Media and public affairs professor Silvio Waisbord will serve as the next director of the School of Media and Public Affairs, according to an email sent to students Tuesday.

Waisbord, who joined SMPA in 2007, will step into the position July 1, the email states. Outgoing SMPA Director Frank Sesno said Waisbord will enter the job with a vast amount of prior experience – lecturing and working in more than 30 countries, serving as the editor in chief of two journals and publishing 18 books and articles, op-eds and newspaper columns in English and in Spanish.

“Waisbord brings a passionate commitment to SMPA and great stature as an internationally recognized communication scholar,” Sesno said in the release.

Waisbord previously served as the school’s associate director in 2012 and from 2017 to 2018, according to his CV.

Sesno announced last year that he would step down from the directorship after 11 years to pursue personal writing and video projects and dedicate more time to Planet Forward, a project devoted to teaching college journalism students about environmental storytelling. Sesno said he will return to teaching following a yearlong sabbatical that will begin this summer.

During Sesno’s tenure, the school boosted donor outreach efforts and created the Career Access Network, a program that provides financial assistance and career mentorship opportunities for SMPA students. The school welcomed two new research hubs – the Project on Ethics in Political Communication and the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics.