Willow Bay and Milton Curry
Willow Bay and Milton Curry Take the Helm as USC Deans
Veteran leaders join USC Annenberg and the USC School of Architecture.
Two of USC’s most acclaimed schools, the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the USC School of Architecture, now have new deans to lead them into the next decade.
After serving as director of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism since 2014, Willow Bay took the helm as dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She holds the Walter H. Annenberg Chair in Communication.
A veteran broadcast journalist and a leader in digital communication, Bay launched the Julie Chen/Leslie Moonves and CBS Media Center in Wallis Annenberg Hall, introduced the school’s new Bachelor of Arts in Journalism degree program, welcomed the first cohort of the school’s nine-month Master of Science in Journalism program, forged partnerships with key media industry partners and created new curriculum and fellowships for master’s students. Bay’s work to ensure that current and future communicators are fluent on many digital platforms was recognized with the Award of Honor from the PEN Center USA.
Bay came to USC Annenberg from her post as senior strategic adviser of The Huffington Post and special correspondent and host for Bloomberg TV. Her prominent broadcast experience includes stints as co-anchor of ABC News’ Good Morning America/ Sunday and CNN’s Moneyline News Hour. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Architectural designer Milton Curry is at the forefront of disciplinary areas on race, architecture and urbanism that engage with cultural theory and humanities research. Now dean of the USC School of Architecture, he holds the Della and Harry MacDonald Dean’s Chair in Architecture.
Curry founded the academic journal CriticalProductive, which focuses on scholarship and creative work on architecture, urbanism and cultural theory, and co-founded Appendix Journal in the early 1990s. His work includes an invited exhibition project at the Studio Museum in Harlem, speculative large-scale urban real estate and redevelopment work in Oakland, California, and speculative work for Def Jam entertainment company, among others.
Curry comes to USC from the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, where he was associate dean for academic affairs and strategic initiatives. Curry earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and a master’s in architecture post-professional degree with distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.