UNC School of Media and Journalism dean emeritus Jean Folkerts has won the 2016 Sidney Kobre Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism History.

Folkerts served as dean of the UNC MJ-school from 2005-11 and is currently a visiting professor and scholar at the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University.

The Kobre Award is the American Journalism Historians highest honor that recognizes individuals with achievements in journalism history through research, teaching and professional activities.

David Nord, a professor emeritus of journalism at Indiana University said in a release that Folkerts book, “Voices of a Nation: A History of Mass Media in the United States” is highly influential.

Her book “has been perhaps the most popular and substantial textbook in the field for 25 years,” Nord said. “Thousands of students have learned the history of American journalism from it.”

Folkerts earned her undergraduate degree in journalism with concentrations in English and Sociology from Kansas State University.

She earned her Master’s Degree in journalism from Kansas State University, a Master’s in philosophy from University of Kansas and a doctorate degree in American Studies from University of Kansas.

Folkerts will receive the award at AJHA’s annual convention in October.

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