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Dr. Katrina E. Bell-Jordan currently serves as President of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ (NEIU) and is a Professor in the Department of Communication, Media and Theatre.

Appointed in August 2024 as the 8th President of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ, Dr. Bell Jordan’s tenure at NEIU began in 1997, when she joined the Department of Communication, Media and Theatre (CMT) as an Assistant Professor. She has since held various leadership roles at the University, including serving as CMT Department Chair, Associate Dean in NEIU’s College of Arts and Sciences, and Interim Dean. She was appointed Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 2020 and served in this position until being appointed NEIU’s Interim President in 2023.

She has served in leadership roles on various advisory, curriculum, and hiring committees during her time at NEIU, including serving on the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) Team for the University’s 2017 accreditation visit, the NEIU Baccalaureate Goals Working Group, and the University’s first Writing Intensive Faculty Advisory Committee as Co-Chair. She also co-led a two-year Economic Inequality Initiative at NEIU, a partnership between the College of Arts and Sciences and the NEIU Division of Student Affairs.

Dr. Bell-Jordan earned a Ph.D. in Rhetorical Studies and Media Studies and a M.A. in Rhetorical Studies at the Ohio University School of Interpersonal Communication. She earned a B.S.J. in News Editorial Journalism from the Ohio University E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. Her teaching background includes media literacy and media theory, rhetorical theory and criticism, and news writing/journalism. Her research has focused on critical media studies, including the politics of gender, race, and representation in the media; the rhetoric of popular culture; and news culture.

She has served on the editorial board of academic journals such as Critical Studies in Media Communication and Women’s Studies in Communication, and she has written for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the New York Daily News.

Dr. Bell-Jordan is currently an elected member of the Board of Education for Skokie, Illinois District 68, where she has served four terms since 2011, including 4 years as Board Vice President and 2 years as Board Secretary. She is also a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and the Alumni Advisory Council of the School of Communication Studies at Ohio University.