities of the digital age,” said
Glenn Frankel, director of the School of Journalism. “Her industry experience and connections, talent for teaching, advocacy for students and appreciation for the moment in which we’re living in the history of journalism, make her uniquely qualified to serve as associate director of the School of Journalism at this pivotal time.”
Cash, who earned a bachelor of journalism from the university in 1971, teaches reporting at the undergraduate and graduate levels and is a member of the executive committee of
Texas Student Media, which includes the Daily Texan newspaper, the Cactus yearbook, KVRX 91.7 FM, Texas Student Television and Texas Travesty, a humor magazine. She has been president of the Texas Press Association, Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.
In 2012, the School of Journalism will relocate to the
Belo Center for New Media, which will be the physical embodiment of many of the changes occurring at the school. One of the signature spaces in the building will be a multi-media digital newsroom that will merge modern technology with innovative teaching methods.
