The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communication named Tim Franklin, president of the Poynter Institute, as the school’s new senior associate dean, according to a news release.

According to the release, Franklin will “focus on partnerships across the school’s four sites” — San Francisco, Washington, Evanston and Chicago — and with Northwestern’s Qatar journalism program.

“Tim has a remarkable ability to create partnerships throughout the country and world to focus on crucial topics and training in our field,” Medill Dean Brad Hamm said in the release. “He will have a unique opportunity at Medill for important work across our sites.”

Franklin joined Poynter, a nonprofit, Florida-based journalism school and media research center, in 2014. According to the news release, Franklin helped lead the organization to becoming “the international home of fact-checking organizations.” Poynter is known in the journalism community as the source for industry-related news and is also home to the “world’s largest online journalism curriculum,” according to the release.

As president of the organization, Franklin established partnerships with companies such as Univision, Google, National Geographic, Facebook and the Associated Press, according to the release.

Before Poynter, Franklin served as editor of the Baltimore Sun, the Orlando Sentinel and the Indianapolis Star. He was also managing editor of Bloomberg News in Washington.

Franklin has also worked at Indiana University, where he was the founding director of the National Sports Journalism Center and the Louis A. Weil, Jr., endowed chair in the School of Journalism, according to the release.

Joining Medill, Franklin said in the release, “is an incredible opportunity to play a leadership role at one of the premier schools in the world.”

“Medill has a renowned legacy of excellence,” he said in the release. “I’m looking forward to working with faculty, staff and students to build on the already inspiring work being done there.”

Franklin, whose Chicago ties go back to his career beginnings as a reporter and editor at the Chicago Tribune, said moving back to the city with his family is an exciting opportunity.

“For us, this move is returning to an area that we love,” he said in the release.

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