Journalism dean hopeful Deborah Leff speaks to students and faculty at an open forum the college held yesterday.

Although dean hopeful Deborah Leff’s résumé boasts top positions in more than a dozen organizations and news stations, journalism was her first passion, she told the journalism school’s students and faculty yesterday.

Leff, who spoke to about seven students at an open forum in Knight Hall yesterday, is one of two candidates in contention to replace journalism school Dean Kevin Klose, who announced his resignation in September. Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, will also hold student and general forums Thursday. The college used the same procedure when it selected Klose as dean in 2009, although he was the only candidate under consideration.

“I consider myself a journalist,” Leff said. “It’s my life-long passion and it’s something I’ve been doing since elementary school.”

Although her last job in journalism was in 1992, Leff said she is still confident in her ability to address today’s changing world.

“I think we need to get rid of silos – there isn’t simply broadcast journalism today,” she said. “My sense is that the curriculum does not do as much helping students readily access those tools needed for changing media.”

Leff told attendees she hoped to expand internship and partnership opportunities that would benefit students interested in science and law journalism.

“My long-term goal is amazingly vague and general,” Leff said. “I want to make this school the best it can be and see us integrated and contributing to the assessment and collection of knowledge.”

Several students at the forum said they were impressed by her responses.

“I thought she seemed like a good candidate,” said junior journalism major Jasmine Egbiremolen. “She gave good responses from the heart, and she seemed to really think everything out.”

Leff said she also has faced a challenge many students will relate to – struggling to obtain a journalism job. She could not secure a position after graduating from college, and said she received harsh feedback when she pursued legal reporting with her law degree.

“I got one rejection letter that said, ‘Dear Ms. Leff, we are not in the market for a legal reporter and if we were, it would not be you,'” she said.

However, Leff managed to break into the field and make a name for herself, serving as the assistant general counsel of PBS and the public affairs director of the Federal Trade Commission before moving to news producing at WLS-TV in Chicago and WJLA-TV in Washington.

She also won an Emmy Award as an ABC News senior producer, assisting with shows such as World News Tonight, and she has headed several organizations, including the Public Welfare Foundation and America’s Second Harvest (now Feeding America), directed the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and was most recently deputy counselor for the Justice Department’s Access to Justice Initiative.

“I’ve used journalism tools in every job I’ve done,” Leff said.

However, sophomore Jewish studies and journalism major Noah Niederhoffer said he was not sure whether her credentials translated well to a dean position.

“Her resumé is impressive, but she doesn’t have a lot of experience in academia,” he said, adding, “I thought she did a nice job. She was cautious when she needed to be, didn’t answer anything she didn’t know about – she didn’t want to be presumptuous.”

blasey@umdbk.com