IU names media school dean

Indiana University has selected David Tolchinsky as the next dean of The Media School on its Bloomington campus. Tolchinsky currently serves a professor of radio/TV/film and director of the Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab at Northwestern University.

Tolchinsky succeeds Walter Gantz, who has served as interim dean since July 2021, when the school’s founding dean, James Shanahan, stepped down to return to a faculty position.

“David is an ideal leader for The Media School, given its commitment to meeting the rapidly changing demands and opportunities of media production and research,” IU Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Rahul Shrivastav said in a news release. “His leadership will empower our diverse mix of students, catalyze collaborations with other IU schools, and develop strong partnerships with institutions and creative industries.”

Tolchinsky is the co-founder of the Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion and Creation of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts. IU said the lab creates, supports and examines original narrative screenwriting, TV writing and media making centered on mental health.

In addition to his work in academia, Tolchinsky is a writer, director, producer for stage and screen. He received multiple international awards for his 2019 short film “Cassandra.”

“I am so impressed by The Media School’s deep-thinking and innovative community of faculty, staff, students and alums tackling media from different angles,” Tolchinsky said. “I look forward to joining Indiana University as a faculty member and as dean, and — building on [IU’s] tremendous successes and with the role media must play in a complex and ever-changing world in mind — working to see what we can accomplish together.”

Tolchinsky will begin his new role in September.