Hofstra names former NBC News executive as communications school dean

Mark Lukasiewicz has supervised news coverage of global events such as the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the death of Osama bin Laden and the visit of Pope Francis to the United States.

And on July 1, the Emmy Award-winning NBC News executive will add the job of dean of Hofstra University’s Lawrence Herbert School of Communication to his resume.

The Westchester County resident’s appointment was announced Tuesday by Hofstra President Stuart Rabinowitz, who said in a news release Lukasiewicz also helped pioneer NBC’s multiplatform storytelling.

“Mark Lukasiewicz is an outstanding journalist and dynamic leader whose career has been defined by his ability to embrace technology and harness its power to tell some of the most important stories in the world,” Rabinowitz said.

Lukasiewicz will succeed Evan Cornog, who will leave at the end of the spring semester after eight years in the position to pursue other opportunities, Hofstra said.

During Lukasiewicz’s nearly four-decade career, he has produced numerous live and long-form programs, won 10 Emmys, two Peabody Awards, and the Grand Prize of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards, among others.

Rabinowitz said Hofstra students will benefit from Lukasiewicz’s understanding of the constantly changing communications field.

Lukasiewicz led a team that redesigned the central newsroom at NBC News headquarters in New York, the release said, and introduced a custom news app that allowed real-time sharing of reporting among editorial units, Hofstra said.

“The field of communications has never been a bigger part of our daily lives, nor more important and critical to the civic life of our nation,” Lukasiewicz, 60, a native of Canada, said in the release. “I’ve been privileged to work with, and learn from, some of the best professionals in the world. Now, I have an opportunity to give back.”

Lukasiewicz said he is “thrilled” to be leading the team at the Herbert School and help launch new generations of communications professionals.

The Herbert School’s Department of Radio, Television, Film was named to Variety’s 2017 list of “stellar film schools” worldwide and is also home to the student-run radio station WRHU-88.7 FM Radio Hofstra University.

Before NBC, Lukasiewicz spent 11 years with ABC News, where he was executive producer of “Good Morning America,” senior producer of “ABC World News Tonight With Peter Jennings” and senior producer of “PrimeTime Live” with Diane Sawyer and Sam Donaldson. He has also taught video storytelling at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Lukasiewicz began his career as a reporter and columnist with The Globe and Mail and later as a senior producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Hofstra said.

He and his wife, attorney Lori Harris, have three children.