Biography
DR. ELAYNE H. ANTHONY
President of Jackson State University
Dr. Elayne H. Anthony, a native of Jackson, Mississippi, and a graduate and scholarship recipient of Jackson State University, was named Acting President of JSU on Thursday, Mar. 2, by the Board of Trustees State Institutions of Higher Learning.
Dr. Anthony, who received the PhD degree from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, was the first African American female anchor, producer and reporter for WJTV-TV12, the CBS affiliate in Jackson, Mississippi.
After receiving her doctorate, she returned to Jackson and served as Head of the Department of Mass Communication. Under her leadership the department received national accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC) In addition, she expanded the sequence offerings to include public relations and advertising.
After ten years at the university she decided to practice what she had been teaching. She was appointed Assistant Superintendent of Public Information and Staff Development for the Jackson Public School District and spokesperson for the Board of Trustees. After serving in that capacity for seven years she decided to serve an educational consultant for a year before joining Belhaven University as its founding head of the Department of Communication.
She is the former Dean and head of the department of Journalism and Media Studies at JSU She was a tenured full Professor at Belhaven University and is currently a tenured full professor at Jackson State University. She has also served as host of her own television program entitled F.Y.I. with Elayne Anthony She is currently host of “In Depth” with Elayne Anthony which airs on JSUTV.
Dr. Anthony has served on over 15 accreditation teams for ACEJMC and has served as a consultant for the Florida and Louisiana Board of Regents on Journalism Education. She is a member of the Jackson Association of Black Journalists; was appointed by Governor Haley Barbour and Governor Phil Bryant to the State Department of Health where she also serves on the Audit Committee; CON and Communication committee, she was also on the a education task force for the state of Mississippi; a member of the advisory board for I Heart Radio; former member of the Randolph Hearst national scholarship committee and a former member of the Board of Visitors for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Anthony is the first African American to serve on the Board of the Mississippi Association of Broadcasters MAB where she serves as Vice President. She will assume the position of President in the fall. She will be the first African American, female and educator to hold that statewide position. Dr. Anthony is married to Eddie Anthony and they have one child and one grandchild.
