Amy Falkner will serve as interim dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications as a search committee is created to replace Dean Lorraine Branham, who died on April 2.

Falkner, senior associate dean, has worked as acting dean since August 2018, according to an SU News release. She joined Newhouse’s staff in 2006 as an associate dean and has been the school’s senior associate dean for seven years.

Branham led Newhouse for 11 years until she died following a battle with cancer. Falkner said she was Branham’s “right-hand woman.”

Since being appointed acting dean, Falkner has overseen changes to the foundational courses for all Newhouse majors and the expansion of the number of credits for each major. As associate dean for academic affairs, Falkner previously helped design Newhouse’s online digital communications master’s program and finalized the merger of the newspaper and magazine departments.

Students also chose Falkner twice for the Newhouse Teaching Excellence Award when she taught. She graduated from Newhouse in 1989 with a master’s degree in magazine journalism.